‘DEVIL WINDS’ STOKE FATAL FIRE

Four firefighters were killed and another critically burned Thursday as they battled to protect homes from a wind-whipped arson fire that charred almost 24,000 acres and forced hundreds to flee mountain communities west of Palm Springs.

The U.S. Forest Service crew members were manning hoses on a mountain road about 8 a.m. when a burst of wind sent flames shooting over them so quickly they had no time to deploy portable fire shelters.

“These winds were devil winds. They came out of nowhere,” said Pat Boss, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman. “They were fleeing for their lives ... and the flames caught them.”

Authorities said the fire was set shortly after 1 a.m. southeast of Cabazon. Fueled by Santa Ana winds and tinder-dry vegetation, it quickly raced south into the mountains.

Three of the firefighters died at the scene near San Gorgonio View Road, north of Twin Pines off Highway 243. Two were taken by helicopter to the burn unit at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, where one succumbed from burns that covered his body.

“This is one of my toughest days in my 25 years as a trauma surgeon,” said Dr. Dev Gnanadev, the hospital’s medical director. “Never have we had this many great men get involved in so large an accident.”

The sole survivor has burns over 90% of his body and severe lung injuries, and was placed on life support, Gnanadev said. “The chances of survival are low,” he said.

Four of the crew, based in the mountain community of Idyllwild, each had five to 25 years of experience. One was in his first season.

They “did everything professionally,” Boss said. “They just turned around and the wind blew over them, and it just caught them as a whirlwind.”

The firefighters and their mangled truck were found in a remote canyon area, off a winding dirt road. Members of another fire crew nearby radioed for help but had no time to rescue their colleagues.

Shortly after the deaths, officials pulled the other six forestry crews off the wildfire’s front line, giving them a moment to reflect on the loss.

Thursday’s death toll was the highest for California’s wild land firefighting community in nearly three decades. In 1979, four state forestry department firefighters were killed when flames overtook them as they walked a bulldozed fire line near San Luis Obispo. The most firefighter deaths in a California wildfire occurred in 1933, when 25 firefighters were killed fighting a Griffith Park blaze.

Thursday’s mountain blaze, known as the Esperanza fire, forced some 500 residents to evacuate from the remote communities of Twin Pines, Poppet Flats and Silent Valley. Hundreds of homes were threatened.

By Thursday night, fire crews had the blaze 5% contained, thanks in part to the Santa Ana winds dying down at nightfall. The head of the fire was still pushing west toward Lamb Canyon, chewing through high brush in a patch of remote, sparsely populated foothills south of Beaumont and Interstate 10.

Fire officials said the blaze, which stretched for 15 miles, destroyed 10 structures in the Twin Pines area.

Earlier in the day, the fire trapped several hundred people for more than eight hours in the Silent Valley recreational vehicle park. A small army of firefighters circled the park to keep the flames at bay, and by afternoon the danger had subsided, allowing residents to leave the park if they wished.

“We couldn’t evacuate them in time,” said John Hawkins, fire chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in Riverside County. “They’re going to encounter heat, smoke -- but they’re probably going to be OK. There are firefighters with those people.”

About 1,000 firefighters battled the blaze, with only limited access because of the steep, rugged terrain in the foothills of the San Jacinto Mountains. Airplanes and helicopters dropped water and fire retardant in an attempt to bring it under control.

Harrowing darkness

Throughout the day, strong, dry winds rumbled like earthquakes, feeding the fire and pushing it southwest. Trees and brush burst into flames. Balls of flame rolled across roads where people were trying to escape, forcing cars to retreat. Dense smoke made visibility impossible at times.

For the firefighters, conditions in the predawn hours Thursday had been even more harrowing. There was no electricity, so roads and buildings had no light, and the air was choked with smoke -- pitch black and chaotic is how residents described the scene.

“I even backed into a tree in my frontyard, and I’ve lived here for years,” said Wayne Meeks, a Twin Pines resident.

Half a dozen homes along Twin Pines Road were burning at midday, and the road was littered with charred rabbits and birds.

“Oh my God, oh my God,” said Lori Cornell as she walked toward her smoldering home. “I thought it might bypass us. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Cornell and her boyfriend, Harvey Marcell, fled their home at 4:30 a.m. as the fire came over the hills. They loaded up their mules, donkeys and horses in a trailer, and drove off as flames raced toward them.

