Firefighters struggle against biggest of Western blazes

Anthony Breznican

Tuesday, Aug. 31, 1999 | 1:37 a.m.

APPLE VALLEY, Calif. - Smoke roiled into the Mojave Desert sky from the north flank of the San Bernardino Mountains today as firefighters struggled to contain the largest of numerous forest and brush fires burning on about 190,000 acres in five Western states.

Uncontrolled blazes were being fought in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah and California, where the biggest concentration of firefighters worked to tame a 50,000-acre blaze that has destroyed 12 homes since Sunday about 80 miles east of Los Angeles.

"It's all we have," resident Steve Chisholm said today as he stood in a pile of ash that was once his living room in the high desert below the San Bernardinos.

The fire, which blackened large swaths of the desert floor, was crackling along the mountains east toward Lucerne Valley today. Temperatures took a cool turn.

None of the widely scattered rustic homes amid the scrub and Joshua Trees were immediately threatened this morning, but San Bernardino County fire spokeswoman Kathy Saindon said at least 200 people had heeded urgings for voluntary evacuations.

Five people were arrested Monday for allegedly looting abandoned homes, sheriff's spokeswoman Jennie Risley said.

Erratic winds that fanned flames during the night eased today. On Monday, a powerful wind blew smoke from the fire more than 180 miles northeast to Las Vegas.

"I got at least two calls yesterday asking if there was a brush fire and I said 'Yeah, but it's in California,"' said Bob Leinbach, spokesman for the Clark County (Nev.) Fire Department. "The sunrise this morning was blood-red, it was gorgeous."

Elsewhere, fire raced on the wind. A blaze sparked by a downed power line Monday evening was fanned to more than 40,000 acres today in southern Idaho, cutting a miles-long swath through grass and brush south of the Snake River.

Fifty miles west of Apple Valley, more than 780 firefighters worked in the San Gabriel Mountains to contain a 2,500-acre wildfire that damaged three cabins in the North Fork area of Angeles National Forest. Several thousand people, mostly campers, were ordered out of the area when the fire broke out Sunday.

To the southeast, in Riverside County, firefighters had significant containment of the 3,000-acre Mixing fire and the 1,523-acre Pine fire. A 3,600-acre blaze in the Mojave Desert west of Palmdale was contained Monday by Los Angeles County firefighters. A house was damaged.

In Northern California, a 34,441-acre fire in Modoc National Forest was 50 percent contained and in Butte County, firefighters expected full containment of several fires that burned 33,924 acres. Six other fires were burning on 8,353 acres in Plumas National Forest.

In Northern California, firefighters struggled with clusters of fires that burned 4,547 acres in the Shasta-Trinity National Forests. Another fire cluster in Shasta and Trinity counties burned 17,059 acres.

Thunderstorms were believed responsible for two wildfires on Utah rangeland west of Salt Lake City, including a 3,000-acre blaze up Peepstone Canyon and a wind-churned 750-acre fire about 40 miles west of Salt Lake City. A third fire was under control after burning 500 acres 14 miles east of Provo.

In Washington, a 275-acre fire in the Columbia River gorge was controlled Monday night. A 200-acre blaze on the Spokane Indian Reservation at Cayuse Mountain was contained Monday night.

A lightning strike was the suspected cause of a 1,618-acre grass fire 13 miles west of Idaho's American Falls was contained late Monday.