November 18, 2008
AP

LOS ANGELES — Michael Hernandez pulled a charred photo album from the wreckage of his home, the plastic pages melted and flaking after a wildfire tore through the mobile home park where he lived with his grandparents and 7-year old daughter.

Photo: A charred stop sign stands amidst the devastation of Oakridge Mobile Home Park after a fire in Sylmar, Calif. (AP)

It was one of a handful of keepsakes Hernandez was able to rescue Monday during a police-escorted tour for some residents of Oakridge Mobile Home Park, a tight-knit community of manufactured homes that became a flattened field of blackened trees and twisted metal.

The fire at the park was one of three in Southern California that have destroyed nearly 1,000 homes and apartments and burned 42,000 acres, or 65 square miles, forcing thousands to flee.

Click to view photos from the California firestorm.

"We came here with a little hope and we walked around and pretty much everything's ruined," said Hernandez, a 32-year old artist who splits his time between the park and his studio in downtown Los Angeles. "I don't recognize my room."

Hundreds of other residents were expected to line up Tuesday to get a chance to walk through the Sylmar park and see the devastation for themselves.

More than 500 people made the trip on Monday but were not allowed to sift through the ruins as cadaver-sniffing dogs scoured the area to make sure no one had died in the blaze. After an exhaustive search, no bodies were found.

Residents whose homes were intact were allowed to quickly pick up clothes, toiletries, and other belongings under police escort.

Most evacuation orders were lifted in Southern California by Monday, when clear skies and calm winds helped firefighters make some gains, but officials warned of another bad air day and classes were canceled at dozens of schools near fire zones in Orange County.

In Sylmar, the inferno destroyed 484 homes in the mobile home park Saturday when winds with hurricane intensity blew a wall of fire through the complex and set them ablaze so quickly that even firefighters had to drop their hoses and run.

Firefighters were able to save about 120 homes, but many were badly damaged in the park that residents described as idyllic for its mountain scenery, swimming pool and tennis courts and community spirit.

"It's a disaster. It looks like Hiroshima," said Joan Costa, whose home was spared in the blaze.

Los Angeles police officials were still looking for residents of 166 properties who have not yet contacted authorities. Official listed the numbers of those spaces and urged to confirm they are alive and well.

Elsewhere, the largest of the fires has burned nearly 29,000 acres in Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties and has destroyed more than 250 homes and apartment units. Firefighters had it 60 percent surrounded. San Bernardino became the fourth county to have a state of emergency declared.

In Yorba Linda in Orange County, where more than 150 homes were lost, residents also returned to survey the devastation.

The first of the wildfires broke out in the Montecito area of Santa Barbara County, about 90 miles northwest of Sylmar. It destroyed 210 homes, many of them mansions that once had sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean. It was fully contained Monday night.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said President-elect Barack Obama contacted him Sunday night to offer what help he could. Obama has turned his campaign Web site home page into a plea to help fire victims that includes a link to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's site, where people can sign up to volunteer or donate to the Red Cross or Salvation Army.

Schwarzenegger on Monday asked the Bush administration to declare Southern California a federal disaster site. The governor also requested disaster loans for the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Santa Barbara and San Bernardino. He said many of the residents affected by the fires — particularly mobile home owners — lacked insurance or are seriously underinsured.

The causes of all three fires were under investigation, although officials labeled the Santa Barbara-area fire "human-caused."

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