L.A. Mayor: Fires May Have Claimed Lives

Arson Investigation Underway At Trailer Park Where 500 Mobile Homes Were Destroyed

(CBS/AP)  Hollywood couldn't have created a disaster scene more terrifying: A prodigious wildfire ripping through suburban streets and cul de sacs on the northern edge of Los Angeles's populous San Fernando Valley.

The fires began Thursday night, in ritzy Montecito, near Santa Barbara. But ferocious, 70 mph Santa Ana carrying embers sparked several more fires late Friday, CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports. Some residents fought all night to save their houses.

"It got really bad about 6 a.m.," area resident Phyllis Patterson told Whitaker. "It was a blazing firestorm and the propane tanks were just popping."

The Montecito fire has already claimed hundreds of houses and sent several people to the hospital. The worst of the new fires was in the foothill community of Sylmar on the edge of the Angeles National Forest. It quickly spread across 8,000 acres - more than 12 square miles - destroying at least 500 mobile homes at a trailer park. It was only 20 percent contained late Saturday.

And it may have turned deadly. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says authorities suspect several deaths in the trailer park fire. Police Chief William Bratton said Saturday that cars were found in the debris, but police will have to wait until the ground cools to bring in search dogs.

"We have almost total devastation here in the mobile park," Los Angeles Fire Capt. Steve Ruda said. "I can't even read the street names because the street signs are melting."

Earlier Saturday, CBS Radio Station KNX reported that authorities have declared the Oakridge Mobile Home Park a crime scene and dispatched arson investigators.

The series of fires has injured at least 20 people and destroyed hundreds of homes from coastal Santa Barbara to inland Riverside County, on the other side of the Los Angeles area. Smoke blanketed the nation's second-largest city Saturday, reducing the afternoon sun to a pale orange disk.

As night fell, a fire fed by a sleet of blowing embers hopscotched through the winding lanes of modern subdivisions in Orange and Riverside counties, destroying more than 50 homes, some of them apparently mansions.

The Sylmar blaze threatened at least 1,000 structures, city Fire Department spokeswoman Melissa Kelley said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles. Fire officials estimated that at its peak 10,000 people were under orders to evacuate, including residents of the mobile home park.

Villaraigosa also warned that Los Angeles residents should be prepared for rolling blackouts as the fires have ravaged the city's electric grid.

At an evacuation center, Lucretia Romero, 65, wore a string of pearls and clutched the purse and jacket she snatched as firefighters shouted at them to flee hours earlier.

Her daughter, Lisa, 42, wore a bloodstained shirt and pants. A helicopter dropping water on their home caused the entryway ceiling to collapse. Debris scratched her forehead and gave her a black eye.

Lucretia Romero said she saw smoke above the hills beyond the front door and then, within an hour, saw that a canyon across from her home was red with flame.

"They would drop water, the water would squash the flames and then two minutes later the flames would come back," she said. Firefighters soon banged on the door and gave them 10 minutes to evacuate.

Flames swept across the park and scorched cypress trees, Ruda said. Firefighters had to flee, grabbing some residents and leaving hoses melted into the concrete.

Ruda produced a burned U.S. flag on a broken stick as a sign of hope and bravery for firefighters. "The home that this flag was flying from is gone," he said.

Police Chief William Bratton said cars were found in the debris at the park, raising concerns that bodies might be found. Crews were waiting for the ground to cool before bringing in search dogs, he said.

The Santa Anas - dry winds that typically blow through Southern California between October and February - tossed embers ahead of flames, jumping two interstate highways and sparking new flare-ups. Walls of flame raced up ridge lines covered in sun-baked brush and surrounded high-power transmission line towers.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the fire caused problems that shut down power lines in places, and he asked residents to conserve power to help avoid possible blackouts.

Shortly after midnight, the Sylmar fire burned to the edge of the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center campus, knocking out power and forcing officials to evacuate two dozen critical patients.

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Listen to live coverage from CBS News Radio station KNX.

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Several administrative buildings were damaged.

The shifting winds caused the fire to move uphill toward the San Gabriel Mountains, downhill toward homes and sometimes skip across canyons. It also jumped across Interstates 5 and 210, forcing the California Highway Patrol to shut down portions of both freeways and some connecting roads.

More than 60 homes were damaged or destroyed in a fire that erupted in the Riverside County city of Corona and spread west to the Orange County communities of Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills.

(Left: A Los Angeles County fire department helicopter drops water during a wildfire, Nov. 15, 2008, in the Sylmar area of Los Angeles.)

