The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 33

4 PartiThursday. July 4, 1985 -b VMS Cos Anflctca Clmee FIRES: New Blazes Erupt in Ojai; Arson Is Suspected 'tom alto' VM 1Q cNi? USteraBPB A rS vr 9SBGxn am? 15 --7 I 3 RANDY McBRIDE Lot Angelct Timet Will 1" 1 iff Continued from Page 1 By evening, the main fire, which began at Wheeler Springs and was turned back on itself early Wednesday morning in a dramatic stand by firefighters at the north edge of the town of Ojai, had grown to more than 38,000 acres and had leaped California 150 and was moving on three fronts toward Dennison Grade on the east side of Ojai. A third fire, also believed to have been deliberately set, erupted late Wednesday just north of Santa Paula in the Mupu area, where residents were being evacuated. A school was reported destroyed in that blaze. There was new trouble from the main fire, specifically along the front in the Matilija Canyon area northwest of Ojai.

Three or four cabins were reported lost there, and residents were evacuated late in the day for the second time in two days. In all, more than 100,000 acres of brushland had been blackened statewide in more than 20 fires since last weekend. About a dozen major blazes were still burning Wednesday. In human terms, the fire that roared through the Baldwin Hills neighborhood was by far the most devastating, killing three, injuring at least 10 others and leaving more than 300 people homeless. The two known fatalities were identified as Mary Street, 77, and Robert Allen, 55, both of 4217 Don Carlos Drive.

Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Vince Marzo said they apparently fled to a neighboring house at 4259 Don Carlos as theirs was one of the first to burn. Other fire officials said they probably died after an unidentified Florida motorist stopped to try to pull them from the home before he was forced by the fierce heat to flee. Ironically, Marzo said, the couple were probably trapped inside that home when it caught fire because the windows were covered by anti-burglar bars and they became confused in the smoke and heat, Marzo said. Revised figures from the Los Angeles Fire Department showed that besides the homes destroyed, 18 were damaged, with the total loss estimated at more than $16 million. "It's a very, very sad sight," Gov.

George Deukmejian said after a helicopter flight over the once-handsome Baldwin Hills neighborhood. He officially declared all of Los Angeles County an emergency area, a step toward obtaining federal aid for disaster victims. Police spokesman Cooke said arson investigators recovered several "incendiary devices" in the seared brush along La Brea Avenue about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. Investigators said the devices "definitely" had been used to deliberately start the fire.

Cooke said the devices apparently were thrown into the brush from a slow-moving car about 2:40 p.m. Tuesday, just before the firestorm surged up the chaparal-covered slopes and into the community. He said there were at least two people in the car, but he provided no other information. Fire officials declined to elaborate, saying that further details were being withheld for use in questioning any suspects. As of Wednesday evening, investigators said they had no suspects and knew of no motive for the arson attack.

City Fire Chief Donald O. Manning blamed the rapid spread of the fire on "the very explosive fuel" provided by hillside brush that had been baked dry by three straight days of high temperatures. "The houses also were dried out, ready to burn," he said. "The shake roofs were a big factor. "I've been with the department 32 years," Manning said, "and I'm as worried as I've ever been.

It's a very volatile situation (in general.) Sixty percent of the brush is dead. That is a very high ratio." He said that when brush is that dry, "it will burn as fast in still air as it normally will in a 25 m.p.h. wind. City officials disclosed Wednesday that part of the hillside on which the Baldwin Hills fire broke out apparently had not been cleared of weeds, as required by weed-abatement regulations. That part is owned by Pepperdine University.

The director of street maintenance for Los Angeles, Edward Longley, said Pepperdine had been warned twice in the last three months to cut a 10-foot path between the weeds and the roadside. Within the last couple of weeks, Longley said, Pepperdine officials agreed to comply with the city's order by July 8. Pepperdine spokesman Larry Bumgard-ner said that, according to his "best information," the university received only one recent warning to clear out the weeds. Since then, he said, "we were in the process of preparing to comply." Bumgardner also contended that the fire did not actually start on the university's property, although he was unable to say where he got that information. Disclosures that the property had not been properly cleared of weeds prompted calls by several City Council members Wednesday to toughen the weed -abatement law and broaden the city's compliance efforts.

Currently, owners of vacant property are given two notices before the city clears the weeds, charging the cost to the owners. Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores said property owners who violate the weed-abatement law should be fined. "The only way you can get their attention is to fine them," she said. "There's always a rash of new proposals when you have a disaster like this. But Please see FIRES, Page 33 KEN LUBAS Lo Angeles Times LARRY BESSEL Lo Angeles Times Fireman carrying metal box with documents escorts Lois Wade from the rubble of her home on Don Carlos Drive; at right, women who lost houses share their grief.

