RESIDENTS ON NOTICE TO EVACUATE.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew and Harrison Sheppard Staff Writers

Relentless airstrikes and hundreds of weary firefighters drove a wildfire away from a wealthy San Fernando Valley housing tract Tuesday, but winds carried the inferno full circle over the mountains to the fringe of another development in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Residents of Stevenson Ranch were put on notice to prepare to evacuate as the blaze, dubbed the Simi Valley Fire, raged through canyons and along ridges nearby.

``It's kind of like the whole state of California tilted to the south and all the fire engines rolled down here,'' said John Bagala, a firefighter from the San Francisco Bay Area, battling the fire in Stevenson Ranch.

``Normally something like this is the biggest show in town and then you turn on the news and see San Diego and San Bernardino. To have three major events going on in the same geographical area is wild.''

Officials expressed hope that changing weather conditions would make the fire die down eventually, but they continued fighting late into the night to prevent it from spreading to the Golden State Freeway.

Steve Cookus, an inspector with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, said firefighters were using bulldozers and backfires to clear brush away from the freeway in the Newhall Pass, which leads from the Santa Clarita Valley to the San Fernando Valley.

``What started off as a flank has now become the head of the fire and it's moving toward Interstate 5. It's going to be a very aggressive operation through the night to stop it,'' he said late Tuesday.

Cookus said several housing developments were threatened as the fire headed toward the pass.

A second major wildfire north of Los Angeles threatened the Sespe Condor Sanctuary in remote mountains of Ventura County.

More than 2,200 firefighters, many near exhaustion from days on the line, formed a front between Los Angeles and Ventura counties to control the wildfires. Some residents returned home after the fire swept by and others packed up personal effects and pets and prepared to flee.

Since Friday, the Simi Valley Fire has charred more than 97,000 acres, destroyed 16 homes and damaged eight others after taking a circuitous route from Val Verde near Santa Clarita westward to the Ventura County cities of Moorpark and Simi Valley. It then turned east into the San Fernando Valley where it threatened Porter Ranch and other developments on the north edge of the city of Los Angeles where authorities made a major stand against it Tuesday morning.

``We're going to try to knock the guts out of that fire,'' Los Angeles fire Capt. Bill Wick declared early in the day. ``We're going to have an air assault like no other.''

The massive effort spared Porter Ranch in the northern San Fernando Valley, but the winds turned north and sent the fire roaring north over Oat Mountain and into Pico Canyon within a mile of Stevenson Ranch.

The fire also threatened Old Glory, a massive, centuries-old oak that has been at the center of a major battle over development in the area and was the site of a weeks-long tree-sitting protest.

After a week of soaring temperatures and off-shore Santa Ana winds, forecasters expected a 20-degree drop in temperatures as well as an influx of humid sea breezes to help firefighters over the next few days.

The wildfires precipitated two-hour commutes across the San Fernando Valley as the partial closure of the 118 Freeway hampered east-west traffic.

In Ventura County, the blaze known as the Piru Fire had burned three homes and gobbled 36,000 acres between Lake Piru and northwest Fillmore.

Once considered 90 percent contained, the Piru wildfire grew an additional 1,000 acres early Tuesday, threatening Fillmore, Piru and local farms before moving north toward the Los Padres National Forest and condor country. It was 17 percent contained Tuesday.

``If it moves into the forest, it'll be difficult to suppress,'' said Joe Pasinata, spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service. ``It's rough country; there are no roads. It's hard to get firefighters in there.''

Los Angeles County fire crews worked all night in the hills above Simi Valley and Chatsworth to beat back flames - door by door when necessary - from the Simi Valley Fire that threatened hundreds of multimillion-dollar homes.

But by late Tuesday, the fire had yet to cross city lines as nine strike teams of 225 firefighters attacked the fire and prevented it from crossing the Ronald Reagan Freeway.

More than 100 Los Angeles Police Department officers were also dispatched to help evacuate homes and horses, and patrol areas where arson has occurred in the past.

Mayor James Hahn vowed to draw the line at residents' homes in Los Angeles and Ventura counties and praised the work of firefighters who have already done so.

