LA-area wildfire grows to 164 square miles of brush, timber; 12,000 homes still threatened

LA-area forest fire stretches to 164 square miles

LOS ANGELES — A wildfire northeast of Los Angeles has spread to 164 square miles of brush and timber and it continues to grow.

The fire, which nearly doubled in size overnight, grew to 164 square miles by early Monday afternoon. It’s burned 21 homes and another 12,000 are threatened in foothill communities near the Angeles National Forest.

The fire is a half-mile from Mount Wilson, home to transmission towers for 20 TV stations, and the historic Mount Wilson Observatory. Los Angeles County fire Capt. Mark Whaling says it probably will reach Mount Wilson sometime Monday. Fire crews have laid down retardant, but Whaling says all they can do now is wait.

Several television stations have warned viewers that they may go off the air if the fire damages their transmission facilities.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A deadly wildfire that has blackened a wide swath of tinder-dry forest around Los Angeles made another menacing advance Monday, surging toward thousands of suburban homes and a vital mountaintop broadcasting complex.

Fire crews battling the blaze in the Angeles National Forest tried desperately to beat back the flames and prayed for weather conditions to ease. The fire was the largest of at least eight burning across California after days of triple-digit temperatures and low humidity.

The flames scorched 134 square miles of brush and threatened 12,000 homes, but the lack of wind kept them from driving explosively into the hearts of the dense suburbs northeast of Los Angeles.

“It’s burning everywhere,” U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Dianne Cahir said. “When it gets into canyons that haven’t burned in numerous years, it takes off. If you have any insight into the good Lord upstairs, put in a request.”

Columns of smoke billowed high into the air before dispersing into a gauzy white haze that burned eyes and prompted warnings of unhealthy air throughout the Los Angeles area.

Fire crews set backfires and sprayed fire retardant at Mount Wilson, home to at least 20 television transmission towers, radio and cell phone antennas, and the century-old Mount Wilson Observatory. The observatory also houses two giant telescopes and several multimillion-dollar university programs. It is both a historic landmark and a thriving modern center for astronomy.

The fire about a half-mile away was expected to reach the mountaintop eventually, said Los Angeles County fire Capt. Mark Whaling. If the flames hit the mountain, cell phone service and TV and radio transmissions would be disrupted, but the extent was unclear.

The blaze killed two firefighters, destroyed at least 21 homes and forced thousands of evacuations. The firefighters died when their truck drove off the side of a road with flames all around them.

“It’s the worst roller coaster of my life, and I hate roller coasters,” said Adi Ellad, who lost his home in Big Tujunga Canyon over the weekend. “One second I’m crying, one second I’m guilty, the next moment I’m angry, and then I just want to drink tequila and forget.”

Ellad left behind a family heirloom Persian rug and a photo album he put together after his father died. “I’m going to have to figure out a new philosophy: how to live without loving stuff,” he said.

The blaze in the Los Angeles foothills is the biggest but not most destructive of California’s wildfires. Northeast of Sacramento, a fire destroyed 60 structures over the weekend, many of them homes in the town of Auburn.

The 275-acre blaze was 50 percent contained Monday morning. It wiped out an entire cul-de-sac, leaving only smoldering ruins, a handful of chimneys and burned cars. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger planned to tour the area Monday morning.

East of Los Angeles, a 900-acre fire threatened 2,000 homes and forced the evacuation of a scenic community of apple orchards in an oak-studded area of San Bernardino County. Brush in the area had not burned for a century, fire officials said. Flames burning like huge candles erupted between rocky slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains and the neat farmhouses below.

With highs expected to hit 90 to 100 degrees and humidity remaining low, the National Weather Service extended a weekend warning of extreme fire conditions in the central and Southern California mountains.

Winds were light, which prevented the flames from roaring at furious speed into towns. In 2003, a wind-whipped blaze tore through neighborhoods in San Diego County, killing 15 people and destroying more than 2,400 homes.

Overall, more than 2,500 firefighters were on the line. More than 20 helicopters and air tankers were preparing to dump water and retardant over the flames. Two Canadian Super Scoopers, giant craft that can pull thousands of gallons of water from lakes and reservoirs, were expected to join the fight later in the day.

In La Crescenta, where the San Gabriel Mountains descend steeply into the bedroom suburb a dozen miles from downtown Los Angeles, 57-year-old Mary Wilson was experiencing her first wildfire after nine years of living in a canyon.

Her family was evacuated twice in the past five days, she said.

“We saw the flames. My daughter got really scared,” she said. But she was philosophical: “You have to surrender to the natural forces when you choose to live up here. It’s about nature doing its thing.”

Also in La Crescenta, dispatchers overnight activated a “reverse 911″ system that sent a recorded evacuation warning to people, but it turned out to be a mistake.

Whaling, the L.A. County fire captain, says the message applied to only a small number of residents closest to the fire but instead a large number got the sleep-shattering calls. He said he does not know how many people were involved in the call.

“They pushed the wrong button,” he said.

Terry Crews, an actor promoting the new movie “Gamer” on KTLA-TV, talked about being forced to flee two days ago from his home in Altadena, in the foothills above Pasadena. He saw 40-foot flames, grabbed his dog and fled.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “I’m from Michigan. I’m used to tornadoes … but to see this thing, you feel helpless.”

“This is like ‘The Ten Commandments,’” he said, referring to the movie. “You go, ‘holy God, the end of the world.’”

The two Los Angeles County firefighters who were killed Sunday died on the blaze’s northwestern front when their truck crashed on Mount Gleason near Acton.

The victims were fire Capt. Tedmund Hall, 47, of San Bernardino County, and firefighter Specialist Arnaldo “Arnie” Quinones, 35, of Palmdale. Hall was a 26-year veteran, and Quinones had been a county firefighter for eight years.

An animal sanctuary called the Roar Foundation Shambala Preserve, six miles east of Acton, was in the mandatory evacuation zone, but fire officials decided removing the animals would be “a logistical nightmare,” said Chris Gallucci, vice president of operations.

“We have 64 big cats, leopards, lions, tigers, cougars. … The animals are just walking around, not being affected by this at all,” Gallucci said. “But if we panic, they panic. But we are not in panic mode yet.”

Associated Press writers Juliet Williams in Auburn and Raquel Maria Dillon and Solvej Schou in Los Angeles contributed to this report.