LOS ANGELES _ A brush fire in the Verdugo Mountains north of downtown Los Angeles has burned more than 5,000 acres, making it one of the largest fires in the city's history and one that officials warn could grow larger if erratic weather conditions continue.
Hundreds of firefighters battled the blaze overnight and into the morning, and at one point, the flames were spreading in four directions amid intense heat and wild winds. Three homes have burned, but no injuries have been reported, officials said Saturday.
Firefighters faced another day of triple-digit temperatures in some inland areas of Southern California as a heat wave that has gripped the state continues. By Saturday afternoon, winds were blowing up to 17 mph in the area of the La Tuna fire, with humidity at 27 percent, which was almost 10 percentage points higher than the same time Friday.
Burbank recorded a high of 100 about 2 p.m. while the thermometer hit 95 in the Little Tujunga area, according the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
Los Angeles Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas said firefighters late Saturday afternoon were dealing with "very erratic weather and wind."
"The wind can change directions _ it can go 180 degrees at 20 miles per hour within a few minutes," Terrazas said. "We are very conscious of that. We are putting our people in places to protect structures where needed."
Winds were forecast to calm down Saturday evening in the area of the fire, according to Carol Smith, a meteorologist with the weather service. Temperatures should drop to the mid-80s overnight, and humidity is expected to increase as monsoonal moisture from Tropical Storm Lidia moves into the region, Smith said. The weather system could bring rain and thunderstorms, which raises the flash flooding risk for burned areas, she said.
More than 700 homes in the area are under evacuation, including 300 in Burbank, 250 in Glendale and 180 in Los Angeles, officials said.
"Our priority is saving people and saving property," Terrazas told reporters at a morning news conference in Lake View Terrace, where he was joined by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
"There is a lot of unburned fuel" in this area, Terrazas warned, noting that the last fire in the area was at least 30 years ago.
Terrazas and Garcetti said the La Tuna fire was the largest in the city's history in terms of acreage.
"We can't recall anything larger," Terrazas said.
"Our biggest concern is the wind and weather," the chief said. "The erratic weather is our No. 1 challenge. If there's no wind, this is a relatively easy fire to put out. But when the wind changes, it changes our priorities because other properties become at risk."
The fire was 10 percent contained Saturday afternoon, officials said. Winds were blowing between 10 and 15 mph, with humidity at 10 percent to 15 percent.
The combination of dry brush, high heat, low humidity and shifting winds make it possible for the fire to spread, officials said.
"We are worried about the fire hooking southeast into Glendale and working its way up into the Whiting Woods area," Garcetti said.
Late Saturday morning, the city of Glendale announced mandatory evacuations in the Glenwood Oaks and Mountain Oaks neighborhoods. Residents in the city's Whiting Woods neighborhood also were told to be prepared to leave.
Chris Hall, 37, was spraying his roof with a water hose Saturday morning when two police officers pulled up to his driveway on McGroarty Street in Sunland-Tujunga.
"Now it's mandatory," they told him. "Get your stuff and go."
Hall said he wanted to stay but didn't argue.
The officers gave him 20 minutes to pack, but Hall said he already was prepared. The night before, he had organized his photos _ those of his daughter's birth, birthdays and visits to the zoo _ and important documents, piling them in the trunk of his Nissan Sentra.
"Everything else can be replaced," he said, sitting behind the wheel of his car and ready to flee.
Earlier that morning, after seeing flames creep up behind a nearby art center, he dropped his 5-year-old daughter and 12-year-old stepson, along with their pet hamster, at a friend's home. He left their goldfish behind.
Over the last couple of weeks, as wildfires raged across California, Hall said he spent hours trimming trees and pruning bushes in case a fire erupted nearby.
"We did a lot of cleaning," he said.
Music teacher Valerie Keith was 40 minutes into her work day Saturday morning when her Tujunga neighbor called.
"You gotta come home," the neighbor told her.
Keith already was already on edge. Her dogs and cat were home _ alone _ as flames crept closer to her house. She rushed back.
Soon after, police told her she needed to leave.
Keith frantically loaded her pets in her car, along with her two best violins, spilling on her hands the yogurt she had taken for breakfast but hadn't eaten.
"I thought I was going to be safe today," she said.
Just about ready to escape, she remembered something. She dashed back inside and grabbed a framed photograph of her mother and a banjo made from a tambourine.
"When you have to leave for safety, then you suddenly realize what's important," she said.
In Burbank, Red Cross officials rushed Saturday to set up a shelter at McCambridge Recreation Center. Animals were housed in kennels in an animal control vehicle stationed in the parking lot.
