Published: October 13, 2008 12:07 pm            

Winds whip up wildfire north of Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES — Intense Santa Ana winds swept into Southern California Monday morning and whipped up a 3,000-acre wildfire, forcing the closure of a major freeway during rush hour and burning mobile homes and industrial buildings.

The blaze, 20 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, began Sunday and was calm overnight, but flared up early Monday when winds gusting to 65 mph moved in.

“This is what we feared the most,” said Los Angeles County fire Capt. Mark Savage. “The winds that were expected, they have arrived.”

The fire sent about 1,200 people from their homes over the weekend. All remained evacuated Monday morning, when the winds moved arrived and marked the start of the region’s serious fire season.

The re-energized fire jumped a fireline early Monday in an area of Lopez Canyon in the eastern San Fernando Valley that had already been evacuated, Savage said. As a result, a three-mile stretch of the Foothill Freeway was closed in both directions during rush hour, the California Highway Patrol said.

Fire Inspector Ron Haralson said the blaze had reached a mobile home park and an industrial area but could not say how many structures had burned.

The cause of the fire was under investigation. It was 20 percent contained and no serious injuries were reported.

Water-dropping helicopters took to the air at about 5 a.m. but were grounded amid the wild winds. They returned to the air after sunrise.

The fire had burned through at least 3,200 acres of rugged terrain in the Angeles National Forest.

“It jumped the ridge and came down like a madman,” said Barry Demeter, who told KABC-TV on Sunday that his home had burned as he led his horses away. “I left when the embers were falling around the house.”

A “fire weather watch” was declared through Tuesday for all of Southern California except the deserts.

        

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