Fire rips through home

LA CAÑADA — A two-story house fire Monday morning that sent a short plume of smoke above the hillside caused roughly $460,000 in damage and sent one firefighter to the hospital with minor burns, officials said.

The fire, which started at 8:09 a.m. in the 5300 block of Ivafern Lane, was extinguished at 8:53 a.m. after 30 Los Angeles County firefighters responded to the scene, fire officials said.

“There was nobody in the house and no injuries,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Det. Brian Tibbett, who was the first responder on the scene.

“A neighbor from up on the hill saw the smoke and called it in.”

Kathy Risley, who lives in the neighborhood on the corner of Starlight Crest and Crown Avenue, saw the smoke while driving her son to school.

“I was coming down to town and I saw puffs of smoke, like something was burning,” Risley said.

The plume of smoke was visible from the Foothill (210) Freeway for a part of the morning commute, but Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Frederic Stowers said the brush in the hillsides above the home was never threatened.

Several nearby homes had to be protected from the blaze, which may have been caused by a furnace, Stowers said.

The fire caused an estimated $400,000 in damage to the property and structure, and an additional $60,000 to the home’s contents, he added.