Easing winds aid firefighters' effort in San Fernando Valley blazes

Calmer winds Tuesday kept the largest of two San Fernando Valley wildfires from making a run toward the sea, averting a disaster scenario that has played out regularly over recent decades.

The blazes, which have claimed two lives, destroyed 49 structures and burned 18,000 acres, heralded the start of Southern California's Santa Ana season, when desert winds fan the most ferocious fires. By some measures, the region got off lightly.

"We were very, very fortunate we haven't had the damage you'd expect," said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

The Sesnon fire, which started Monday in Porter Ranch, grew to 13,200 acres overnight. Light winds allowed firefighters to make headway Tuesday in cutting containment lines on the fire's eastern flank.

The Santa Ana winds are expected to dissipate today, allowing even more aggressive fire-suppression tactics. Although the turn of weather was heartening, it was tempered by the knowledge that as Santa Ana fires go, these blazes were small and the winds that drove them relatively moderate.

The path the fires sought through the network of canyons ringing the Valley is a historic and predictable fire funnel, channeling flame to areas that have burned time and again. And the Santa Anas that drive the flames strike regularly through the fall.

"This was a preview of coming attractions," said William Patzert, a climatologist at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. "Now we're in a race with Mother Nature. What comes first? More Santa Anas or rain?"

There are normally about 30 Santa Ana days a year, Patzert said, and Southern California burned through three of them.

"This is just the beginning. We're 10% through the season," he said. "People forget that Santa Anas are normal, natural and part of the history of Southern California."

The smaller 4,800-acre Marek fire in Lake View Terrace was 70% contained, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department. In San Diego County, the Juliet fire at Camp Pendleton spread to 3,600 acres and was 60% contained. Close to the Mexican border east of San Diego the 200-acre Shockey fire broke out early Tuesday near Highway 94 but was 70% contained by evening. A fire in the Little Mountain area of San Bernardino County was contained at 100 acres.