Crews Shifted to Burbank Blaze

They had wrapped up three days in Ventura County on the front lines of a 24,175-acre fire when the visiting firefighters got the bad news.

Instead of heading home, fire crews from Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Brea, Newport Beach and Fullerton were told Saturday to detour to Burbank to help fight a 1,100-acre wildfire there.

There were groans from among some on the Brea Fire Department pumper truck.

“We were released from the Topanga fire and on our way home,” said firefighter Kyle Houk. “Then we were redeployed. Hopefully, we’ll get home Sunday. Hopefully.”

Thousands of others trying to extinguish the remains of three stubborn Southern California brush fires were probably thinking the same thing. Along with the Topanga and Burbank fires, a blaze in the San Bernardino National Forest had also blackened about 1,100 acres. All three fires seemed to have stalled, and no homes were threatened as night fell Saturday. But authorities were taking no chances.

The held-over Orange County “strike team” had been called up about an hour after the Topanga fire broke out Wednesday afternoon in Chatsworth. The five-truck team was sent to Bell Canyon, a gated enclave of expensive homes in Ventura County west of the San Fernando Valley. There, they spent Wednesday night, Thursday and Friday moving from house to house fighting flare-ups in the rugged canyon.

Fountain Valley firefighter Armando Lopez acknowledged that at this point he’d rather be at his own house.

“I’m missing my son’s birthday party today,” he said, explaining that Mateo Lopez turned 4 on Saturday.

“The ones really groaning are going to be our wives and kids,” said Houk. “I was supposed to coach my son’s soccer game today.” Brennan Houk, 9, plays on a soccer team called the Orange Crush.

A soccer field in Thousand Oaks is where fire officials commanding the mutual aid deployment at the Topanga fire began releasing units.

By Saturday evening, they had bade farewell to about 700 firefighters and calculated that the blaze was about 60% contained. Full containment was expected Monday.

Officials said the Topanga fire had thus far cost $6.7 million to fight. Seven firefighters were injured and three homes, three commercial buildings and 34 cars were destroyed.

As in Burbank, the cause of the Topanga fire was still under investigation.

Lighter breezes, higher humidity and lower temperatures were helping as 12 helicopters and five fixed-wing aircraft doused hot spots in the mountains between Simi Valley and the Agoura Hills-Calabasas area.

The 3,000 firefighters battling the Topanga fire used the Conejo Creek Park sports field as a rest area, placing cots and sleeping bags between fire engines.

The most comfortable crew Saturday seemed to be one from the Hermosa Beach Fire Department. Relaxing in the shade of their white fire engine, they dozed in fancy beach chairs that resembled portable recliners. A few steps away, Manhattan Beach firefighters perched on their red firetruck’s running board or sat on the ground.

“We forgot our chairs,” explained engineer-paramedic Brian Yount. “We were on a medical call when we were deployed up here, so we had less time to get things together.”

Firefighters from Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Torrance spent Wednesday night in Chatsworth’s Lake Manor area before being sent to Bell Canyon.

“We had only cookies to eat the first day and a half. In the middle of the second day we got sack lunches,” said Manhattan Beach Fire Capt. Scott Hafdell. “In Bell Canyon, a man came down from his house with a pot of coffee, but we said no thanks. It was 105 degrees and we were using our hoses and it wasn’t time for hot coffee.”

At the Thousand Oaks fire camp, vendors from Northern California selling “Topanga Fire 2005” T-shirts quickly sold out their stock as departing firefighters lined up for souvenirs.

“We had 220 of these printed up yesterday and left El Dorado Hills at 6:30 last night to get here,” said vendor Rich Bolen, a member of the Lake County Volunteer Fire Department.

Firefighter Bruce Hasek of the Paradise, Calif., Fire Department, purchased a $15 shirt for his 12-year-old daughter Kendal to wear for a while. After that, it becomes part of his permanent collection.

“You can trace your memories through these shirts,” said Hasek -- who has customized shirts from about 20 major wildfires he has fought in his 28-year career.

The blaze in Burbank -- called by some the Castaway fire because of its apparent start near the luau garden of the Castaway Restaurant and Banquet Center, but known to fire officials as the Harvard fire because of a nearby street -- seemed to be dying down Saturday afternoon and officials said it was about 30% contained.

When the Brea fire crew and the other Orange County strike team members reached Burbank about noon, they gathered briefly near the DeBell Golf Course’s 17th hole before being sent around the east side of the Verdugo Mountains.

No smoke or flames were visible from the hilltop Castaway Restaurant, where fire officials set up a command post in the parking lot. The fire began Thursday afternoon as a 30-acre blaze before mushrooming Friday into an uncontrolled one that threatened about 70 homes along nearby Country Club Drive.

Relays of noisy helicopters flew around the restaurant loading up with water to drop on remaining hot spots high on the mountainside. Nonetheless, two weddings scheduled for the Castaway went ahead as planned.

“It’s like having a wedding in the middle of a ‘MASH’ unit,” said David Gorbach of Benicia, Calif., who was a guest at the nuptials of Sarah Volden and Jason Kendig at a garden gazebo directly above a water pickup spot used by giant Erickson Aircrane helicopters.

“They had to stop occasionally during the reciting of the vows. The minister said, ‘Jason say this.’ Jason couldn’t even hear him.”

At the command post, Burbank Fire Marshal Dave Starr said 1,100 firefighters -- including those from 10 five-engine strike teams redeployed from the Topanga fire -- were assigned to the blaze.

When the fire first exploded in size, all available local firefighters were deployed to fight it and outside agencies were tied up with the Topanga blaze, Starr said.

“You’re not going to send resources to save bushes when houses are in danger,” he said.

Officials were predicting containment of the Castaways/Harvard fire this afternoon if weather conditions continued to be favorable.

Similar conditions were also giving fire officials in San Bernardino County an air of optimism as the Thurman fire burned slowly within about a mile of Angeles Oaks. It’s one of a series of small mountain hamlets off winding, scenic California 38.

“We like the humidity,” said Jeff Wenger, a spokesman for the Rancho Cucamonga Fire Department. “It makes you feel miserable, but it’s a good thing.”

Saturday was a “very good day” for firefighters, Wenger said. The 1,000-acre fire spread only about 100 acres more and was 50% contained by evening. Firefighters were mostly worried about the left flank of the blaze, where access was difficult.

“But we got a lot done on the perimeters,” Wenger said.

Mandatory evacuations remained in effect for Angeles Oaks, Barton Flats and Seven Oaks as 1,000 firefighters guarded homes and pounced on hot spots, he said. Residents of Forest Falls and Mountain Home were allowed to return to their homes Saturday night.

Four firefighters had been injured, Wenger said. Officials were hoping to fully contain the fire by Monday, when weather forecasters warned that Santa Ana winds might return.