NO END FOR STUBBORN BLAZE GIANT DAY FIRE SHUTS INTERSTATE, NEARS SANCTUARY.

Byline: ALEX DOBUZINSKIS Staff Writer

LOS PADRES NATIONAL FOREST -- The nearly 20,000-acre Day Fire threatened Tuesday to cross the Golden State Freeway, stubbornly resisting containment as it advanced for the eighth day.

The Day Fire, so named because it broke out on Labor Day, has not damaged any homes as it has burned into the Los Padres National Forest to the west of Interstate 5. But it remained only 25 percent contained.

For the second day, the fire moved southeast toward Interstate 5, which was shut down from state Route 138 near Gorman to Parker Road in Castaic. On its southwestern flank, it advanced toward a condor sanctuary through steep terrain north of Fillmore.

``It's safe to say we'll be here through the end of the week,'' said Stanton Florea, an information officer with the U.S. Forest Service.

Authorities closed both sides of the Golden State Freeway on Tuesday afternoon because flames were advancing and fire crews needed room to maneuver.

Authorities had 70 fire vehicles stationed along the freeway on Tuesday afternoon, and they set a backfire along the freeway to eliminate dry vegetation in hopes of slowing the blaze.

The fire, which is about 10 miles north of Castaic, has burned for eight days and cost more than $7.4 million to combat. Fire officials on Tuesday were concerned the flames could advance on Oak Flat, a clearing in the Los Padres National Forest that has a Forest Service station, a few homes and a Boy Scout camp.

Also threatened were the Paradise Ranch mobile home park and a utility corridor, which are both to the east of the I-5, and the Sespe Condor Sanctuary just beyond the southern containment line of the fire.

``If you're familiar with that area, you've got extra-dry vegetation; it's been drying out all summer,'' said George Broyles, an information officer for the California Interagency Incident Management Team.

``Virtually any ember that lands in unburned fuel ahead of the fire is going to start another fire,'' he said.

The wildfire has proven a tough adversary for the 1,430 firefighters assigned to it. In places, the terrain is too steep for a bulldozer to clear away vegetation for a fire suppression line, and firefighters can only get to some areas by rappeling from helicopters.

On Monday, firefighters watched as a wall of orange flames crossed over the old Highway 99, a four-lane predecessor to the I-5, where firetrucks were parked, their lights flashing.

Firefighter Andrew Klein, 23, was only a couple hundred feet from where the fire crossed over the 99, and reported afterward that it felt like getting a sunburn.

Klein began Monday at a Sept. 11 commemoration ceremony, where he read a poem. After spending the morning thinking about the 343 New York firefighters who died at the World Trade Center, he found himself worrying about firefighters who were briefly cut off when the fire jumped the highway.

``We had crews that were trapped back there, strike team divisions, and we were concerned for them,'' he said.

Helicopters carrying giant bags of water and planes loaded with fire retardant flew overhead.

Flames more than 100 feet tall burned along the edge of a fire line that fire crews had dug into the vegetation over several days. In places, the fire swirled around in a violent whirl, or it illuminated the dense smoke in an orange glow.

The afternoon sun shone blood-red through the smoke.

Firefighters stood with their backs to the flames to watch for ``spot fires,'' points beyond the fire perimeter line that are ignited by flying embers and must be extinguished. Some firefighters had cameras to snap pictures of the whipping flames.

At the southern end of the fire, near the Sespe Condor Sanctuary, crews had to rappel into the area from a helicopter because of the steep terrain.

About 20 endangered condors spend at least part of the year in the refuge, and one pair of condors is caring for a chick in a cliffside nest seven miles from the fire, said Mark Hall, refuge manager for the Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge.

``It makes us a little bit nervous,'' he said.

Crews from a number of agencies, including the fire departments of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, a civilian firefighting team from Vandenberg Air Force Base and some prison inmates worked together on the fire.

The wildfire is the biggest in Southern California.

alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color in SAC edition only) Firefighters try to set a backfire to keep the Day Fire from crossing Interstate 5, but flames turn on them.

(2 -- color in SAC edition only) A firefighter rappels from exploding flames along the old Ridge Route.

(3 -- color -- ran in SAC edition only) The Day Fire burns near Pyramid Lake late Monday night. The blaze has caused closures in both directions on Interstate 5.

(4 -- color -- ran in SAC edition only) A lone TV reporter stands on the closed Interstate 5 on Monday night in the smoke-filled air.

David Crane/Staff Photographer