Firefighters get the upper hand on Morris Fire while Station Fire grows

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST - Firefighters got the upper hand Thursday against the largest of two raging wildfires, while the second expanded rapidly north of La Cañada Flintridge under relentlessly scorching conditions.
Weather didn't let up on the third day of the Morris Fire above Azusa, creating an uncomfortable, triple-digit degree heat wave and dry environment for the blaze. The fire broke out Tuesday near San Gabriel Canyon Road.
But thanks to time and younger brush on the fire's eastern flank, firefighters managed 60 percent containment of the 2,000-acre blaze, giving officials the chance to start thinking about the eventual final stages.
"We're not close enough to be 100 percent certain it won't flare up," said Gerry Gardner, section planning chief with the Southern California Incident Management team, the federal agency coordinating the firefighting effort. "But we're cautiously optimistic."
More than 960 firefighters from several Southern California agencies worked the line, including personnel from the Los Angeles County Fire Department, U.S. Forest Service, CalFire.
The high temperatures and low relative humidity, however, fed the Station Fire, so named because it began near the Angeles Crest Ranger Station,
The blaze, which erupted near mile marker 29 on Angeles Crest Highway after 3 p.m. Wednesday, began the day at 50 acres and ballooned to 500 by late Thursday, officials said.
PHOTO GALLERYMorris Fire Day 3
Part of the concern in battling the fire - which officials said is still in its early stages - is the age and density of the surrounding vegetation.
"It's a lot older fuel," Gardner said. "It hasn't had a fire there in decades."
Another federal management team will take over the firefighting coordination tonight from a closer location at the Hansen Dam, said Pam Bierce, a spokeswoman with the multiagency management team.
Four helicopters from the Morris Fire were sent to the Station Fire on Thursday and backups had to be ordered, said Incident Commander Ron Woychak.
The highway and the canyons along it remained closed to visitors or occupants.
Officials have declined to cite a cause for either of the fires, which remain under investigation. But they admitted the Morris Fire was "probably human-caused at some point."
It started about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday next to Highway 39, near a "No Trespassing" sign between mile markers 20 and 21.
By late Tuesday the fire had jumped from the western side of the Morris Dam and increased its size Thursday on the steeper eastern portion.
Firefighters either hiked up breakneck slopes or were dropped in by air, while 18 planes and helicopters continued dropping water and retardant on hot spots.
Dewey Rebbe, 47, sat perched on a ridge overlooking the San Gabriel Dam from the east Thursday afternoon, watching his crew of 20 firefighters carve out 6-foot-wide breaklines in thick brush.
"It's like cutting through a jungle" at nearly 2,600 feet elevation, Rebbe said. "It's very nasty stuff."
Rebbe, the superintendent of a crew of firefighters who drove 14 hours Wednesday from the Gila National Forest in New Mexico, ate his lunch of turkey and ham sandwiches while dispatching orders over his radio.
Luckily for the firefighters, some of the eastern side of terrain holds younger vegetation, still recovering from three devastating fires seven years ago, said Nathan Judy, a U.S. Fire Service spokesman.
"It's not going to stop it," he said. "But it slows the fire."
Nearby, Norm Lavoie, an engineer with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, watched over a watertenderthat holds 1,200 gallons, in the shade away from the blazing sun.
The temperature read 104 degrees. "But it feels like a 110," he said, laughing.
The National Weather Service kept a Red Flag Warning in effect for the mountain and foothill areas of Los Angeles County.
Rep. David Dreier, R-San Dimas, who visited with officials coordinating the firefighting efforts, said he was thankful the blazes haven't put residents at risk but didn't like losing some of the region's natural resources.
"But to be able to live in the paradise of Southern California, that's the price we pay," he said.
Meanwhile, a fast-moving brush fire flared up about 30 acres in the Portuguese Bend area of Rancho Palos Verdes late Thursday, destroying at least two homes, and forcing the evacuation of some residents and horses.
The fire was reported just before 8 p.m. near Ocean Trails Drive and Palos Verdes Drive South, near the Trump National Golf Club, said Captain Mike Brown of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
About 200 firefighters were working the blaze, along with helicopters making air drops in the dark.