Volunteers Help Turn Away Fire

Homeowners in Hawaiian shirts and sheriff’s deputies in uniform, shoveling a last-ditch barrier and grabbing hoses to help firefighters, beat back a brush fire Thursday that threatened a housing development and snarled holiday traffic for hours by closing the Antelope Valley Freeway.

“You just jump in and help out, because these guys have their hands full,� said Jerry Cormier, 39, clad in a sports shirt and shorts and leaning on a shovel beside a “hot spot.� Firefighters in heavy yellow jackets and helmets gathered nearby.

The fire, which broke out just before noon a mile south of the junction of the Antelope Valley Freeway and Placerita Canyon Road in Santa Clarita, burned through dense brush on the mostly uninhabited south side of the freeway. In two places, however, the flames jumped the freeway, coming within yards of the Princess Park Estates just west of Via Princessa.

That was when Cormier, who was staying with a friend in the development, and a handful of other residents and sheriff’s deputies jumped in to help firefighters in a moment of crisis.

Their effort was “very impressive,� said Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Mark Tolbert. “I appreciate what they did. If they’re trying to protect their homes, I wouldn’t stop them.�

After the cobbled-together team of volunteers snuffed out the flames, the fire burned farther along the south side of the freeway. Although there were more homes some distance away, the immediate danger appeared to have passed by late afternoon.

About 45 homes were evacuated, along with Disney’s Golden Oak Ranch in Placerita Canyon, where the “Spin and Marty� television serial was filmed. No structures were damaged.

“With all the structures we have in this area, the firefighters have done a great job of keeping this fire in the brush area,� said county Fire Inspector John Holt.

The fire had burned 400 acres and was fully contained by 7:40 p.m., authorities said.

The fire was believed to have started alongside Placerita Canyon Road near the Antelope Valley Freeway, but authorities were unsure how. The California Highway Patrol closed the freeway at 1 p.m., snarling traffic in both directions.

The freeway was reopened by Thursday evening, but by that time traffic was jammed not only on the freeway--used by many travelers headed for the Sierra Nevada and Las Vegas--but on surrounding arteries as vacationers hunted for an alternate route.

Vehicles were diverted onto the busy Golden State Freeway, bringing traffic there to a crawl.

One person was killed and three injured in a single-car accident about 3 p.m. on the northbound Golden State near Templin Highway, about 20 miles from the fire zone, the CHP reported. No other details were available.

The Golden State, also known as Interstate 5, “is expected to be busy outbound at the beginning of a holiday. With this [fire] coming in, it really compounds the issue,� said Jeff Spring, spokesman for the Auto Club of Southern California.

It was not only an inauspicious start to the Fourth of July holiday weekend, but it also officially launched the fire season on what was one of the hottest days so far this year. Temperatures in the fire zone approached 100 degrees. Because of the lack of spring rains, the area is 30% drier than last year, fire authorities said.

Just before 4 p.m., a second fire broke out in Bouquet Canyon half a mile east of Vasquez Canyon. A small work shed was destroyed. The fire consumed about five acres before being contained in late afternoon, battalion chief Douglas Ashby said.

“The brush in this area is drier than it normally is this time of year,� Ashby said. “The high winds also sap the moisture out of the brush and push any fire that starts. No, there’s no such thing as a small fire out here.�

Ashby said the cause of the fire had not been determined but that fire authorities always suspect fireworks around the Fourth of July holiday.

Princess Park Estates, which was threatened by the Placerita Canyon fire, is a 30-year-old development of two-story homes--many with wood shake roofs--surrounded by suburban greenery. There was some fear that if the wind kicked up, embers could catch in the tall pine trees and spread the fire across the canopy of the entire development.

At its closest point, almost three hours after the fire started, the flames approached to within 20 yards of the houses.

“We saw the fire jump across the freeway in one big jump,� said Corina Haro, 43. “It touched down and just lit everything up.�

Haro and her 22-year-old son fought the fire with a garden house until firefighters arrived. A passing fire department helicopter doused the house with water.

Bonnie Lee, 50, lives in a camper in her front yard because of earthquake damage to her house. “Once I saw [the fire] jump the freeway and come over the freeway in a wall of fire, I didn’t know how we were going to stop it,� she said. Flames came within 100 feet of her house before firefighters knocked them back.

More than 350 firefighters battled the blaze. Seven helicopters dropped water from above, and two fixed-wing aircraft applied fire retardant.

A series of other blazes kept firefighters busy across the region:

* The biggest brush fire continued to be the Azusa blaze, estimated at 2,200 acres and expected to be contained by today and out by Saturday if all goes well. That blaze, which spread to the adjoining Angeles National Forest after breaking out Monday afternoon on San Gabriel Canyon Road, had injured four people and destroyed one home and two outbuildings.

* Near Frazier Park, a fire destroyed two homes and burned about three acres before firefighters contained the blaze. No injuries were reported, and damage was estimated at $300,000. Arson investigators were trying to determine the cause of the fire, which started about 1:30 p.m. in Pinos Estates, a private neighborhood off Cuddy Valley Road, authorities said.

* In San Dimas, park officials evacuated 300 boaters and picnickers as a brush fire scorched about 100 acres at Frank G. Bonelli Regional County Park. The blaze, which broke out on the park’s western edge about 3 p.m., was declared 50% contained by late afternoon, said firefighter Cesar Alvarez, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

One firefighter suffered from heat exhaustion, but no other injuries were reported.

The Raging Waters aquatic park, which is at the regional park, was not affected.

Hughes said thick smoke forced lifeguards at the Puddingstone Reservoir to send jet-skiers ashore. Visitors who hiked to remote coves were shuttled to safety by lifeguard boat.

Times staff writers David Colker, Ken Ellingwood, Scott Hadly and Greg Sandoval and researcher Ron Weaver contributed to this story.