Winds Blast Wide Region; Girl, 9, Killed

Desert winds clocked as high as 70 m.p.h. raked Central and Southern California early Friday, toppling a tree that killed a Garden Grove girl in Yosemite National Park, fanning at least six fires that left 60 people homeless, snapping power lines and forcing one school district to close.

Eight people, including a firefighter, suffered minor injuries in the wind-fueled blazes in Los Angeles County. Orange County was saved from the brunt of the storm. The maximum wind clocked by the Sheriff’s Newport Beach Harbor Patrol was 40 m.p.h. early Friday morning. John Wayne Airport reported that winds reached about 25 m.p.h. there during the peak gusts Friday.

About 4,100 customers in the county lost electrical power Thursday night or early Friday morning. Southern California Edison reported that from 11 p.m. Thursday to 10 a.m. Friday, there were about 3,800 power interruptions in Orange County that lasted from less than a minute to up to six hours. San Diego Gas & Electric reported about 100 power outages in south Orange County, and the Anaheim Utilities Department said about 200 customers briefly lost power Friday morning.

Winds to Diminish

The National Weather Service issued wind advisories for continued gusts in local waters and in the deserts and mountain passes. But forecasters said that the winds should diminish by this morning.

The gusts in other areas knocked over power poles and trees and kicked up a lot of dirt, creating loads of work for cleanup crews. Pool-cleaning businesses, for instance, were swamped with calls on Friday.

“We started work at 5 o’clock, and we haven’t stopped yet,” said Jeanne Brown of San Gabriel Valley Pool Service in Pasadena. “People have been calling in with tables, chairs, broken glass and tree limbs in their pools.”

Calls about downed power lines and trees besieged city officials from Pasadena to San Bernardino, but the calls seemed not to be as frantic as those from Wednesday’s windstorm, which knocked out power to about 500,000 customers in Southern California.

“The people seemed patient” on Friday, one municipal dispatcher in Ontario said. “They just call to make sure we’ll get to that tree in the driveway or whatever.”

In many places Thursday night, business went on as usual. Spokesmen for Pacific Theatres reported that their drive-ins, some touting bargain nights, showed their scheduled films without a hitch.

The wind velocity Thursday night was felt as far north as Yosemite National Park, where about 400 campers and park staffers were evacuated because of 50-m.p.h. gusts that knocked down trees, park spokeswoman Mallory Smith said.

Girl, 9, Killed

Jasmine Bitts, 9, of Garden Grove was crushed to death when a falling tree crashed through the cabin where she was sleeping. The youngster was staying with her mother and a companion.

Her mother, Nancy Earle, 31, of Garden Grove, and Charles Ross, 36, of Carpinteria, were treated for minor injuries at Yosemite Medical Clinic.

Smith said the three had been warned to leave the cabin because of the dangerous winds, but they apparently decided to stay.

In Los Angeles County, the winds touched off at least four fires that caused about $1.6 million in damage.

Seven people, including one firefighter, were slightly injured when an unfinished apartment building at 11337 Burbank Blvd. in North Hollywood caught fire shortly after midnight. The winds carried hot embers to a nearby 10-unit apartment complex and four other homes, Los Angeles city fire officials said.

24 People Homeless

Red Cross spokesman Ralph Wright said 24 people, including 11 children, were burned out of the apartment complex and the homes. Cause of the fire, which caused about $345,000 in damage, was under investigation.

The unidentified firefighter suffered a minor hand injury, and six people were treated for smoke inhalation.

Power lines knocked down by the high winds ignited a blaze early Friday in the City of Commerce, where a roofing company was destroyed and three homes were heavily damaged, including that of a Red Cross volunteer.

Los Angeles County fire officials said the windblown wires touched off a blaze at Robinson Roofing Co. at 1324 Eastman Ave. The flames, fanned by the dry gusts, then ignited two propane tanks in back of the home of Red Cross volunteer Keith Garcia, 25.

He was one of 23 people left homeless in that $500,000 blaze, which was controlled in an hour.

New Experience

“I’ve been through this several times (as a volunteer),” Garcia said, surveying his damaged home. “But I never thought this would happen to me.”

A third fire, apparently started by an electrical short, left nine people homeless and caused $65,000 damage to a duplex at 4725 and 4727 N. Figueroa St. in the Mt. Washington area.

A family of four in La Canada Flintridge was left homeless Friday morning when a wind-caused fire burned their four-bedroom home to the ground. Los Angeles County fire officials said the fire at 5412 Ocean View Blvd. was apparently started by sparks from power wires that were blown away from a connection box by the wind.

Two family members, identified as Chester Ohlssom and a daughter, were treated for smoke inhalation. Damage was put at $180,000.

Two other fires, one in Glendale and one in Pasadena, also kept firefighters busy in the high winds. The blaze in Pasadena damaged a home at 1235 Hillcrest Ave., but no one was injured. Officials said both fires were started by electrical surges caused by the stiff winds.

Fontana Schools Close

Wind-caused damage Friday forced the 20,000-student Fontana Unified School District to close in San Bernardino County.

Supt. Anthony Lardieri decided to close classes after surveying damage to several buildings at Fontana High. The language arts building suffered the most damage when a large part of its roof caved in.

Several portable classrooms at a Fontana elementary school were also damaged.

The winds in nearby Rialto knocked down 30 power poles, cutting off electricity to about 6,300 customers in Rialto and Fontana for several hours Friday morning, Southern California Edison Co. spokeswoman Pat Messigian said.

Meanwhile, Avalon City Manager John Longley said Friday the windstorm of Tuesday and Wednesday caused $1.2 million in damage in the Santa Catalina Island town.

Extensive Damage

The gusts, accompanied by high seas, damaged several roads, sidewalks and a stretch of seawall near the town center, he said. A mile-long stretch of Pebbly Beach Road was closed because of water damage.

The Coast Guard said Friday there was no sign of a Northern California high school teacher who was apparently lost in rough seas in a sailboat crossing Tuesday from Avalon Harbor to San Pedro. Chris Dodd, 28, of Los Altos was reported missing by his parents Wednesday night after he failed to catch a plane home from Los Angeles International Airport.

Meteorologist Dan Bowman, a forecaster with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, said a low-pressure system over Mexico should be moving eastward into the Gulf of Mexico, relieving hot air masses that caused the Santa Ana condition.

“It’ll be clear skies, light winds and temperatures in the 70s for the weekend,” he said.

Warm and Calm

Forecasters said the warm temperatures and calm skies should extend into Monday, with daytime highs expected to be near 80 degrees in some inland valleys.

Friday’s high at Los Angeles Civic Center was 73, with an overnight low of 55. The dryness of the air created by the desert winds was evident in the relative humidity, which ranged from 12% to 19%.

Staff writers Bill Billiter, A. Dahleen Glanton, Nieson Himmel, Kirk McCoy, Esther Schrader and Tim Waters contributed to this report.