In addition, 50 apartment units burned in a complex in Anaheim Hills. Devin Nathanson, 27, had put down a deposit on an apartment there and planned to move in Saturday. Instead, he watched from the road as it burned to the ground.

"At least none of my stuff was inside yet," he said.

Palm trees lining the entrance to the complex were ablaze, and two firefighters manned hoses at the swimming pool and sprayed water on the leasing center. The roof caved in with a loud bang.

About 2,000 acres - more than 3 square miles - were charred by that fire, with more than 12,000 people in 4,500 dwellings ordered to evacuate in Anaheim alone. Six firefighters were injured, including four Corona firefighters who were hurt when flames swept over their engine. Two of the Corona crewmembers were treated at a hospital and released.

Winds began to decrease in the afternoon and were expected to drop further overnight, but humidity was expected to remain low.

The night before, northwest of Los Angeles, more than 180 homes burned to the ground Thursday in Santa Barbara and the wealthy, star-studded community of Montecito, said William Boyer, spokesman for the city of Santa Barbara. The total could reach 200, he said.

At least half of the area's 5,400 evacuees had been allowed to return home by Saturday night, he said. The fire was 40 percent contained, city spokesman Browning Allen said.

Several multimillion-dollar homes and a small Christian college were damaged in Montecito, a town of 14,000 that has attracted celebrities such as Rob Lowe, Jeff Bridges, Michael Douglas and Oprah Winfrey.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. At least 13 people were injured.

[slim1h2o]

These fires,,sheesh it''s too bad all these homes going up in smoke. Much like our economy.

In the 1st photo, in the photo section, it''s a pretty good job of that firefighter to balance that water bottle on round railing...

[petro49l]

FEMA spent no time or money on plans and preparedness for wild fires in California. President Obama should order the termination of FEMA senior managers in that region. Forests must be protected from raging flames. This is a terrible ecological tragedy.

[dragontat2]

Your map is incorrect ~ Montecito is not above Santa Barbara.

[rushlimpdrug]

Your map is incorrect ~ Montecito is not above Santa Barbara.
Posted by dragontat2 at 09:31 AM :

Correct answers to the post:

1. It is now;

2. It is anywhere you wanna put it when you
create the map in a third world country.

[niceface19]

Very soon you will hear them say the fire is contained, in fact, the fire is out of fuel, our government always lied to the people, but people are smart.

[niceface19]

Where the hell are all those helicopters???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

[niceface19]

we need 2000 helicopters here in the US to fight the fires, not in Iraq to fight Bush''s war.

[niceface19]

This government is totally corrupted,

they can''t even get those dumb graffiti sprayers on the streets in the US,

how can they get a smart guy where else on this planet earth?

[jimbo554]

I wonder if Pat Robertson will say this is God''s judgement for California being so hateful to ***.

[nirak2-2009]

Looks like someone hates rich people!

[legacyabq]

what is up with photo # 3 ??

Check out that water bottle!

Magic!

[slim1h2o]

Check out that water bottle!

Magic!

Posted by legacyABQ at 12:22 PM : Nov 15, 2008

Ya pretty neat trick ain''t it?
Which BTW, I already said something about it....LOL

[truthislife1]

I wonder if Pat Robertson will say this is God''''s judgement for California being so hateful to ***.


Posted by Jimbo554 at 11:58 AM : Nov 15, 2008

I hope he does''nt. I''ve been a Christian over 30 years and still to this day will never say what God judges and what he does''nt. Looks just like a big fire to me. If God judges, everyone will know it, there will be no question. I hope they put this fire out soon.

[mtminds]

Are these fires so big because of decades of dead growth that has built up from earlier forestry practices?

I thought the federal government was going to start a program a few years ago to clear out all this dead undergrowth. I remember a quote saying something like:
It''s far less expensive to clear out this dead under growth and remove the tinder than it is to fight and contain the fire it will fuel. Especially when one considers the property damage and loss of work related to fire evacuations and road closures this program will prove to be economically sound and very successful.

[prsfone]

I''m sorry for all of the wildly rich people losing their mansions and for the poor whose houses aren''t being shown. Why is no one calling for th area to be bull dozed? They have more costly earthquakes and fires than we have hurricanes. Why are the insurance company reps all there jumping up and down to help them instead of trying to get out of paying anything like they did in New Orleans and the Third Coast? Why doesn''t anyone have "compassion fatigue" for the stars?

[annia1233]

Please continue building just in the middle of the wilderness. Please please continue. We love to watch these fires on the news.

