Wildfires rage in West

Paul Chavez

Monday, Aug. 30, 1999 | 11:29 a.m.

LOS ANGELES -- Fast-moving wildfires fanned by erratic winds have charred more than 200,000 acres of brush and timber from Washington to Southern California, destroying buildings and forcing thousands to evacuate.

Firefighters mourned the death of one of their own.

Joseph Masto, a Santa Barbara firefighter, was found dead in steep terrain in Los Padres National Forest. He was acting as a medic for firefighters working against a 180-acre blaze north of Santa Barbara. Search crews found Masto's body Saturday after he didn't return to camp.

"He was just a great guy," said Michael Kotowski, a battalion chief with the Santa Barbara Fire Department. "He had a lot of potential. This may have been his first wildfire."

The cause of death was not immediately known. There was no evidence of burns.

A 17,000-acre fire north of Lake Arrowhead destroyed one home and burned 30 other structures, said Nanci Wagner, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry. It was not immediately known what kind of structures were damaged, Wagner said.

Flames threatened some high-voltage power lines and underground gas lines this morning, causing concern that additional fires could flare up, Wagner said.

The rapidly moving blaze, called the Willow fire, started Saturday near the resort, about 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles, and was fueled by strong winds and high temperatures. Residents were evacuated Sunday to a nearby high school, said Melody Lardner, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service.

Two firefighters suffered minor injuries battling the blaze in the San Bernardino National Forest, Lardner said. The brush fire was caused by an illegal camp fire, she said.

Another fire that ignited Sunday in rugged terrain north of Azusa in Angeles National Forest charred 1,000 acres of brush, oaks and pine and forced 4,000 people from their homes.

In Riverside County, a wildfire that started Saturday afternoon burned about 2,500 acres by late Sunday night and forced the evacuation of two campgrounds and a trailer park, Lardner said.

Some 450 Los Angeles County firefighters also battled a brush fire that broke out Sunday afternoon near Palmdale. The fire, which had burned across 1,500 acres by early this morning, destroyed three outbuildings and partially burned a home.

A series of blazes in northern California charred 32,914 acres and burned 14 outbuildings, two vehicles and a boat. Two major fires that burned nearly 17,000 acres were surrounded, and firefighters gained the upper hand on three others.

"The best news is that we're very slowly getting containment around most of the fires," aid Alleah Haley, a fire information officer for the California Department of Forestry in Butte County. "The bad news is that we're expecting 20-30 mph winds. We're holding all our resources, hoping for the best and being prepared for the worst."

A fire in the Stanislaus National Forest was contained after burning 4,028 acres, but officials kept about 1,000 firefighters on the scene to fight hot spots.

In Nevada, crews had contained the largest fire, 45,000 acres north of Reno, but a blaze 80 miles southwest of Ely had burned 10,000 acres and was still raging. And in Washington state, smaller fires near the Columbia River and Major Creek were under control by Sunday afternoon.

Light rain helped firefighters tackling several small, lightning-sparked fires in Oregon. A 1,500-acre fire in north-central Oregon was fully contained Saturday.