Coordinated, quick response key to firefight

With fires erupting throughout Southern California like a metastasizing disease, fire authorities quickly launched an expansive, highly coordinated response to get firefighters where they were needed Sunday, from coastal canyons in Malibu to the sun-scorched exurbs of Agua Dulce.

As more than a dozen fires burned from San Diego to Santa Barbara counties, officials relied on a system of mutual aid, tried and tested every year by Santa Ana winds. But they struggled on a day when fires popped up on every front like some guerrilla force.

“We are stretched very thin and we are in regular contact with fire authorities across the state, moving resources as necessary,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief Michael Freeman said. “We are a long way from being out of the woods.”

Grappling with so many conflagrations at one time is much like commanding an army. There is the macro-view: The broad strategy of deploying regional resources and hundreds of firefighters. And there’s the micro- view: The harrowing work of a lone crew cutting a fire line on a ridge.

By late Sunday afternoon, at least 2,000 firefighters had been mobilized throughout Southern California. The needs were so intense that the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services put out calls throughout the state asking departments to contribute crews.

“We’ve sent three strike teams to Malibu, five engines in each,” said Glenn Patterson, division chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in Riverside.

Although the state relays calls for help, there is no statewide command center.

In Los Angeles County, for instance, incident commanders at each fire call headquarters, where dispatchers and chiefs track available resources. If the department needs assistance, it first turns to fire departments within the county, as well as Orange, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

Under the state agreement, departments must come to each other’s aid -- if they can.

At the mouth of Malibu Canyon some 300 Orange County firefighters had the micro-view of the blaze and converged with orders to protect the city’s commercial strip.

“We can’t go up into the brush, it’s too dangerous,” Orange County Battalion Chief Frank Frasz said. His teams scanned roofs and roadsides to track flying embers. They stayed mobile, unattached to hydrants, ready to douse flare-ups with the water from their tanks.

“We get to the smaller fires before they get bigger,” he said. “We kind of hang out and watch and see what it does because embers are flying around. There is a lot of standing around and waiting, and a couple of minutes of terror.”

L.A. County Fire Inspector Edward Osorio calls incident command at a major brush fire “almost organized chaos.”

“It’s as if the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, but at the end of the day, the fire’s out, and it works,” he said at the scene in Malibu.

Los Angeles County Fire Battalion Chief Terry DeJournett chafed at being inside the command post on the Pepperdine University campus. But, he said, “I’m good at it, so I’m stuck . . . You have to be able to listen to three radios at once and take phone calls at the same time.”

DeJournett was the center of the firefighting juggernaut, keeping and relaying information, assigning crews to certain tasks, handing out no-nonsense directives. “We are going to have some fun problems tonight,” he told crews of deploying firefighters.

“Narrow roads, and a lot of debris. We need to make sure we keep our speed down, and we need to keep everyone hydrated BEFORE they go to their assignments. . . .”

As he spoke, cell phones rang frequently and fire commanders stepped outside to take calls.

Once in the field, decisions can be made instantly if fire crews find that orders from above no longer make sense, Osorio said. “Even the best-laid plans,” he said, “change moment to moment.”

jill.leovy@latimes.com

joe.mozingo@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Evacuations and closures

The fires that swept through Malibu, Canyon Country and other parts of Southern California on Sunday forced several thousand residents to evacuate, triggered numerous road closures and prompted officials to cancel classes today at Pepperdine University and six schools in the Malibu area. For the latest information on closures, check latimes.com.

Canyon fire in Malibu

MANDATORY EVACUATIONS: 1,500 people * Serra Retreat

* Malibu Colony

* Malibu Knolls area

* Big Rock area

* Monte Nido area

* Rambla Pacifico

* Las Flores Canyon Road

* Carbon Canyon Road

* Tuna Canyon Road

* Malibu Road

* Sweetwater Canyon Road

* Carbon Mesa Road

* Puerco Canyon Road

* Powder Horn Ranch Road

* Monte Vista Drive

* Southwest portion of Topanga Canyon Boulevard

* Authorities also called for a voluntary evacuation of Corral Canyon Road and Sunset Mesa.

Those fleeing the fire were directed to two Red Cross shelters:

* Agoura High School, 28545 W. Driver Ave., Agoura Hills

* Palisades Charter High School, 15777 Bowdoin St., Pacific Palisades

ROAD CLOSURES

Malibu Canyon Road between Pacific Coast Highway and Piuma Road. Only residents and emergency vehicles permitted on Pacific Coast Highway between Kanan Dume Road and Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

SCHOOL CLOSURES

Topanga Elementary School will be closed today, as will the private Calmont School in Topanga Canyon. Four schools in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District will be closed as well:

* Malibu High School

* Cabrillo Elementary

* Webster Elementary

* Point Dume Elementary

For more information, residents can go to Malibu High School, 30215 Morning View Drive, call the Malibu city hotline at (310) 456-9982, visit www.ci.malibu.ca.us or send an e-mail to malibucityhall@yahoo.com.

Buckweed fire in Agua Dulce

MANDATORY EVACUATIONS: 800 homes

Evacuation centers were set up at Quartz Hills High School, 6040 W. Avenue L, and Saugus High, 21900 W. Centurion Way.

ROAD CLOSURES

* Agua Dulce Canyon Road at Sierra Highway

* Copper Hill Drive at San Francisquito Canyon Road * Sierra Highway at David Way

* David Way at Bouquet Canyon Road

* Bouquet Canyon Road at Vasquez Canyon Road

* Vasquez Canyon Road at Sierra Highway

SCHOOL CLOSURES

* Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District

* Saugus Union School District

* William S. Hart Union High School District

* Trinity Classical Academy

* Santa Clarita Christian School

Santiago fire in Orange County

ROAD CLOSURES

* Northbound California 241 between California 133 and California 261. The southbound 241 between the 91 and the 133. The 133 northbound from I-5 to the 241.