Residents Flee as 5 Homes Burn

A raging wildfire swept through the rural community of Leona Valley on Tuesday afternoon, destroying five homes and sending residents running for their lives as more than 2,500 firefighters battled blazes in San Gabriel Mountains brush and timberland parched by one of the driest years on record.

“A wave of flames came over our heads,” said Leona Valley resident Tony Siro.

“We all ran for safety. The firefighters were hiding behind their equipment. It was your worst nightmare.”

Although the wind-driven firestorm raced along Bouquet Canyon Road through the community 25 miles north of Los Angeles in seconds, there were no serious injuries.

The capricious flames claimed some homes, spared others. Siro was one of the lucky ones. His neighbor Kendra Supple wasn’t.

Supple, who was away when the fire did its work, returned a few hours later to find her one-story, redwood-sided home reduced to charred timber and ashes.

She said furnishings, records, treasured keepsakes that reached back through four generations of her family--all of it was lost.

“All I have left is the clothes on my back,” Supple said.

She said the greatest loss may have been a Gibson guitar her father gave her when she was a girl.

“It’s gone,” she said. “My parents are gone. You can’t get that back.”

The Leona Valley blaze was one of four that burned Tuesday in the rugged backcountry north and west of Los Angeles. By nightfall Tuesday, at least 19 structures had been destroyed and more than 20,000 acres had been blackened.

Fire officials said the best news was the approach of moist tropical air from Hurricane Hernan, a deteriorating storm off the coast of Baja California that could bring scattered rain to Southern California by this afternoon.

“That could help a lot,” said Ed Gililland, a fire information officer with the U.S. Forest Service in Arcadia.

The newest fire was the blaze that erupted Tuesday afternoon in the Leona Valley. Fanned by hot afternoon breezes, the blaze spread rapidly, burning more than 4,000 acres by sundown.

Officials said at least 200 residents were evacuated. An evacuation center was set up at Highland High School in Palmdale.

More than 750 firefighters, including 10 engine crews from Los Angeles, were deployed to fight the blaze. Two SuperScooper planes that refilled their water tanks at nearby Lake Elizabeth were also fighting the flames, along with four water-dropping helicopters. It was the first time this summer that the scooper planes were used in the Los Angeles area.

The fire was still spreading late Tuesday, and officials said they had no idea when it might be contained.

Tuesday’s largest fire continued to burn out of control along steep mountain ridges in the Angeles National Forest 15 miles north of Azusa, where more than 14,500 acres had burned by Tuesday night. Officials said at least 14 structures had been charred, including the Coldbrook ranger station, a Forest Service facility that was closed several years ago.

Gililland said that despite the efforts of about 1,550 firefighters on the ground and 16 water-dropping helicopters and aerial tankers, the blaze was only 10% contained at sundown Tuesday. Full containment was not expected for at least a week.

About 8,000 campers and residents were evacuated Sunday and Monday. Many of them were forced to flee over a narrow emergency road connecting Crystal Lake and Angeles Crest Highway after flames blocked California 39, the normal access route extending south from the lake to Azusa. There were no reports of injury.

The fire broke out about 12:30 p.m. Sunday beside California 39 near Rincon. The dry brush burned rapidly in temperatures that peaked near 100 degrees, and the flames spread rapidly into the timbered mountains that soar above 9,000 feet at the crown of the forest.

A third fire, near Castaic, was knocked down about 1:45 p.m. Tuesday after blackening about 1,000 acres.

That fire, which started Sunday afternoon near Interstate 5 in Castaic, forced the closure of the freeway for several hours Monday.

The blaze briefly threatened mobile homes at Paradise Valley Park in Castaic, but 400 firefighters were able to stem the flames before any structures were damaged.

In Ventura County, firefighters put out a 100-acre blaze that briefly threatened a mobile home park near Fillmore on Tuesday. Officials said the fire, which started in undergrowth in the Santa Clara River bed, may have been intentionally set.

During the meteorological year that ended July 1, rainfall totals were some of the lowest ever recorded in Southern California.

The precipitation total in downtown Los Angeles was just 4.42 inches, the lowest since records began in 1877.

By now, because of their unusually low water content, the chaparral and trees in the open lands and forests surrounding the Los Angeles area are extraordinarily flammable.

But the National Weather Service said Tuesday that a little help may be on the way.

Hurricane Hernan was weakening rapidly off the coast of Baja California on Tuesday, but forecasters said the storm still had enough punch to spin off wide bands of moisture that should start sweeping over Southern California by today.

The clouds should drop temperatures a little, and the Weather Service said there’s about a 30% chance of showers this afternoon and tonight, increasing to about a 50% chance Thursday and Friday.

The rain is not expected to be strong enough to put a serious dent in the continuing drought, but it should ease the fire danger for a week or so.

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Times staff writer Daryl Kelley and Times wire services contributed to this report.