Since mid-September, the hot, arid "Santa Ana winds" had whistled westward through the mountain passes half a dozen times, raising Los Angeles temperatures to unseasonable levels, unnerving residents, roasting the hillside shrubs and trees until they were tinder dry. As the winds rose once again last week, the stage was set for disaster.
High atop a mountain, a gust toppled a transmission tower; a crackling power line dropped into the brush and started a fire. Winds up to 50 m.p.h. quickly whipped blazes into conflagrations that ruined 2,100 acres of the Angeles...
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