The first Santa Ana winds of the fall fanned eight brush fires across Southern California on Wednesday, threatening dozens of homes near Chatsworth, Moorpark and in the hills above Redlands.
Driven by winds gusting to 40 mph, the fires closed the Ronald Reagan Freeway, produced tall columns of smoke and flame visible around the Los Angeles Basin, interrupted Metrolink train service and burned at least 4,800 acres. One firefighter was injured in Chatsworth when a rock fell on his head, and flames continued to spread out of control in several areas into the night.
Late Wednesday, fire officials ordered mandatory evacuations in nearby Bell Canyon, Box Canyon and along a portion of Woolsey Canyon Road when winds suddenly shifted and flames lapped upscale homes perched on hillsides. Fire department helicopters made risky nighttime water drops in an effort to save the homes.
David Nenkervis, a 64-year-old actor, said he raced back to his home on Santa Susana Pass Road near the Los Angeles and Ventura county line when he heard about the fire on the radio. At first, smoke prevented him from seeing if his house was still standing. Then, as sunset neared, sheriff's deputies drove him up the road.
"I saw it burning to the ground. I'm homeless now," said Nenkervis, reached by phone near his former home. He was still looking for his missing dog, Two Bits, he said. "It's crazy, but I care more about my dog than my house. I just hope she's OK."
Other residents who had left for work in the morning anxiously awaited word in the evening on whether they had homes to return to. Standing on the road into his hillside community, Abraham Shipe, 61, was begging for information about his home in the Box Canyon area north of Chatsworth while also trying to reach his girlfriend. He had not spoken to her since leaving the house at 11 a.m.
His house looked like one a friend had seen smoldering on television, Shipe said, but he could not be sure.
"Everything was beautiful when I got out of here this morning," he said. "Now I'm not sure what's going on."
Fire departments had been warning for months that the near-record rains Southern California experienced last winter had led to thick growths of brush, creating conditions for a severe fire season. Several of the most destructive wildfire seasons on record have come after winters of heavy rain, including in 1993, when hundreds of homes were lost in Laguna Beach and Malibu.
