VAL VERDE FIRE WHIPPED EXHAUSTED CREWS CLEANING UP AFTER RAIN FALLS FRIDAY.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - A week after hot, dry winds sent flames sweeping from the Santa Clarita Valley for miles around, rain fell Friday on the remaining hot spots and weary firefighters mopped up the mess.

Firefighters from Pomona, Palos Verdes and other communities miles away spent Friday morning hosing down houses in the Sunset Pointe neighborhood near Stevenson Ranch. Streaks marked some stucco walls from the fire retardant dropped by helicopters to stop flames from wiping out a cul-de-sac.

``It's been a really long week, a really long week,'' Los Angeles County Firefighter Tom Garcia said.

Crews spent the day, often under drizzle, knocking over burned-out tree stumps to snuff weakening flames.

``We don't want the wind picking them up and starting anything new,'' Garcia said.

Firefighters from all over the state camped out Thursday night at Castaic Lake, where they awoke about 4 a.m. to a light rain. In a week the high temperature had dropped 30 degrees, the howling winds had turned to autumn breezes and the single-digit humidity was replaced by welcome rain.

``It's been raining for five minutes straight,'' said Ventura County Firefighter Steve Kaufmann. ``I think the rain is definitely our best friend now.''

A week after an arsonist torched ranch land in Val Verde and embers sparked a massive wild-land fire that raced to Simi Valley, Moorpark and Chatsworth before coming back to Stevenson Ranch, the fire was all but out.

In the end, 107,590 acres were lost, 37 homes and 145 outbuildings such as barns were destroyed and 11 were damaged. No homes were damaged in the western Santa Clarita Valley, the eastern flank of the fire. Some abandoned outbuildings on an old Warner Bros. lot in Newhall where TV's ``Dukes of Hazzard'' was filmed were lost. That land is the site of a planned housing tract.

On Friday, damage assessment teams began evaluating losses, Kaufmann said. On this side of the fire, Mother Nature took the biggest hit. In Towsley Canyon, dead deer and other wildlife lay among the charred foliage. The ranger house, lodge and nature center there were spared, but the flora and fauna were obliterated.

Firefighters will say nothing about the evidence of arson while the case is still under investigation. But earlier in the week, Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said the Val Verde Fire was deliberately set.

Patricia Farrell Aidem, [phone]

pat.aidem(at)dailynews.com

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Homeowner Jerry Kipper and L.A. County Firefighter Chip Gamble clean up along Sagecrest Drive in the Sunset Pointe area Friday, after rain fell and doused the remaining hot spots of the weeklong Val Verde Fire.

(2 -- color) Firefighters managed to save the Towsley Canyon nature center, but surrounding hiking areas were ravaged and littered with dead wildlife that couldn't escape the flames.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer