Powerful winds drive major wildfire west of L.A.

MALIBU — Strong Santa Ana winds returned to Southern California on Sunday, causing flareups of a huge wildfire that has scorched a string of communities west of Los Angeles, but no additional structures were believed to have been lost, authorities said.

Huge plumes of smoke rose in the fire area, which stretches miles from the northwest corner of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley to the Malibu coast.

Airplanes and helicopters swooped low over hills and canyons to drop loads of fire retardant and water.

A one-day lull in the dry, northeasterly winds ended at midmorning and authorities warned that the gusts would continue through Tuesday. The lull allowed firefighters to gain 10 percent control of the Woolsey Fire, which has burned more than 130 square miles in western Los Angeles County and southeastern Ventura County since Thursday.

Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby stressed there were numerous hot spots and plenty of fuel that had not yet burned, but at sunset he said there had been huge successes despite “a very challenging day.”

The count of destroyed homes remained at 177 but it was expected to increase when an update is reported Monday. Osby noted that a November 1993 wildfire in Malibu destroyed more than 270 homes and said he would not be surprised if the total from the current fire would be higher.

The fire’s cause remained under investigation but Southern California Edison reported to the California Public Utilities Commission that there was an outage on an electrical circuit near where it started as Santa Ana winds blew through the region.

SoCal Edison said the report was submitted out of an abundance of caution, although there was no indication from fire officials that its equipment may have been involved. The report said the fire was reported around 2:24 p.m. Thursday, two minutes after the blackout.

Venture County Fire Chief Mark Lorenzen hadn’t heard about the Edison report. “It wouldn’t surprise me” if it turns out that winds caused equipment failure that sparked a fire, he said.

The death toll stood at two. The severely burned bodies were discovered in a car on a long residential driveway on a stretch of Mulholland Highway in Malibu, where most of the surrounding structures had burned.

Progress was made on the lines of smaller fire to the west in Ventura County, which was 70 percent contained at about 7 square miles and evacuations were greatly reduced. But thousands remained under evacuation orders because of the Woolsey Fire.