Evacuations Los Angeles County

After presenting a vivid, blue-sky New Year's holiday to the world via television, Southern California got its weather comeuppance Wednesday as the second day of an Alaskan storm flooded dozens of homes, knocked out power in several communities, closed businesses and schools and wreaked havoc with traffic. Despite the suddenness of the deluge--which brought as much as five inches of rain in some areas--it was linked to only one traffic fatality.

More than 2,500 people were evacuated from an industrial neighborhood Wednesday after a tanker truck containing chemicals began to emit fumes and sparks. Two people were treated for breathing problems, but no serious injuries were reported as a result of the incident, which began at 9:15 a.m., said Mike Brown, a Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman.

Five pregnant girls and two infants were evacuated from a county education building Thursday morning after complaining of nausea that was caused by a chemical cleaner, officials said. The girls, enrolled in the Avenue J pregnant minor program, complained of a strong chemical odor and burning eyes at the school at 660 W. Ave. J about 8 a.m., said Inspector Mark Tolbert of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Five pregnant girls and two infants were evacuated from a county education building Thursday morning after complaining of nausea that was caused by a chemical cleaner, officials said. The girls, enrolled in the Avenue J pregnant minor program, complained of a strong chemical odor and burning eyes at the school at 660 W. Ave. J about 8 a.m., said Inspector Mark Tolbert of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

More than 2,500 people were evacuated from an industrial neighborhood Wednesday after a tanker truck containing chemicals began to emit fumes and sparks. Two people were treated for breathing problems, but no serious injuries were reported as a result of the incident, which began at 9:15 a.m., said Mike Brown, a Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman.

A man found two military mortar rounds in the garage of his newly purchased home in Hawthorne and took them to a police station Wednesday, prompting a bomb squad response to dispose of the devices. The items were found about 7:45 a.m. in the 14100 block of Yukon Avenue, said Hawthorne Police Lt. Arvid Krueger. Police cordoned off the street near where the man parked his car at 126th Street and Grevillea Avenue, and evacuated a nearby apartment building.

Residents of a Rowland Heights neighborhood were evacuated from their homes early Friday while sheriff's deputies investigating the kidnaping of two Chinese nationals searched a home for explosives, authorities said. Sheriff's Department spokesman Deputy George Ducoulombier said deputies started evacuating residents about 5 a.m. Friday while they searched the house in the 17900 block of Sunrise Drive.

Nearly 30 workers were evacuated from a Glendale office building after a half-gallon solution of ammonia leaked in one of the offices Thursday, officials said. No injuries occurred as a result of the 9 a.m. spill at Che Systems Inc., a telephone services company at 436 W. Colorado St. Eleven other businesses occupy the two-story building. Workers inside Che Systems contacted firefighters after noticing a printer was leaking ammonium hydroxide, said Rudolph Kalish, the building's owner.

Los Angeles County sheriff's explosives experts defused a homemade pipe bomb planted in an ice chest by an Azusa man who had threatened Thursday to blow up his home, authorities said. Vernon Nollar allegedly telephoned the psychiatric unit of a veteran's hospital in the Los Angeles area and said he planted a bomb in his Azusa home on the 300 block of Grandin Avenue . Police evacuated about 15 neighboring homes and called the Sheriff's Department bomb squad.

Two people remained hospitalized Friday after a worker accidentally mixed two chemicals Thursday at the Holiday Health Spa in Torrance, sending chlorine gas through the health club. Fifty people were evacuated from the club after the accident, and 35 were taken to four area hospitals, Torrance fire officials said. Most were treated and released, but two people remained hospitalized in good condition at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance.

More than 40 children were taken to hospitals complaining of nausea, headaches and dizziness after a gas line ruptured at a Maywood elementary school Wednesday. None of the children were seriously ill and the school remained open. But the sight of ambulances and news crews surrounding the campus panicked dozens of parents who swarmed Fishburn Avenue Elementary School in search of their children.

About 1,000 people were evacuated from a trailer park and surrounding areas after the park manager discovered bags that appeared to be filled with explosive material but were later determined to contain cement, authorities said Tuesday. Kim Carpenter, the manager of Ace Trailer Park, in the 12600 block of South Woodruff Avenue, discovered 3 1/2 bags of material labeled "ammonia nitrate" and "explosive."

County firefighters evacuated seven homes in an El Monte neighborhood Friday after children there discovered a volatile chemical from a drug laboratory and took it to a home in the 2600 block of Gage Avenue, where it began to smoke. Firefighters immediately saturated the material, which appeared to be red phosphorous, before a hazardous materials team arrived to clean it up, county Fire Inspector Ed Loney said. No one was hurt, he said.

The new fire rose out of the eucalyptus on the far side of the canyon Tuesday morning, so orange and tall it grew, until it was--the sun. The people on the north side of Latigo Canyon Road let out a deep breath, or lay down their binoculars, or otherwise rejoiced quietly, shyly even. The new day was here. So were their homes. So were they.

The drill is familiar: Firefighters evacuating the apartment complex. Residents scrambling to retrieve the bare essentials. Disaster workers rushing to set up a makeshift shelter. It looked, sounded and--to some--felt like an earthquake. To about 100 of the residents of the hillside El Sereno apartment complex called the Highlands, it might as well have been one, in slow motion. It began at 12:20 p.m.

About 8,500 gallons of diluted hydrochloric acid spilled Thursday from a truck at a Wilmington chemical yard, forcing evacuation of residents within 10 blocks, a Fire Department spokesman said. The extensive cleanup prompted the American Red Cross to set up a shelter at the Wilmington Recreation Center, 325 N. Neptune Ave., to accommodate about 150 people who were displaced from their homes, said Red Cross spokeswoman Katrina Richardson.

Household cleaning fluid and other solvents mingling in a garbage truck Tuesday created noxious fumes that forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents along a Lancaster street, fire officials said. County hazardous-materials teams, called out about 11:20 a.m., worked for several hours to determine the source of smoke emanating from a garbage truck parked on 12th Street West near West Avenue J-10, Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman Clark Pearson said.

Residents evacuated overnight from the neighborhood near Chestnut and Mariposa streets were allowed back into their homes Sunday morning after firefighters extinguished a blaze that burned an industrial plating company that housed potentially deadly liquid cyanide. Authorities evacuated nine square blocks around the Alert Plating Co.--located at 730 N. Mariposa St.--which caught fire about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, said Burbank Fire Marshal Darryl Forbes.

About 800 Pacific Bell employees were evacuated from a building in Pasadena on Friday after a strange odor left about 40 workers with watery eyes and tightness in their chests, a company spokesman said. "It's a precautionary evacuation ordered by the [Pasadena] Fire Department," said Pac Bell spokeswoman Linda Bonniksen. "The Fire Department tells us they don't suspect anything toxic, [that it] may be some sort of cleaning agent," Bonniksen said. Pasadena Fire Capt.

Mohammad Lateef spent an unsettling Saturday listening to the crackle and hiss of dirt clods landing near his home in Rowland Heights. "My little one was very depressed. This morning she said, 'Dad, I want to get out of here,' " commented Lateef about concerns over a sliding hillside that has threatened a block of homes. "It was a very beautiful hill--kids used to go up there and fly kites," he said.