
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 30, 1993                   TAG: 9310300101
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LAGUNA BEACH, CALIF.                                LENGTH: Medium

FIREFIGHTERS BRACE FOR WINDS' RETURN

Fire crews seized a break in the winds Friday to beat down wildfires as they braced for more of the hot, dry conditions that drove flames through cities and canyons, burning 700 homes and more than 150,000 acres.

Four of 13 blazes that raged Tuesday and Wednesday from Ventura County to the U.S.-Mexico border were extinguished, and others were surrounded by fire breaks.

But firefighters feared that the return of Santa Ana winds, which blow in from the deserts east of Los Angeles, could whip up new firestorms. Wind gusts to 40 mph were expected.

"This area burns very aggressively with no winds at all," U.S. Forest Service officer Tom Harbour said at a fire camp in Alta dena, where 118 homes and buildings were torched this week.

As he spoke, the fire no longer posed a threat to houses, but raged out of control in the San Gabriel Mountains overlooking the Los Angeles suburb 15 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

Firefighters trudged up treacherous mountain slopes and through prickly brush to set backfires and cut fire lines, working in temperatures that reached 120 degrees.

Tim Kochen, a state forestry firefighter based in Riverside County, came off a 19-hour shift on the Altadena fire line, took a shower at a base camp and planned a short nap before heading out again.

The worst problem, he said, was the terrain: "It's treacherous just to get in there."

The National Weather Service said more hot, dry winds were expected Saturday, but they wouldn't be as strong as the 50-mph winds that whipped wildfires into walls of flame earlier in the week.

Authorities blamed arson for six of the fires, and offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to arrests.

On Friday, detectives found an "incendiary device" that started a 1,260-acre Los Angeles County fire that injured four firefighters, two critically.

In Pasadena, transient Andres Huang, 35, pleaded innocent to a misdemeanor charge of setting the fire that engulfed parts of Altadena by lighting brush at his hillside camp to keep warm.

Damage estimates were $330.9 million and rising. Some 25,000 people were displaced, and 62 firefighters and civilians were hurt.

Keywords:
INFOLINE

by CNB