Black eyed

The burned, crumbling hillsides of Deukmejian Wilderness Park were an alien sight to visitors Saturday who got an inside look at what authorities fear is a disaster waiting to happen.

Canyons once covered in green chaparral were blackened and bare, sprinkled with gray ash, the product of backfires lit to preempt the persistent Station fire that tore through a quarter of the Angeles National Forest last month.

Charred branches, some ripped to a burnt orange by the flames, reached out of the dry earth like scarred fingers.

Pieces of broken rock, shattered by the fire’s high heat, lay scattered across the landscape.

“This is like a scene out of World War II,” said La Crescenta resident Les Soltes, who had grown accustomed to appreciating the green hillsides above his home before the fire.

That blaze, which has yet to be fully contained, fed off dry brush to consume more than 250 square miles of the forest, prompting concerns about brush in the park that had not burned for 75 years, said Russ Hauck, a park naturalist for the Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Services.

The result was a scene that startled the first civilians to set foot on the park grounds since they were intentionally burned.

“It’s just devastating to see this,” said Wynne Benti, who had featured the park in a book she wrote about hiking in the Los Angeles area.

That book, originally published in 1995, is due for an update this year, but has been put on hold to allow for another update on the condition of the park after the fire, she said.

“It’s so completely different,” Benti said.

Although the blackened landscape will recover over time, the area may present serious dangers to surrounding neighborhoods, Hauck said.

When fire officials opted to send flames through the park, they also burned away vegetation that plays a crucial role in preventing erosion during rains, he said.

The park will likely need to remain closed until next spring or perhaps summer, when officials hope to have installed enough safety devices to prevent against mudslides, he said.

As he surveyed the hillside with park visitors Saturday, Hauck said the naked hillside soil was ready to loosen and move at a dangerous pace, a potential that had inspired some of the nation’s premier geologists to place observation devices in the area. They hope to record what could be a historic shift in the landscape, he said.