Santa Barbara: 280 Homes Destroyed -- `Freight Train': Fire Burned Everything In Its Path

A firestorm started by an arsonist destroyed 280 homes in Santa Barbara, Calif., officials said today, as wind-blown fires forced thousands of people from their homes throughout Southern California, injured scores of firefighters and closed highways.

Thousands of acres were burning out of control. More than 600 firefighters battled the blazes overnight, and twice as many firefighters were expected later in the day, U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Susan Mockenhaupt said.

Tim Grasey, spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department, said of the blaze in his community: ``The fire is incredible. It came down from the mountains. It spread everywhere. It burned everything in its path.''

Firefighter Larry Ashton said: ``When the fire came down that canyon, it sounded just like a freight train. I can't believe that no one was killed.''

From Santa Barbara to San Diego, the fires were worsened by four years of drought and a searing heat wave that pushed temperatures to record levels well above 100 degrees. Water reserves were at their lowest levels in years.

Hot desert winds up to 60 mph fanned the Santa Barbara fire yesterday, Mockenhaupt said. The wind later calmed, but officials feared it would pick up.

Giant balls of flame rolled through the hills and engulfed entire neighborhoods during the night. Ashes filled the sky more than 35 miles away.

In one subdivision, every home was gutted, every street was a landscape of chimneys and charred kitchen appliances. Occasionally a geyser of flame shot from a gas main, giving the scene a hellish look. Workers shut off gas lines.

The fire charred 3,500 acres in Santa Barbara and Goleta, said Jan Bullard, a sheriff's spokesman.

The blaze also destroyed an unknown number of businesses, a school for handicapped adults, a Sheriff's Department prison farm and a fire station.

It forced evacuation of the jail, disrupted phone service, closed a major north-south highway and burned a train trestle, interrupting Amtrak service.

The blaze was the Santa Barbara area's worst in more than 13 years. A 1977 fire burned 234 homes in the area, which is on the Pacific Coast 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Its property values are among the state's highest.

``It looks like a war zone out there,'' Grasey said. ``Everything is blackened. It's just total devastation. You never felt more helpless. You look at it and there's nothing you could do to stop it.''

Authorities blamed the fire on arson, saying an unidentified incendiary device was found where the blaze began yesterday.

Brenda Rein watched from a shopping mall as the fire marched down a mountain.

``The whole sky was just orange. I looked up and saw the moon through the smoke, kind of a werewolf moon,'' she said.

Barbara Jefferson of Santa Barbara came out of a movie theater to find the evening sky raining soot and the wind blowing so fiercely it was hard to stand. In the distant hills, she said, ``we just saw mountains of flames.''

The fire was just one of several in the Southwest, where a large high-pressure system has formed, forcing hot air down and resulting in record temperatures.

In the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, officials said a fire that was deliberately set destroyed or damaged 50 homes. The homes were valued at $300,000 to $700,000 each, and property losses were estimated at more than $25 million.

``The California chaparral over here, all that sage and scrub oak, is literally like gasoline,'' Fire Battalion Chief Chris Gray said.

Sixty miles east of Los Angeles, a fire near the small community of El Cerrito in Riverside County destroyed 15 homes and closed Interstate 15, said California Department of Forestry spokeswoman Jeaneen Gardner.

Nine firefighters were injured, mostly from heat exhaustion and smoke inhalation, officials said. An estimated 2,000 firefighters today were trying to contain the fire at 2,200 acres.

The blaze began after a U.S. Forest Service ``controlled burn'' - an attempt to burn away brush to prevent fires - raged out of control, said Gardner.

An arson blaze in the Carbon Canyon area of Orange County spread over 4,500 acres to the San Bernardino County community of Sleepy Hollow, where six homes were engulfed. Six firefighters suffered minor injuries, authorities said.

A man was arrested for investigation of arson, said Maria Sabol, a spokeswoman for Orange County Fire Department.

A 150-acre fire near Hemet, another Riverside County community, injured 17 firefighters. Two inmates working firelines were critically burned, officials said.

In the Moreno Valley area of the county, fire destroyed three homes.

In Arizona, a fire in the Tonto National Forest scorched 16,500 acres, Tonto spokeswoman Joyce Hassell said. Lightning started the fire Monday. The fire has destroyed at least 50 homes and threatened about 700 more, officials said.

Six firefighters died battling the blaze. Tonto spokesman Bob Celaya said authorities still were investigating the deaths.

The victims were among several crews who were trapped when a ``dry thunderstorm'' struck the area, spreading the fire in all directions.

In Montrose, Colo., a lightning-sparked fire in the ponderosa burned at least 1,000 acres.