BRUSH FIRE JUMPS LINE, BURNS TO LEONA VALLEY.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

AGUA DULCE - Firefighters had all but declared victory Friday over an Agua Dulce brush fire, but it flared up and spread to the Leona Valley area, officials said.

By Friday afternoon the blaze was just about contained when it jumped a fire line and had firefighters scrambling.

``It apparently jumped the line,'' said Los Angeles County Fire Department Inspector Roland Sprewell. ``We're trying to get additional resources up there to assist with it.''

Fire inspectors were talking about having full containment by Friday evening but just after 3:30 p.m., the fire flared up and crossed a trench dug by a bulldozer and ignited brush in an uncontained area of the Sierra Pelona Mountain Way. In less than an hour, 50 more acres were burning.

As the initial fire wound down, 350 firefighters and two water dropping helicopters stood by, just in case. They called for 200 more firefighters and four more air support units when things got out of hand, officials said.

The blaze broke out about 12:30 p.m. Thursday in the pasture area of a ranch at the end of Anthony Road. By 2:30 p.m., the fire had spread to more than 200 acres and little more than an hour later, flames had consumed nearly 800 acres.

By late Thursday evening, the number of acres was reported to have more than doubled but officials said an infrared scan from a helicopter done early Friday morning showed that it was actually about 1,330 acres.

Firefighters struggled Thursday to get the upper hand on the fire but brisk winds continued to push the fire forward.

By the evening, though, the winds had died down and cooler temperatures aided firefighters in their battle.

``The winds were at 20 to 25 mph at the peak of the fire and that made things really tough but those died down in the evening allowing us to better do our job in regards to containment,'' said Inspector Mike Brown.

By Friday morning, fire officials said nearly 60 percent of the fire was contained and expected nearly 100 percent containment just two hours before the fire jumped the line and began racing up the Sierra Pelona Mountain Way toward the ridge.

At the peak of the fire, nearly 800 firefighters were battling the blaze and officials said by early Friday evening, they expected to have as many units on hand again.

Despite the fire's stretch into Leona Valley, the only homes evacuated as of Friday afternoon were about half a dozen homes near where the blaze started along Anthony Road off of Sierra Highway, fire officials said.

``There were some considerations in evacuating in Leona Valley, but the fire didn't come that close that we needed to implement those evacuations,'' Brown said.

No structures were damaged as of Friday afternoon.

The two firefighters injured were members of a camp crew. Officials said one of the firefighters was an Angeles National Forest firefighter and the other was a camp crew member. Both suffered ankle or foot injuries, officials said.

Greg Botonis, [phone]

gregory.botonis(at)dailynews.com