100 Evacuated as Winds Whip Apartment Fires

Los Angeles firefighters battled a Santa Ana wind-whipped blaze in the 11500 block of Rochester Avenue late Wednesday as flames that erupted in a condominium complex under construction on the Westside spread from one occupied apartment building to another.

“It’s like ‘The Towering Inferno’ ,” said one resident of the area, who declined to give her name. “It’s awful, just the worst thing you ever saw.”

More than 100 residents of nearby apartments were evacuated as winds threatened to spread the fire to additional structures, and flaming embers started small roof fires in a two-block radius, fire officials said. All available equipment, including water-dropping helicopters, was being rushed to the area.

No injuries were immediately reported in the blaze, which erupted shortly after 9 p.m.

The winds, which gusted at gale force in several locales, launched a wholesale assault on the Southland, smashing condominium units under construction, knocking out power in scattered areas an toppling a mobile home.

Small-craft advisories were issued along the coast, and officials closed Avalon Harbor on Santa Catalina Island to incoming traffic.

Three condominium units in a complex under construction in Rancho Cucamonga were heavily damaged as the building’s second and third stories collapsed in the heavy gusts, officials said.

The roof of a nearby home was blown away, and at least 10 utility poles were blown down, blocking traffic, officials said.

Southern California Edison Co. reported temporary power outages to about 17,000 customers in the San Gabriel Valley.

And the Department of Water and Power said about 3,000 of its customers in the Sunland-Tujunga area were without power at various times.

Smaller outages were reported from Malibu to the foothill communities.

Both utilities called in additional units Wednesday to handle emergencies.

A transition road to the Foothill Freeway in the Glendora area was closed for four hours after wind gusts blew a mobile home from the flat-bed truck that was hauling it, California Highway Patrol officials said.