Progress made against SoCal fires that destroyed dozens of cabins

<br>AZUSA, Calif. (AP) _ Cooler temperatures Friday could help firefighters slow the advance of a nearly 18,000-acre wildfire that investigators believe was started by candles used in an animal sacrifice

Friday, September 6th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

AZUSA, Calif. (AP) _ Cooler temperatures Friday could help firefighters slow the advance of a nearly 18,000-acre wildfire that investigators believe was started by candles used in an animal sacrifice ritual.

New and decaying animal remains, including parts of a dismembered goat, were found inside a ring of rocks in the canyon where the fire began Sunday, said U.S. Forest Service Cmdr. Rita Plair-Wears.

No arrests were made.

The fire in the Angeles National Forest was 25 percent contained Thursday. Officials expect to have it fully contained Tuesday.

The blaze has already burned 72 buildings, including 50 summer cabins built in the 1920s and 1930s. On Thursday, the fire was moving into wilderness areas that are home to bighorn sheep.

Cabin owners Clyde Stelling, 73, and Adam Samrah, 44, said they stood in a 2-foot-deep pond to survive the blaze Sunday, when 70-foot walls of flame destroyed cabins all around them.

``Six or seven hours in that pond ... all the cabins were on fire ... up and down, up and down we bobbed,'' Samrah told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. ``My legs hurt.''

He suffered burns to his neck and face.

Stelling, who suffered smoke inhalation, was released Thursday from a hospital.

More than 1,700 firefighters remained on the line, hoping cooler weather would help the battle that already has cost taxpayers $4.8 million.

Meanwhile, about 40 miles away, a voluntary evacuation warning involving 100 homes was canceled after rain helped firefighters surround a 5,100-acre wildfire that erupted Tuesday near Leona Valley, in northeast Los Angeles County. The blaze was 94 percent contained Thursday.

Earlier in the week the fire destroyed four homes. The cause of the blaze was under investigation.

In Northern California, a 575-acre fire in Whitmore, a foothill community 30 miles east of Redding, was 75 percent contained late Thursday. The fire, which began Tuesday, burned two homes.