ANOTHER HARROWING DAY FLAMES ADVANCE RIGHT UP TO HOMES.

Byline: Carol Rock Staff Writer

STEVENSON RANCH - For a second day, fire crews on Wednesday battled a relentless blaze that shot walls of flame within a few feet of homes in the Santa Clarita Valley, sent a choking haze of smoke and ash across miles, and forced the closure of a 12-mile stretch of Interstate 5.

Again no houses were damaged on this flank of the Val Verde/Simi Valley Fire, though flames pushed by a sudden shift in the wind burned up to back yards near Stevenson Ranch and residents ran for shelter.

Firefighters, aided by cooler weather and lighter breezes, also were winning the battle to keep the flames from the 100,000-acre fire from crossing the Golden State Freeway, where older homes are tucked in rustic canyons. The fire charred right up to the route.

The freeway was closed much of the day as part of that effort, snarling traffic on surface streets valleywide and making for a hellish commute.

``The prime objective at the morning briefing was that the I-5 was the absolute demarcation,'' said Joseph Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which manages much of the Santa Clarita Woodlands set ablaze by the fire.

An air and ground assault began at dawn on the blaze, which started Friday in Val Verde before spreading toward Moorpark, Simi Valley and Chatsworth, then blowing back toward Santa Clarita.

Fire officials planned overnight controlled burns to cut back fuel and stop the flames from spreading more today. By evening, the fire was 35 percent contained.

What they couldn't control was the blanket of smoke that covered the entire Santa Clarita Valley, creating extremely hazardous air quality that prompted schools to shut down and mail deliveries to be canceled. Ash from the burning woodlands west of Santa Clarita drifted like snow.

Then the wind shifted in a split second Wednesday and sent a wall of fire toward houses on Sagecrest Circle in the Sunset Pointe neighborhood near Stevenson Ranch. Sheriff's deputies broadcast evacuation orders along Sagecrest, which quickly became clogged with fleeing families and arriving fire crews.

Tom Murphy stood across Sagecrest from his home, where a pumper rig from Nevada County was parked in his driveway and hoses stretched into the back yard. He aimed a camera toward his front door and snapped.

``I wanted to take a last picture,'' he said, as the county's Blackhawk helicopter roared overhead, dropping water into his back yard. ``I hope it's not really a last picture.''

Two bulldozers worked the hillsides behind Murphy's property before being driven back by flames that towered as high as 75 feet.

``It's a spooky feeling to watch this,'' said Murphy, who bought the house new in 1987. ``I went through the earthquake in that house and I'm still in the process of fixing some of those problems.

``Oh, Jesus,'' he exclaimed as a wall of flame flared on the next block, creating a surreal atmosphere of reddish-grey smoke that surrounded the trucks and obscured visibility. ``Those guys in the helicopter are something. I pray for them; I pray for all of us.''

Stepping into his back yard, Murphy pointed to the blackened hillsides that 10 minutes earlier had been ablaze.

``That was covered with chaparral and now it's just twigs,'' he observed. ``You couldn't even walk through there.''

As he spoke, the hillside flared again. Giving the command ``Charge it'' into his headset, Mike Stewart, a Nevada County engineer, grabbed hold of a smaller firefighter next to him to help him balance as he aimed a spray of fire retardant on Murphy's neighbor's towering trees.

On Tuesday, the historic town of Mentryville was the fire's first target as flames charged over the Santa Susana Mountains. This 1880s oil-boom town was spared because of preventive measures.

A day later, Tim Miller, construction division captain of the Mountains Recreation Conservation Authority, supervised a crew of 12 resuming work on roofing the Felton School, the historic schoolhouse.

``We were trying to get the roof on before the fire,'' he said. ``Now that the danger has largely passed, we have to get the roof on before we have any rain.''

Most frightening about the two days of fire in the western Santa Clarita Valley were the erratic winds that shifted the fire back and forth.

Kelley and Paul Bouch fled Tuesday afternoon and were unloading their Suburban a day later at home only to be advised again to evacuate.

``The sheriffs booted us out about 4 p.m. so we loaded the car and took the kids to my brother's,'' Kelley Bouch said. ``Then we were able to come back. We went to bed about midnight, then we heard the news crews in the air about 4:30 this morning.''

``When the officers came and told us to leave, I was anxious,'' she continued. ``But I watched it burn slowly and I knew that our roofs were made from fire-retardant materials, so I wasn't too scared.''

The Rothlein family stood a safe block away from the brush at the end of the cul-de-sac, having just come home from a night in a Canyon Country motel.

``It was harrowing to watch on the news, not knowing whether we'd have a house or not,'' Gary Rothlein said.

Staff Writers Nicholas Grudin, Eugene Tong and Heather MacDonald contributed to this report.

Carol Rock, [phone]

carol.rock(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

5 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Above, county firefighters battle flames from the back yard of a home Wednesday, while at right, a Fire Department helicopter makes a water drop near homes in Sunset Pointe. The neighborhood, near Stevenson Ranch, had been considered safe, but a sudden shift in the wind sent a wall of fire toward houses, prompting sheriff's deputies to broadcast evacuation orders.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

(3) Tim Reardon gives his daughter, Breanna, 5, a ride on his shoulders as they watch the fires burn Wednesday morning. The family had evacuated their Greensbrier Drive home Tuesday night and returned Wednesday to find it still standing.

(4) A lone firefighter hoses the back yards of homes along Sagecrest Circle on Wednesday afternoon. Erratic winds made fighting the fires exceptionally difficult.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer

(5) Firefighters make a last stand at The Old Road near Calgrove Boulevard on Wednesday, hoping to keep the flames from crossing the Golden State Freeway.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer

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