Los Angeles Times

Saddleridge fire's rapid spread left residents little time to get out

LOS ANGELES - The sensation was so familiar - the crackling wood, the helicopter rotors drumming through dread and adrenaline, dry wind and smoke and fire lighting the sky blood red.

Jackie Herrera was watching the flames in the hills above her home in Sylmar. She had known the Santa Ana winds were coming, and what that inevitably means this time of year: fire somewhere, maybe many places.

But she couldn't believe it was here at this very spot again, where her home burned to the ground 11 years ago.

The Saddleridge fire ripped through the hills rimming the north edge of the San Fernando Valley on Thursday night and Friday, burning at least 31 structures, closing freeways and forcing the evacuations of thousands.

Peak winds above 50 mph drove embers hundreds of yards in front of the flames. The fire

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