"It got really bad in Burbank last night," said Eric Baumgardner, emergency coordinator for the Burbank Fire Department. "It shifted on us real quick."
Baumgardner said that no homes or structures in Burbank were damaged Friday night but that the flames got within 100 feet of houses in Burbank Estates above Brace Canyon and the Stough Canyon Nature Center.
Firefighters set up structure protection groups overnight, including at least 25 fire engines that backed into residents' driveways in case the fire got too close.
By 3 p.m. Saturday, more than 30 people had checked into the Burbank shelter. Some took naps to make up for the sleepless night.
Peter Glassberg, 64, brought in four of his cats and four rescue kittens that are up for adoption. Police transported the pets in carriers to animal control vans and drove them to the Burbank Animal Shelter, where they would stay until the fire died down. Glassberg hugged his favorite cat, a Siamese named My Guy, before handing him over.
Glassberg rents a trailer in middle of a large property up La Tuna Canyon Road. One cat, Baby Girl, had escaped last week and had not come back before he was evacuated.
He watched when the fire started Friday afternoon and stayed up all night as it threatened to come down the hillside. He was packed and ready to go when the evacuation order came at 9 a.m. Saturday.
"I looked inside and I said, 'No, it can go, it can go,' " he said, tears welling in his eyes. "It makes you face what's important in your life."
As he drove his beat-up SUV down the canyon, flames roared 20 feet away, nearly licking the roadside. He arrived at the shelter in faded jeans and a dusty cowboy hat smelling like a campfire. He hadn't slept in 32 hours.
Inside the vehicle were all his greatest possessions: personal journals, photos, medical records and recordings from the band he joined at 22 as a keyboardist and songwriter.
Raul Claros, executive director of the Northern Valleys chapter of the Red Cross, said an apartment fire also caused several evacuations in Santa Clarita. Meanwhile, he said, 20 staff had been diverted for the last six days to work as dispatch operators for Hurricane Harvey evacuees in Texas.
"Then the emergency started at home with these fires," he said.
When winds pushed a band of flames over the canyon ridgeline Friday night, authorities ordered those living in the Brace Canyon Park area and Castleman Estates to "leave immediately" and head to evacuation shelters, according to an alert issued by the fire department. The Stough Canyon Nature Center also is under evacuation order.
Nancy Varney, 71, got to the recreation center at 2:30 a.m. with her dog, Maggie. Her husband stayed at their home in Brace Canyon.
"It was coming down the hill pretty fast," she said.
At 5 a.m., Varney took her dog outside, where they sat until noon, when the temperature reached 96 degrees and the smoke left a gray plume above the recreation center. She opted to walk around the mall as she waited for good news.
On Saturday, the fire was burning on multiple fronts southwest of the 210 Freeway, which remained closed between the 2 Freeway and Sunland Boulevard. It was not known when the freeway would be reopened.
Three evacuation centers were set up. They include the McCambridge Recreation Center in Burbank, the Sunland Recreation Center in Sunland, and Crescenta Valley High School in La Crescenta.
As Wendy Schmidt walked her dog, Daisy, near the Sunland Recreation Center late Saturday morning, flakes of ash floated all around as water-dropping helicopters roared overhead.
She said she could see the blaze from the front window of her home in Haines Canyon above La Tuna Canyon Park, where she lives with her husband, eight chickens, three cats and a dog. But she said they had not been ordered to evacuate.
"It's getting closer to us," she said. "You can be safe one minute, then in danger the next."
She said she planned to spend the rest of her day indoors to avoid the smoky air.
Volunteers at the evacuation center said about a dozen people spent the night in the shelter. They said residents were allowed to return home Saturday morning.
By 10:30 a.m., the center was empty, but it will be open until at least Sunday morning, offering snacks and cots to those forced to flee.
Officials warned of poor air quality throughout the region. Burbank police officers were wearing respiratory masks early Saturday and urging residents to stay indoors and avoid outside activities because of the heavy smoke.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District on Saturday recommended that children, older adults and people with respiratory disease living in smoke-impacted areas stay indoors. Air quality is expected to reach unhealthy levels in portions of the east San Fernando Valley, the San Gabriel Valley and the San Gabriel Mountains, according to the air district's smoke advisory.
In the areas affected by the smoke, "people really have to limit how much they're outside," AQMD spokesman Patrick Chandler said.
Amid Saturday's high temperatures, "you already have an inversion layer holding a lot of ozone and pollutants close to the surface," he said. "Then you add the fire, and all the particulate matter that comes from the ash and the smoke."
