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CHP officer John Escobedo radios an update on a fast moving brush fire in the Azusa Canyon in the Angeles National Forest. (Bernardo Alps / San Gabriel Valley Tribune)
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"This was a holiday weekend, and the canyon was full of people," said James Arthur, a dispatcher for the California Department of Forestry.
The fire, possibly caused by lightning at about 12:35 p.m., sent up a huge plume of smoke visible from as far away as Orange County while erratic winds spread the blaze in all directions, said Robert Brady, U.S. Forest Service spokesman.
It also led to the dramatic rescue about 4:30 p.m. by two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies of a Crystal Lake area woman who was seconds away from shooting herself in the head because she was certain that she was going to die horribly in the smoke and flames, sheriff's Sgt. Terry Matthews said.
When Deputies John Rose and Paul Archambeault arrived in a sheriff's sport utility vehicle at the woman's home in a remote area of Crystal Lake, they found burning debris all around them and bits of rock sliding down on the narrow road. Rose ran about one-eighth mile up the turnoff, known as Soldier Creek Road, and found the woman, whose name was not released, with a gun to her head, Matthews said.
"He yelled, 'Dammit, don't shoot; it's Rose,"' said Matthews, who said that both deputies had known the woman for years.
Rose pulled the gun away from the woman and took her back down the road amid sounds of approaching flames all around them. About a minute or two into their journey to safety, the deputies noticed their tires had begun to smoke. About five miles later, one of their tires went flat; a hole had been burned into it by the flames, Matthews said.
By then, the fire had burned away from the woman and the deputies, who released her to her husband unharmed, Matthews said. The fire started as a wisp of smoke near the North Fork of the San Gabriel River, just past the West Fork, about 10 miles north of Azusa. Within a minute, it was raging out of control.
California Highway Patrol Officer John Escobedo was on Highway 39 when the wisp of smoke caught his eyes.
"When we first saw it, it was about 20 feet in diameter," Escobedo said. "Within 30 seconds that fire was up the hill. I never realized how loud, how noisy, fire could be. If we'd tried to run away from it on foot, we would never have made it. It was too fast."
Joined by a U.S. Forest Service worker, Escobedo reported the fire and began to evacuate campers from nearby campgrounds.
Meanwhile, the fire roared north, east and west.
"It was a little bit hairy," Escobedo said. "I've never had fire chasing me before up a mountain."
Like many campers, Escobedo was trapped on the north side of the fire and had to flee through the Crystal Lake area.
"They had to leave my father's car and camping gear," said Ann Ammons, 49, of El Monte, whose family had to flee the fire as it came upon Follows Campground. "They threw everything as best they could into a truck."
Ammons waited at the bottom of Glendora Mountain Road on Sunday afternoon, trying to locate members of her family by cellular phone.
"We never go anywhere," Ammons said. "This is a vacation after two years."
The fire shut down the San Gabriel Wilderness by midafternoon.
At 9 p.m., more than 300 firefighters were battling the blaze. No injuries were reported, but one unidentified structure and an abandoned U.S. Forest Service building were destroyed, said Susie Wood, a forest service spokeswoman.
The heat and brush fire hazard was expected to continue today.
The National Weather Service also warned of the danger of exposure to the sun or excessive physical activity, which could result in heat stroke, heat cramps and heat exhaustion.
"People have to be really careful in this kind of heat," said Stuart Seto, a specialist with the National Weather Service.
A record was set Sunday in the San Fernando Valley, where the temperature hit 111 in Chatsworth and Woodland Hills.
The previous record for Sept. 1 in Chatsworth was 110 in 1998, and the Woodland Hills temperature Sunday tied the 111 recorded there in 1998.
On Sunday afternoon, another brush fire near Castaic Lake Recreation Area burned through scores of acres near Lake Hughes Road, causing the closure of the northbound Golden State Freeway and closure of both the lower and upper Castaic lakes.
About 200 Los Angeles County firefighters fought the blaze.
In the San Fernando Valley Sunday afternoon, about 100 firefighters battled another quick-moving brush fire near Shadow Hills that burned less than 5 acres around an equestrian neighborhood and threatened about six homes.
The fire started in the 9700 block of Wentworth Street, just south of the Foothill Freeway, said Brian Humphrey, spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department.
The flames were extinguished in less than an hour, and no injuries were reported, although two firefighters were treated and released for heat exhaustion at nearby Holy Cross Medical Center, Humphrey said.
"We were battling heat, but, thanks to the residents who had cleared brush at least 200 feet from their homes, none of the structures were damaged," Humphrey said.
In Wrightwood, in San Bernardino County, about 55 miles northeast of Los Angeles, a 554-acre fire was 46 percent contained Sunday.
Investigators were working to determine whether a burned body and an incendiary device were connected to the blaze, which had started Thursday.
The device was discovered Sunday morning in the area of the fire in the San Bernardino National Forest, said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Ruth Wenstrom. She had no further details. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