[devilspeaks]

Obama did it with his cigarette smoking?

[atlanta1962]

well all the churches and people in power that hate *** lets see if they will now help the ones who help spread their hate a few weeks ago in CA

[denn034]

Get used to it liberals, it''ll only continue in the afterlife!!!!! Besides, the liberal''s failure to thin the trees and thereby slow fires to minimize damage means that they''re loving forests to death and need to stop it.

[redhawk1021]

So, does this mean God is mad at California for passing Prop 8?

[boopsie200]

Don''t forget to pray for the firefighters.

[FHMullane]

This is nothing to joke about.

[kranepool21]

California unfortunately has a lot of fires..the loss of even one home is devastating..however the number of homes lost pales in comparison to some of the hurricane totals of lost homes....
People say how can you live in Calif? well earthquake experts say many parts of the country are vulnerable to a major earthquake and Califronia has many structures built to withstand some high Richter Scale earthquakes..other areas of the country will be flattened.
As to living in Calif....why do people live in flood areas like along the Mississippi? Or in areas susceptible to tornados?
AS usual it is ignorance for someone to say don''t live in California without understanding anything about California or the risk other states are at....% wise far less devastation is done by fires in Calif then by hurricanes and tornados in other parts of the country...and when the "big one comes" it may not be California that it strikes....there are many major fault lines throughout the country
Jut as the current economic mess causes stupid comments by the uniformed so to does any event that is de terimental to others
But the scul of the earth are those who make humor of someone else''s misfortune
Tragedies like these fires should teach us all to be more mindful of what we say and how we come to the aid of those in need
It is e asy to be hard and cruel but hard to be a helping compassionate person.

[kellyharris5]

My husband posted many of the real time webcams. www.theseriouspolice.com Scary stuff.

[niceface19]

we live in 21st century, yet many politicians still use prayer and god as a ploy for their propaganda.

[wl7bzh]

The Christian Taliban is just like the Muslim extremists: using faith to force feed their beliefs on the world - or else. Horrid people
Posted by Insurgeon1 at 11:09 PM : Nov 15, 2008



"forcefeed their beliefs"

Now, now would we be referring to Prop 8?

Sounds like someone is a little over the top.

Yea, I know they''re just "horrid" people-you may not know Christians or Muslims when you see one. But you definitely know a byotch when you see one. And if you could you would probably just run up and slap their face.

[jodyrae4]

How did these fires start?

[nje1953]

I''''m sorry for all of the wildly rich people losing their mansions and for the poor whose houses aren''''t being shown. Why is no one calling for th area to be bull dozed? They have more costly earthquakes and fires than we have hurricanes. Why are the insurance company reps all there jumping up and down to help them instead of trying to get out of paying anything like they did in New Orleans and the Third Coast? Why doesn''''t anyone have "compassion fatigue" for the stars?


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Posted by vida1961 at 03:25 PM : Nov 15, 2008
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Give me a break! Do you honestly think that everyone in Santa Barbara or Montecito who lost their homes are rich and famous? No way.

One of my friends in SB just lost their house in the Tea Fire. He and his wife (and their twin infant girls) had 15 minutes to get out. They are NOT rich or famous. They are middle-class folks, just like the rest of us.

Please don''t perpetuate the myth that everyone in Santa Barbara or Montecito is rich and famous. For the most part, that''s just NOT true.

[zeropopordie]

I''ve never seen such a bunch of sickos as on this board where people should be showing compassion. You''re on the wrong board idiots. This is not the Prop 8, Christian hate forum. And Speaking of that issue, the Video of the Prop 8 Protestors in LA who ripped the cross out of a little old lady''s hands and stomped it shows who the Taliban really are. Did anyone read about the church in Lansing Michigan that had Lesbians burst in, scream obscenities with megaphones, make out in the pulpit, tramp across women and children, put up a gay rights banner, yell Jesus was a ***, etc. Those "Christian Taliban" just sat there and when they left, said a prayer for them.

And now back to what this board is really supposed to be about. That area that burned is one of the most beautiful areas in the Country. I don''t live there but it deeply saddens me that when I go there I will now see a Nuclear War Zone. My heart goes out to ALL the people who lost their homes and so much of their lives - all their personal momentos, and everything that was precious to them. They are all in my prayers, Rich or Poor, Gay or straight! and get the F*** off this board all you idiots who think this is a prop 8 Christian hate forum.

[zeropopordie]

Insurgeon1, your mouth is a hate crime and someone should put some duck tape over it. I just reported you.