Temperatures Top 100, Fueling Wildfires : Weather: Heat sends 240 for first aid at Rose Bowl. Blazes burn out of control in some areas.

Temperatures that leaped above 100 degrees Sunday sent more than 200 World Cup soccer fans seeking first aid for the heat, prompted hundreds of thousands of people to flee to the beaches and impeded firefighters struggling to corral a brush fire near Palmdale and another blaze that forced the evacuation of several dozens homes near Wrightwood.

The mercury reached 108 degrees in Woodland Hills, 107 in Burbank and Van Nuys, 106 in Pasadena, and a record 109 in Riverside. The heat wave was expected to intensify today by a degree or two before waning a little on Tuesday.

The south end zone at the Rose Bowl recorded a temperature of 120 degrees during the U.S-Romania soccer contest, according to Pasadena police--and it could have been even hotter: their thermometer stops at 120.

Outside the stadium, the high in Pasadena was 106 degrees, said National Weather Service meteorologist Stephen Ahn, who joked that the situation could be described “in just three letters -- H-O-T.”

The heat fueled brush fires in Wrightwood and south of Palmdale that had consumed more than 4,500 acres by 8 p.m. Sunday, said Dianne Cahir, fire information officer for the U.S Forest Service. Both fires were still burning out of control with no indication from firefighters when they might be contained.

The weekend’s most destructive blaze consumed at least 2,000 acres one mile south of Table Mountain at Wrightwood, forcing officials to evacuate 60 to 80 homes in the mountain community near Los Angeles County’s border with San Bernardino County, Cahir said. She said the fire had destroyed nine houses, a mobile home, 32 cars, eight pickup trucks, eight motorcycles and a grader.

Wrightwood resident Wallace Croom, 79, said he and his wife, Marjorie, returned from a vacation to their home just hours before they were forced to evacuate. He said his yard was full of ashes from the fire and the area thick with smoke.

“It’s probably a mile from our house, but it’s coming over the hill fast and that stuff burns like gasoline,” he said.

Croom said he thinks there is enough firefighting equipment in the area to keep his house safe. But he’s taking no chances--he loaded two cars and a truck with all of the possessions he could.

More than 800 firefighters from Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties were battling the blaze, Cahir said. She said the blaze was about 50% contained and three firefighters were injured.

A second fire south of Palmdale had consumed more than 2,500 acres and was only 25% contained, Cahir said. One firefighter was hospitalized Sunday with heat exhaustion. No buildings or autos were reported damaged.

About 480 firefighters are trying to control the flames, said Deputy Forest Supervisor Paul Johnson. But he said the heat and steep terrain make fighting the fire difficult, and the hills are densely populated with vegetation.

“That area I don’t think has been burnt since around 1950,” he added.

The fire started at the Kentucky Springs Shooting Range on Kentucky Springs Road and Angeles Forest Highway, Johnson said. The cause remains under investigation.

Officials closed Littlerock Road, Highway 39, and Mt. Emma Road from Angeles Forest Highway to Cheseboro Canyon as they tried to bring the fire under control, Johnson said.

At the Rose Bowl, so many sought aid--240 in all--that the World Cup medical staff declared its highest alert, a Stage 4, and summoned 24 Pasadena firefighters to help out.

Officials set up a tent outside the stadium for cots and loaded dozens of people onto three air-conditioned Foothill Transit Authority buses, which stood in the parking lot blasting cool air. They also commandeered an air-conditioned tent in the corporate hospitality compound and turned it into a makeshift first aid station.

Eight people were taken to hospitals. Six were treated for heat-related problems and released.

A man in his 80s who suffered cardiac arrest was given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation by a police officer and later taken to Huntington Memorial Hospital, where he was in serious condition. Another man suffered a stroke, according to police Cmdr. Mary Schander.

“It was just so very hot that we had encouraged people to drink lots of water,” Schander said. “We had first aid tents set up and generally we carted people out to them.”

Some men took off their T-shirts and drenched them in water, and one man stripped down to his boxer shorts. Some women showed up in bikinis.

Fans suffered from more than the heat; first-stage smog alerts issued all the way from Riverside and San Bernardino to the Pomona and San Gabriel Valleys.

And Sunday’s temperatures weren’t even record-breaking: That distinction came on June 26, 1990, when the top reading at the Civic Center was 112 degrees. But Riverside’s 109 degrees did set a new record there, eclipsing the old mark of 108 degrees, also set in 1990.

Temperatures are expected to remain high for the next several days, with overnight lows in the 60s and 70s, although a small amount of relief is in sight, NWS meteorologist Rorke said.

“The worst of it will be over (today), then we’ll start a slow--and I emphasize slow--cooling trend, but it will still be miserable,” he said.

Two new fires broke out late Sunday near Escondido and Ramona in San Diego County, and about 350 people were evacuated Sunday from the Ramona-area fire.

Other fires were doused near Porter Ranch in the San Fernando Valley and east of Hemet.

People at Southland beaches encountered warm but not uncomfortable highs in the 70s and 80s.

Greg Lee, senior lifeguard for Los Angeles County, said that about 300,000 persons were on the water between Marina del Rey and Torrance, prompting a few rescues and many cases of sunburn.

Times staff writer Renee Tawa contributed to this story.

How Hot Was It?

Sunday was the third straight day of 100-plus temperatures in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys with little relief expected in the next few days. Curtis Brack, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., a private forecasting firm in Wichita, Kan., said temperatures will dip slightly Tuesday or Wednesday to the mid- to upper -90s. “The high pressure is hanging in there, so it’s going to remain sunny and hot for a while,” Brack said. Santa Clarita: 105 Lancaster: 103 Van Nuys: 107 Burbank: 107 Woodland Hills: 108