Hundreds fleeing wildfire in L.A. area

LOS ANGELES – A wind-whipped 17,000-acre wildfire raced across hills and canyons along the city’s northwestern edge Thursday, threatening homes and forcing hundreds of people to evacuate.

Some 3,000 firefighters aided by aircraft struggled to protect ridgetop houses along the Los Angeles-Ventura county line, a rugged, brushy landscape west of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley. Officials said the blaze was 5 percent contained as it burned toward such communities as Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Calabasas and Agoura.

Numerous homes were evacuated in nine areas, and the Red Cross reported 600 people had signed up to stay at five of its shelters.

At least one home and five other structures were lost, but 2,000 buildings had been saved by firefighters, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said.

“We are guardedly optimistic, if the weather cooperates, if the public cooperates,” Yaroslavsky said. “This may end well for all of us, but weather is unpredictable in these parts and everyone needs to be on guard.”

Temperatures were in the high 90s but were expected to drop over the next few days while humidity rises.

“For the firefighters, it’s actually pretty decent news,” said meteorologist Joe Sirard of the National Weather Service in Oxnard. “It will be much more favorable for containing this fire.”

Some gusts were reported on the fire lines, but there was no reappearance of the strong winds from the interior that fanned a small brush fire into a conflagration on Wednesday.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

Authorities said residents took evacuation orders seriously in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“I wasn’t going to get stupid about it. There was only one way out, and it was getting real hot,” said Jeff Johns, 48.

Actor Shelley Berman of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and his Bell Canyon neighbors evacuated Wednesday evening, taking a few items from the home he has lived in since 1984.

“We were sitting watching television, had finished a nice dinner, everything was fine. Other people were in serious trouble. Then suddenly, we were moving,” said Berman, who went with his wife to a friend’s house a few miles away in Westlake.