HEARTACHE AND HOPE : FIREFIGHTERS OFFER PRAYERS FOR INJURED, GET GRIP ON BLAZE CREWS TAME 3-DAY-OLD BLAZE.

Byline: Daily News

With the Calabasas Fire finally in retreat Wednesday, firefighters from across the state paused to offer wishes and prayers for four comrades who had been trapped by flames on a rugged Malibu hillside.

While weary crews raced to douse the 13,814-acre fire before the expected return of Santa Ana winds Friday, dozens of other firefighters gathered at the Grossman Burn Center in Sherman Oaks to console the families and offer donations of blood.

Glendale firefighters began taking turns in a 24-hour prayer vigil for their two fallen co-workers William Jensen and Scott French and also for Los Angeles city Firefighters Surgey Tomlinson and Ross Torstenbo.

``The department is like a brotherhood,'' said Gary Ruff, department chaplain. ``For them, it is like it has happened to a family member.''

French, Tomlinson and Torstenbo are expected to survive; doctors offered less hope for the 52-year-old Jensen, burned Tuesday while trying to keep the brush fire from claiming another home.

The La Crescenta grandfather of three remained in critical condition Wednesday, with burns over about 70 percent of his body and severely damaged lungs from breathing in soot and smoke.

``His prognosis would have to be guarded,'' said Dr. Richard Grossman, founder of the world-renowned Grossman Burn Center. ``He's going to need a lot of prayers.''

Four surgical teams, led by Grossman, were preparing to operate on Jensen on Friday - an hour and a half of surgery to repair deep burns to his face and arms.

Although heavily sedated, Jensen was surrounded by family, unable to talk to them and with eyes swollen shut, but able to hear their assurances and respond to their touches.

Jensen's friends and co-workers hung onto hope that he would survive, if for no reason other than his great physical strength - a man they nicknamed ``Magilla Gorilla'' for his 6-foot-2-inch, 270-pound physique.

``He knows what is taking place; as a firefighter - he knows,'' said Neil Kingsley, a Glendale firefighter and friend of Jensen's for 20 years.

Long hours in the waiting room gave way to recollections of Jensen, a man with an infectious love of life.

``His favorite thing was to run up to you and give you a big hug and kiss, usually when he had a day's worth of (beard) growth,'' said Glendale Firefighter Rick Canter.

In all, 12 firefighters have been injured.

Another injured Glendale firefighter, 41-year-old French, and two Los Angeles city firefighters, 42-year-old Torstenbo and Tomlinson, 28, were listed in serious but stable condition.

French was well enough to sit up in bed. His co-workers couldn't help but find irony in the Ventura man's efforts in the past to raise money for burn victims.

``It's amazing now he's a burn victim,'' said Glendale Fire Marshall David Starr.

Today, the three men are scheduled to undergo surgery, during which surgeons will remove burned skin and prepare it for skin grafts expected to take place Monday.

In Malibu, the air was heavy with an acrid, gray smoke from the wildfire, which began Monday when sparks from a wind-whipped power line ignited the wildfire.

A gray pall also hung over the more than 4,000 firefighters and work crews, distracted by news of the injured men and tired from chasing fires through the rugged Santa Monica Mountains.

``If it's someone you work with every day, it hits home. If it's a firefighter you've never met, you still relate to his pain, to his family's suffering and his department's suffering,'' said Riverside Firefighter Dan Campos.

``Why did it happen? The reality of our job is somebody is always going to get hurt,'' said Campos, a firefighter for 22 years.

Throughout the day Wednesday, moist ocean air and largely diminished Santa Ana winds coupled to give crews the break they needed to achieve nearly 63 percent containment by Wednesday evening.

By dusk, 400 firefighters and crews had been sent home, with 250 more expected to be released today.

The remaining crews continued their push to extinguish the fire fully by Friday when the winds are expected to renew.

``A fire could start again from an ember or hot spot, if the winds start blowing,'' warned Los Angeles County fire spokesman Robert Graham.

Assembled to battle the wildfire were 92 strike teams, four bulldozers, seven helicopters, eight air tankers, according to a Los Angeles County report.

In its daylong sprint from Calabasas to the Pacific Ocean, only eight homes have been reported destroyed. Firefighters and homeowners alike credited the relatively minimal damage to better organization and more brush clearance - all lessons learned from the Old Topanga and Greenmeadow fires in 1993.

Wednesday, President Clinton issued an emergency declaration for Los Angeles County, as well as for San Diego and Orange counties. The declaration allows federal assistance for communities and victims of the fire.

The Calabasas Fire has levied an enormous cost:

Property losses initially were estimated at $3.5 million, but later county fire Capt. Steve Valenzuela said the toll was revised to $1 million. Another estimate credited firefighters with having saved approximately $100 million in property, the report says.

Battling the fire has cost $2 million thus far and is expected to consume another $4 million before it is completely doused, the report says.

Some of that money has been spent on new fire-fighting tools on the ground and in the air, all designed to hit wildfires fast and hard.

They include two orange Sikorsky-64s, water-dropping helicopters never before used in a major Southland fire. It was first used for its tremendous power and speed during the Vietnam War.

Now the Sikorsky is valued for fighting brush fires, as it can ferry 2,600 gallons of water.

``Initial attack is the key,'' said Jim Holdridge, chief of air operations for Los Angeles County's Fire Department.

But whatever fire can be extinguished from the air is that much less for firefighters to confront on the ground.

From his hospital bed, Glendale Firefighter French told the department chaplain how quickly a smoldering fire exploded into a fireball on that steep hillside in Malibu.

French had been standing on that hill with Jensen, a man strong enough to lift co-workers over his head.

``He was with Bill but was able to run a little bit faster,'' Ruff said quietly, holding a Bible in one hand. ``Bill was the one who caught most of the fire.''

A fund to help pay medical and family expenses for the Glendale firefighters has been established. Donations may be sent to the Glendale Firefighter Burn Fund, c/o Glendale Fire Station No. 21, 421 Oak St., Glendale, CA 91204.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO (1) From left in rear, Glendale Firefighters MikeNovicki, Gene Tognarelli and Paul Philips, along with Capt. Jim Bittle, have been part of the crews battling the Calabasas Fire. Two Glendale firefighters were hospitalized in battling the wind-whipped blaze.

Hans Gutknecht/Daily News

(2) French

(3) Jensen