NEW FIRE WHIPS VENTURA : RESIDENTS EVACUATED IN FAST-MOVING BLAZE.

Byline: Daily News

As firefighters kept a wary eye on 13,000 smoldering acres near Malibu on Friday, another fast-moving brush fire broke out on a Ventura hillside, burning at least 100 acres in its first few hours and threatening nearby homes.

The fire was reported just before 7 p.m. in the Grant Park area, about a half-mile north of Ventura City Hall, said Officer Jack Richards, of the Ventura Police Department. Richards was at the government building overseeing the taping of a television show when the blaze erupted.

``I was standing here and we saw a puff of smoke. The puff of smoke suddenly turned into fire,'' Richards said.

Later, Capt. John Alford of the Ventura County Fire Department said the cause of the fire was arson.

About 250 firefighters were called to the area within the first hour of the fire, and had formed a barrier between nearby homes and the flames.

Fanned by 40 mph winds, the fire spread out across the hills and threatened some nearby homes.

Apartments, condominiums and houses along Kalorama Drive, just east of the City Hall, were evacuated. But there were no reports Friday of homes being destroyed, officials said.

Also, the football stadium at Ventura High School was evacuated - interrupting a game between Ventura and Hueneme high schools.

By about 10 p.m., a light rain fell and winds had died, which fire officials hoped would halt the progress of the bright orange wall of flames.

``It certainly will help the effort. It's a godsend,'' said Joe Luna, Ventura County Fire Department spokesman.

An hour after the fire began, a frightened Karen Owens, 30, stood outside the Harbor View Apartments on Kalorama Drive, and watched as the flames, which had come within a quarter-mile of her home, crackled and consumed brush on the other side of the steep canyon.

``You think that everything in your home is going to be gone the next time you see it. It's going to be ashes,'' said Owens, a furniture saleswoman, who quickly packed her cats, letters and other personal belongings into her car as the fire raged.

``Almost everything that is important is in my car.''

Meanwhile in Malibu, authorities worried that a combination of dry brush and Santa Ana winds that could reach 60 mph this weekend could revive the Calabasas Fire.

``Mother Nature calls the shots,'' sighed Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Steve Valenzuela.

``During a Santa Ana episode,'' he said, ``if the winds are sustained, we can have extremely high, long flames. The fire can spread very quickly. In essence, you can't stop it. What you can do is protect the homes.''

However, the National Weather Service revised its Santa Ana forecast Friday, this time predicting that the dry, blowtorch winds might not arrive until Sunday, if at all.

``We are quite uncertain about it,'' said meteorologist Dedric Walker. ``Right now, it doesn't look like it will be as severe as we had earlier this week.''

Holding the Santa Anas at bay was a lingering cold front, which itself was responsible for relatively moist, 45 mph winds from the northwest Friday. There also was a ``slight chance'' of coastal showers overnight and ending this morning, Walker said.

Firefighters took advantage of the reprieve to work on closing the last 21 miles of the Calabasas Fire's 55-mile circumference. They used bulldozers to cut 30-foot swaths and hand crews dug 10-foot paths.

``It's very hard, especially if it's steep and the brush is tall,'' said Greg Pisano, division chief for the California Department of Forestry in San Luis Obispo.

Since the fire began Monday, half of the 4,000 men and women battling the fire have been sent home. Pisano said he misses his family and hopes to leave in time to accompany his 3-year-old son on his first day of school.

``But as long as we're here, we're going to work. When we go away, I don't want to have any doubts that we didn't do all we could,'' Pisano said.

All the while, their thoughts were with Glendale Firefighter William Jensen, who Friday underwent the first of excruciatingly painful operations to repair deep burns to 70 percent of his body.

At the Grossman Medical Center in Sherman Oaks, a medical team of 17 people including seven surgeons spent more than two hours removing Jensen's burned skin and replacing it with 15,000 square centimeters of cadaver skin.

Doctors deemed the delicate procedure largely a success and were encouraged that his heat-swollen lungs were not as damaged as they had suspected. Yet they cautioned that the 52-year-old grandfather of three has begun to show what could be early signs of a deadly infection.

``Next week will be a critical period for him to stave off infection,'' said hospital spokesman Larry Weinberg. ``We have begun a new phase today.''

A second surgery is planned for Tuesday; the fire had left only his waist and lower legs unscathed.

``Jensen's wife was greatly encouraged when he waved his hand at her,'' Weinberg said.

Two other injured Glendale firefighters continued to heal at the burn center. Forty-one-year-old Scott French was listed in good condition, and 42-year-old Scott Torstenbo was in fair condition, doctors said.

For the first time since the three men were trapped in a firestorm off Corral Canyon Road, French was allowed to see Jensen. The five-minute visit left French teary-eyed and emotional.

``It made him feel better to go in and see Bill,'' said Glendale Battalion Chief Dave Starr. ``He was concerned that he could have done more for Bill, but there is nothing that could have been done.''

On the line, the tragedy was eclipsed only by the rewards of the job.

``Actually trying to save people's homes was a really intense feeling for me, a really rewarding feeling,'' said Owen Destito, a 19-year-old Sonoma County firefighter out on his first major brush fire.

``I didn't think Los Angeles was that rugged,'' he said, shaking his head. ``I thought Los Angeles would be citylike.''

Destito and his strike team were on their way back to Sonoma on Friday.

But 36 other strike teams, consisting of five engines apiece, took positions in the mountains, some of them spending the night there.

With infrared cameras that can see hot spots where the eye cannot, they scoured the Santa Monica Mountains for remaining embers - embers that Valenzuela said could be blown as much as a mile and start a new fire.

A map outside the command center in Malibu showed the fire break dug into the countryside - a line that Valenzuela said will be counted on to stop any new fire from driving westward.

``We're not confident that if an ember starts here,'' Valenzuela said, pointing to the fire break, ``it won't jump that line.''

As a precaution, fire-spotting patrols have begun fanning out south and west of Kanan Road. Planners have begun poring over topographic maps and selecting the best places to amass troops of firefighters if another fire were to start.

At the same time, the fire department stationed its own weather watchers in several areas and began dispatching hourly reports.

The cold front whipped Malibu, snapping Pepperdine University's American flag horizontal. At the command center, pictures drawn by local schoolchildren threatened to loosen their tape and fly away. One read:

``Dear Firemen, Thank you for putting out the fire in Malibu. You firemen are real American heroes. Thanks again for putting out the fire. From David B.''

CAPTION(S):

Photo, Map

Photo: Red Cross worker Manuel Aquino, right, screensUnited Parcel Service driver Casey Campeau, in a blood drive for firefighters.

Gus Ruelas/Daily News

Map: VENTURA

Brush fire starts just before 7 p.m.

Daily News