Reunion in Midst of Fire Devastation In Baldwin Hills, Joy of Relief and Pangs of Loss By PENELOPE McMILLAN, Times Staff Writer and then shoveled the rest, looking for bodies. Gladden, who also had grown up on the street, would stop what he was doing occasionally, to show reporters his mother's picture. But by late in the day, she was still missing. The death toll stood at two until shortly after 8 p.m., when authorities reported that they had found a human body in a bathtub in the home next door to the Gladden residence. The remains were those of a woman, but no further details were released.

The streets affected by the fire are part of a winding section of Baldwin Hills ones, but the relatives of Marie Gladden were not so lucky. August Burns, Marie's bother, drove up and down Don Felipe Drive, with signs on the sides and back of his black Toyota pickup, reading: "Has anyone seen Marie Gladden? Please call 294-2666." Gladden lived at 4226 Don Carlos, a newly redecorated and recarpeted blue and white house that was flattened Wednesday. Gladden's car, a Buick, had melted beside it. "2:30 p.m. yesterday was the last we've heard," Burns said.

The last person who spoke to her was his wife, Mary, who said Gladden told her by phone she couldn't Ken Bryant stood on the ashes of what had been 4289 Don Carlos Drive, his mother's home in Baldwin Hills. "I lost my car, everything in the house," he said, "But I'm not worried about that. What I'm worried about is her." Marian Mouton, his mother, had survived the fire, the 22-year-old bank clerk knew, but he hadn't seen her and he didn't know where she was, how she was, or even where she had spent the first night after the dreadful fire that took all but one house on their street. The "morning-after" scene firefighters shoveling debris, homeowners picking through rubble, politicians walking through, media cameramen recordingmoved around Bryant, who just stood there, as if he wasn't sure what to do next. A Leap, a Shout, a Hug Suddenly he leaped with a shout as a small figure walked toward him on the street.

It was his mother. "I'm all right," Marian Mouton, 46, said over and over while her son hugged her as if he would never let go. Wednesday in Baldwin Hills was filled with grim contrasts, of tears and joy, of calmness and anxiety, relief and pain. Raymond Spicer, his house intact thanks to a fire-resistant composition roof, watered his lawn on Don Jose Drive, right next to several houses that had burned. Celestine Dean of West Covina accompanied her father, James L.

Bennett, back to his home at 4263 Don Carlos. She was able to recognize which ruin was the house where she grew up only by a distinctive gate that still stood across the street, although the home to which it belonged was gone. Bryant, Dean and Spicer had their loved Charles Palmer of 4577 Don Milagro Drive said helplessly of his neighbors on either side and across the street. Their houses, all of which had wood shingle roofs, were destroyed, while his, with a rock composition roof, was spared. He and his wife were alone on the street Wednesday and they felt worse, they said, because the victims were friends.

Dorothy Lindsey walked down Don Carlos with her niece, who carried an ax. Her nephew carried a rake and her brother-in-law plastic bags and heavy gloves. She stopped at 4227. It was the first time she had seen her home since before the fire. Two chimneys remained, along with a blackened pine tree that still framed a beautiful view of the hills across La Brea Ave.

"This is the first time I've seen this," she said, her voice catching. "A neighbor called me at work (at the Department of Water and Power) and said, 'Your house is on But I couldn't get back in, because of the smoke and the heat." Her nephew, Dennis Brown, found a half-charred piece of paper, then a broken jug and a bowl, and set them them aside carefully, as if he were dealing with treasure. Television crews gathered around, and Lindsey numbly repeated her story, sometimes breaking into tears. Then firefighter Robert Gladden came over to hug her, and she gratefully clung to him for several minutes. Deeann Thomas, 45, also "lost everything," she said of her home at 4286 Don Carlos.

"Nothing is left." But she was already thinking of the future. "We'll rebuild," she said. This is the first time I've seen this. A neighbor called me at work and said, "Your house is on fire." But I couldn't get back in, because of the smoke and the Dorothy Lindsay leave because she wanted to contact others and warn them of the fire. Gladden is the widow of a Los Angeles firefighter who lost his life in a Pacific Palisades fire.

Burns said. Her son, Robert, is a firefighter and was one of those who fought Tuesday's inferno. Her purse had been found at the edge of the property, Burns said, adding, "We've been everywhere to the Red Cross, all the hospitals, even to the morgue." Robert Gladden was in uniform Wednesday, as firefighters moved large twisted pieces of metal, stone and pharred wood locally referred to as "the Street of Dons" because they all begin with the word "Don." The hills, originally owned by the colorful 19th-century land speculator "Lucky" Baldwin, were first developed after World War II. Middle-class blacks began moving there in the late 1950s, and now it is often called "the black Beverly Hills," with home values estimated at $250,000 and above. The Street of Dons area is a close-knit community, mostly because people have lived there more than 15 or 20 years.

"I saw these people's children grow up,".