GLENDORA, Calif. - Nearly 2,000 residents were evacuated and five homes burned in a wildfire that started early Thursday when three people tossed paper into a campfire in the dangerously dry and windy foothills of Southern California’s San Gabriel Mountains, authorities said.
Embers from the f ire fanned by gusty Santa Ana winds quickly spread into neighborhoods below where residents were awakened in the pre-dawn darkness and ordered to leave.
The three suspects, all men in their 20s, were arrested on charges of recklessly starting the fire that spread smoke across the Los Angeles basin and cast an eerie cloud all the way to the coast.
One resident suffered minor burns in the neighborhood abutting Angeles National Forest, just north of the San Gabriel Valley community of Glendora, said Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby. Hundreds of homes were saved because of firefighters’ preparations, he said.
Los Angeles County Fire Deputy Chief John Tripp said at a news conference in Glendora on Thursday evening that the fire’s growth had been stopped at 1,700 acres. He said some residents would be allowed to return home Thursday night.
“The weather cooperated quite a bit today. We didn’t get the wind … that we thought,” Tripp said. Ash rained on the city, said Jonathan Lambert, 31, general manager of Classic Coffee.
“We’re underneath a giant cloud of smoke,” he said. “It’s throwing quite the eerie shadow over a lot of Glendora.”
Police said the three suspects were detained near Colby Trail, where the fire was thought to have started. At least one was homeless, Glendora Police Chief Tim Staab said. Police identified the suspects as Robert Aguirre, 21, of Los Angeles; Jonathan Carl Jarrell, 23, of Irwindale; and Clifford Eugene Henry Jr., 22,of Glendora.
A resident spotted “a couple of suspicious fellows moving down from the hill into the wash” and called police, Mayor Joseph Santoro said. Glendora officers picked up two of them, and a Forest Service officer detained the third, he said.
Because of the conditions, the national forest was under “very high” fire-danger restrictions, posted on numerous signs, which bar campfires anywhere except in campfire rings in designated campgrounds. U.S. Forest Service spokesman L’Tanga Watson said there are no designated campgrounds where the fire began. Staab said the men were trying to keep warm and the wildfire appears to have been an accident.
“One was very remorseful for starting this fire,” he said.
Santa Ana winds, linked to the spread of Southern California’s worst wildfires, picked up at daybreak. The extremely dry winds blow downslope and can push fires out of the mountains and into communities below. The area, which has been historically dry, has been buffeted by the winds, which have raised temperatures into the 80s. The winds typically begin in the fall and last through winter into spring.
Glendora police said officers went door to door ordering residents of the city of 50,000 to leave. Citrus College, in the heart of Glendora, canceled classes for the day.
Several schools were closed. The Glendora Unified School District closed Goddard Middle School, which was being used as a Fire Department command post.
Between 1,700 and 2,000 residents were evacuated, and the order included 880 homes in Glendora and the neighboring foothill city of Azusa. Many residents, some wearing masks, used garden hoses to wet the brush around their houses, even as firefighters ordered them to leave.
“Don’t waste any more time with the water. Time to go,” a firefighter ordered. More than 700 firefighters were on thescene, along with 70 engines and a fleet of helicopters and air tankers dropping water and fire retardant.
The smoke spread across metropolitan Los Angeles to the coast and was visible from space in Weather Service satellite photos. The South Coast Air Quality Management District issued a smoke advisory and urged residents to avoid unnecessary outdoor activities in areas directly affected by the smoke. Jennifer Riedel, 43, anxiously watched as the orange-hued plume descended on her neighborhood in Azusa.
“I woke up from the rattling windows from the helicopters overhead, and I heard the police over the P.A., but I couldn’t hear what they were saying,” Riedel said. “I’m hearing from neighbors that we’re evacuating, but I’m waiting for a knock on the door.” Information for this article was contributed by Christopher Weber, Sue Manning,Alex Veiga and Tami Abdollah of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 01/17/2014