``Our objective is to protect the residents of these areas,'' Hahn said. ``We want to fight this fire before it becomes something that is actually threatening homes. Regardless of what side of the city boundaries they're on we want to go aggressively after this fire.''

Los Angeles Fire Chief Bill Bamattre said requirements for noncombustible roofs have been a big help in the Porter Ranch area.

Bamattre said the department has sufficient resources to fight the fire with the hiring of 1,000 firefighters over the past three years and the acquisition of an additional heavy-duty water-dropping helicopter.

It was the work of water-dropping choppers and fixed-wing aircraft that continued to hold back the conflagration that has spewed a giant plume and tons of ash for days across the inland valleys, fire officials said.

Four county helicopters from Whiteman Airport in Pacoima flew sorties every five to seven minutes to douse the flames with drops of 350 and 1,000 gallons of water.

An additional heavy chopper worked throughout the day to drop 2,600 gallons at a time with Canadian SuperScoopers good for 1,600 gallons.

Fire crews worked like pit crews to refill the aircraft in less than a minute, either from trucks and hydrants at Holleigh Bernson Memorial Park in Porter Ranch or from reservoirs such as Castaic Lake.

Tony Moreno, 55, a senior pilot with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, has for days flown his chopper from dawn to dark to drop water within 60 feet of the flames.

``You get busy, you feel the heat,'' said Moreno, a resident of Wood Ranch in Simi Valley who has been safeguarding his city from destruction. ``A lot's going on ... You don't get scared unless you're doing something you're not supposed to do.''

By late afternoon, onshore winds had helped push the flame front away from the Northwest Valley toward Stephenson Ranch, a subdivision community of homes about one mile south of Magic Mountain in the western foothills of Santa Clarita.

The air in the San Fernando Valley, along with most of Los Angeles, was deemed particularly unhealthy for people with asthma, allergies, breathing and heart problems.

Smoke carries not only tiny particles that penetrates the lungs, but also carbon monoxide and cancer-causing contaminants.

Air quality officials again warned all Southern Californians to skip outdoor exercise and stay inside if they smell smoke or see ash falling in their neighborhood.

Animals continued to be evacuated. But as the fire receded, many returned to their homes with their owners.

Only about 10 horses, a handful of goats and a pig remained Tuesday of the more than 100 animals brought to an emergency shelter at Ventura's Seaside Park, official said. Also, more than 200 dogs hastily evacuated from a pet motel near Somis to the Camarillo animal shelter were returned once the fire danger had passed.

More than 800 inmates from Ventura County's Todd Road Jail were returned to the facility Monday after being evacuated a day earlier as flames came within a quarter-mile of the compound.

As inmates were being crammed into every available bus and van for the trip to the main jail, a sheriff's sergeant and three jail technicians used a water truck to beat back the flames, Chief Deputy Ken Kipp said.

In Moorpark, one of the areas hardest-hit by the flames, many residents spent Tuesday unpacking their hastily assembled belongings and sweeping ashes that had accumulated like snowfall on patios and driveways.

At Bonn Fyre Farms, a horse ranch in Moorpark's Walnut Canyon, owner Dorann La Perch said the farm was returning to its normal rhythms even though the hilltop oasis was surrounded on all sides by blackened earth.

``I live on the moon, but I'm in awe that I'm still here,'' La Perch said. ``How lucky am I? I can't believe I still have a home.''

Staff Writers Patricia Farrell Aidem, Phillip W. Browne, Andrea Cavanaugh, Terry Cavanaugh, Michael Gougis, Jason Kandel, Nicholas Grudin, Lisa Mascaro, Heather McDonald and Ryan Oliver, The Associated Press and City News Service contributed to this report.

Dana Bartholomew, [phone]

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, map

Photo:

(1 -- color) A wall of flames sets a backdrop for fire trucks battling a fast-moving brush fire Tuesday afternoon in the pioneer oil town of Mentryville in the Santa Clarita Valley.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer

(2 -- color) Billowing smoke from the Simi Valley Fire rises Tuesday behind Six Flags California's Magic Mountain in Valencia. Firefighters were hoping for better weather.

Felix Adamo/The Bakersfield Californian

Map:

SIMI VALLEY/VAL VERDE FIRE PATH

SOURCES: USGS; ESRI, NOAA 

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