Investigators search for cause of massive L.A. fire

LOS ANGELES – Fire investigators hunched under a scorched, 20-foot-tall oak tree off Angeles Crest Highway on Wednesday afternoon, using wire mesh sifters to search through the ash as they tried to determine whether the largest brush fire in Los Angeles County history was deliberately set.

The intensified search for the cause of the Station fire came as the blaze pushed southeast to the mountains high above Pasadena, Sierra Madre and Monrovia, and hand crews battled rugged terrain as they tried to protect well-known campgrounds, trails, recreation areas and the Stony Ridge Observatory.

“The area that’s of the most concern is the southeast corner of the fire,” said incident commander Capt. Mike Dietrich. “That’s our No. 1 priority for the next several days, keeping the fire up and away from the communities.”

Containment of the roughly 150,000-acre fire inched up to 28 percent, from 22 percent, and most evacuation orders have been lifted. But for investigators, the focus Wednesday was where the fire first broke out above La Canada Flintridge.

Near mile marker 29, authorities seemed to treat the suspected ignition site of the fire as a crime scene. Yellow tape cordoned off the area. And authorities blocked the highway, turning away even California Department of Transportation workers and earth movers. Members of the bomb squad also arrived at the scene, but officials declined to say what their role was in the probe.

“We believe it is the point of origin,” said Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Mike McCormick. “They are doing a finely detailed, serious, serious search and investigation. We lost two firefighters in this.”

At a news conference Wednesday evening at the Station fire command center, fire officials were circumspect, saying only that they had not determined the cause of the blaze. They said, however, that they were not aware of any lightning in the area, eliminating one possible nonhuman explanation.

The fire has claimed 64 homes, three commercial buildings and 49 outbuildings and has cost more than $27 million to fight so far.

Despite hard slogging on the fire lines, firefighters claimed some victories Wednesday. The vast majority of evacuated homeowners, including those in areas of Acton, Sunland, Tujunga, La Crescenta and La Canada Flintridge, have been allowed to return home.

The threat to the historic observatory and crucial TV and radio transmission towers atop Mount Wilson had also passed after intense brush-clearing and back-burning efforts. Two blazes that had threatened Oak Glen and Yucaipa in San Bernardino County were also closer to reaching full containment.

In La Canada Flintridge, where residents had settled back, the sign in the front yard of one Ocean View Boulevard home said it all: “Thank you for saving Paradise Valley.”