Cornell hoped something would be left when she got back. Nothing was. The roof of her house collapsed, leaving only walls. A VCR still burned in the wreckage. Her lawnmower had melted.

A neighbor’s home 30 yards away was untouched.

Minutes to spare

The fire’s speed shocked longtime residents of the remote area who are accustomed to the threat.

“In five or 10 minutes it went from a mile away to a half-mile,” said Meeks, 59, who lives on Twin Pines Road near the area of greasewood and scrub oak stands where the four firefighters died.

Others got out with minutes to spare.

John Atherton, a 33-year-old construction manager who was working overnight, raced home after calling home and telling his wife and children to flee. He grabbed his dog, videos of his three daughters -- and tax papers.

“You kind of try to prioritize your whole life in a matter of a half an hour,” he said.

He placed sprinklers on his roof. As he left, “the fire all of a sudden turned direction and headed straight toward our home,” he said. “That was pretty scary.”

As he made his way down a road toward Banning, traffic was thick with people fleeing. Atherton stopped to help a neighbor herd a llama. “At that point the fire officials told us we were going to have to leave the animals and get out,” he said.

Justin Condon watched the fire march through a canyon toward his home in Twin Pines before dawn. He sent his children to gather their animals, and they and his wife fled.

Condon stayed to try to save his home. Within 45 minutes the fire was 100 yards away, the flames as high as telephone poles. When the heat began burning his face, he jumped onto a motorcycle, which he had left running, and rode away.

Flames hundreds of feet high jumped Highway 243, setting even the guardrail posts ablaze, and were moving toward Highway 79, which was closed between Beaumont and Hemet.

Evacuation centers were established at Banning Community Center and Hemet High School.

Lili Arroyo, who evacuated to Banning, said firefighters banged furiously on the door of her mobile home at 5 a.m., calling her name. Firefighters pushed her out the door as she tried to grab her purse and her pet bird.

“You can’t get your things; your life is more important,” they told Arroyo, who is 76.

Dead trees vulnerable

Officials said the fire could burn thousands more acres if it reaches parts of the San Bernardino National Forest where an infestation of pine bark beetles has left stands of dead trees. A red flag warning remains in effect throughout much of Southern California because of low humidity and strong winds.

“This is a very sad day for California, and I want to let the families and friends of these brave men know that all Californians are heartbroken, and our thoughts and prayers are with them,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said from the Capitol in Sacramento on Thursday afternoon. He added that he had instructed his administration “to put every resource into fighting this fire and making sure that the evacuees have everything they need.”

The governor Thursday night declared a state of emergency in Riverside County, which allows the state to provide any needed assistance.

Three years ago -- almost to the day -- 14,000 firefighters battled California’s worst recorded wildfires, which killed 24 people, destroyed 3,361 homes and burned 739,597 acres in Southern California. One firefighter died, and hundreds more had unforgettable close calls. One of those fires, the Old fire in San Bernardino County, also was an arson fire and remains unsolved.

Riverside County supervisors offered a $100,000 reward leading to the arrest and conviction of the arsonist responsible for Thursday’s blaze. Forensic specialists from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department combed the ground in the foothill area along Esperanza Avenue, where the fire began.

Half a dozen broken beer bottles and a tube of toothpaste were scattered on the ground. Residents living in the Cabazon mobile home community just east of where the fire began said teenagers had been in the area at the base of the mountains by the road, smoking marijuana.

James Pence, who lives in the community, said he awoke because his dogs were barking just before 1 a.m. Pence said he told police he saw two white males in their early 20s coming from the area where the fire began.

The entire hillside above the area was charred black.

On Thursday, Riverside County leaders urged anyone with information about the fire to report it to a special arson tip line at (951) 922-7116.

“If anybody has any information, call,” said Supervisor Marion Ashley, whose district encompasses the fire area. “Turn that scum in, please.”

david.kelly@latimes.com

jonathan.abrams@latimes.com

maeve.reston@latimes.com

Times staff writer Mike Anton contributed to this report.

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Contributing to the fire coverage were Times staff writers Jonathan Abrams, Mike Anton, Hector Becerra, Andrew Blankstein, Megan Garvey, Christopher Goffard, Scott Gold, Larry Gordon, Carla Hall, David Kelly, J. Michael Kennedy, Ashraf Khalil, Jill Leovy, Sara Lin, Scott Martelle, Dave McKibben, Ashley Powers, Maeve Reston, Louis Sahagun, Stuart Silverstein, Mai Tran, Janet Wilson and Richard Winton.