Thousands evacuate as fires destroy California homes

LOS ANGELES — A wind-blasted wildfire tore through the city's northern foothills Saturday, devastating a large mobile home park, forcing a hospital to evacuate some patients and sending thousands of residents fleeing for safety.

The fire broke out late Friday in the foothill community of Sylmar on the edge of the Angeles National Forest and quickly spread across as much as 3,000 acres — more than 4 square miles — as it was driven by Santa Ana wind gusting as high as 76 mph.

Dozens of homes were destroyed, officials said, and aerial footage from television helicopters showed rows of houses gutted in just in one subdivision.

Fire crews had to abandon a mobile home park that was burning out of control.

"We have almost total devastation here in the mobile park," Los Angeles Fire Capt. Steve Ruda said of the Oakridge Mobile Home Park. "I can't even read the street names because the street signs are melting."

He produced a burned U.S. flag on a broken stick as a sign of hope and bravery for firefighters. "The home that this flag was flying from is gone," he said.

At an evacuation center, Oakridge resident Wendy Vannenberg said the park had about 600 residences, many of them housing senior citizens. Fire officials said there were no reports of injuries. Evacuee Lucretia Romero said firefighters came by her home and gave them 10 minutes to evacuate.

"Last time I took all of my grandparents' things. They had brought over them from Germany after World War II," said Vannenberg, 46. "This time, I didn't really grab anything. I don't know why."

Romero, 65, said she had seen smoke above the hills beyond the front door and then, within an hour, saw that a canyon across from her home was red with flame as helicopters dropped water.

"They would drop water, the water would squash the flames and then two minutes later the flames would come back."

She clutched the purse and jacket she snatched when firefighters shouted at them to flee. Her daughter, Alisa, 42, wore a blood-stained shirt and pants; she was scratched and suffered a black eye when a helicopter dropped water on their home and collapsed the entryway ceiling. They were optimistic that their home of 30 years survived but said their cat, Doris, was missing.