SOUTH BEND, Ind. — 

For weeks, his carry count remained confusingly stagnant.

And so, as an even backfield split continued, the questions kept coming, as well: Why wasn’t Markese Stepp, USC’s redshirt freshman running back, carrying a larger load?

On Saturday night, those questions were never louder, as Stepp averaged more than eight yards per carry, scored a touchdown, andat one point, literally carried a pile of Notre Dame defenders latched onto his back.

In his homecoming to the state of Indiana, against the school to which he was once committed, Stepp ran as strong as he has all season, leading the team with 82 yards rushing in a 30-27 loss to the Fighting Irish.

Still, as Stepp strapped the Trojans’ rushing attack on his shoulders, USC’s coaches again approached his carry count with an odd amount of caution. When asked why Stepp didn’t get more carries, just as he seemed to find his stride, USC coach Clay Helton was defiant in suggesting that he had.

“He had a bigger role tonight,” Helton said. “He did a wonderful job with 82 yards on the night. His role got bigger.”

Stepp still rotated with USC’s two other backs, Stephen Carr and Vavae Malepeai, who combined for 90 yards rushing and each averaged about five yards per carry.

But the redshirt freshman was undoubtedly more effective in a game he played in front of a host of family and friends. Whether that progress will lead to something more, though, remains to be seen.

Questioning the call

On a third down in the third quarter, as linebacker Palaie Gaoteote collided with Notre Dame quarterback Ian Book, a key personal-foul flag was thrown, extending a scoring drive that otherwise would’ve stalled.

Helton did his best not to question the call after the game, but his tone was clear. He did not agree.

“Referees have very hard jobs. And at full speed some calls are hard,” Helton said. “I see it one way, another man may see it and you have to live with those calls as coaches…. But that crew out there is a pro crew. They do a great job out there and some calls go your way, some calls don’t. That call didn’t go our way.”

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Another call, or lack thereof, raised questions. As USC attempted an onside kick at the end of the game, one of Notre Dame’s coaches was on the field, Helton said. It was Brian Kelly. Helton asked whether the call could be reviewed, but was denied.

“Should have been a flag,” Helton said.

Hufanga returns

After a week in concussion protocol, and another week spent in a no-contact jersey, recovering from a shoulder injury, Talanoa Hufanga returned to the field on Saturday.

But the standout sophomore safety wasn’t quite himself in his first game back.

Two missed tackles from the Trojans’ best tackler led to big plays in the second quarter.
Hufanga’s miss on an option pitch allowed running back Tony Jones to scamper for 43 yards.

Four plays later, Book hit tight end Cole Kmet near the goal line, and Hufanga again missed a tackle.

Defensive injuries

As USC mounted a comeback in the second half, it lost a number of key players on defense to injury, a few of whom managed to fight through their ailment.

Cornerbacks Greg Johnson and Isaac Taylor-Stuart both left hobbled in the second half. Gaoteote also left the game briefly, after spending several minutes on the ground with an injury.

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Saturday’s results

SOUTHERN SECTION

CAMINO LEAGUE

Camarillo 34, Bishop Diego 0

CITRUS COAST LEAGUE

Fillmore 38, Hueneme 0

DEL REY LEAGUE

Harvard-Westlake 27, St. Genevieve 21

FOOTHILL LEAGUE

Golden Valley 31, Saugus 7

GOLD COAST LEAGUE

Viewpoint 47, Campbell Hall 34

MISSION LEAGUE

Bishop Amat 31, Chaminade 21

OLYMPIC LEAGUE

Cerritos Valley Christian 20, Heritage Christian 17

RIVER VALLEY LEAGUE

Jurupa Valley 40, La Sierra 28

NONLEAGUE

Fairmont Prep 63, Excelsior 6

Oak Park 40, Brentwood 30

INTERSECTIONAL

Sacramento Johnson 42, Santa Rosa Academy 8

8 MAN

SOUTHERN SECTION

EXPRESS LEAGUE

St. Michael’s Prep 49, La Verne Lutheran 6

MT. PINOS LEAGUE

Faith Baptist 54, Thacher 50

VICTORY LEAGUE

United Christian 38, Desert Chapel 36

Friday’s results

CITY

CENTRAL LEAGUE

Bernstein 21, Contreras 7

Hollywood 10, Mendez 0

Marquez 62, Belmont 6

COLISEUM LEAGUE

Crenshaw 64, Hawkins 0

Fremont 38, View Park 14

Locke 27, Dorsey 0

EASTERN LEAGUE

Garfield 45, Legacy 6

Los Angeles Roosevelt 8, Bell 0

South Gate 13, Huntington Park 7

EXPOSITION LEAGUE

Jefferson 26, Angelou 20

Manual Arts 54, Santee 0

Washington 49, West Adams 7

MARINE LEAGUE

Carson 41, Gardena 6

San Pedro 41, Wilmington Banning 16

METRO LEAGUE

Los Angeles Jordan 45, Rancho Dominguez 15

NORTHERN LEAGUE

Franklin 49, Los Angeles Marshall 0

Lincoln 49, Eagle Rock 6

WESTERN LEAGUE

Fairfax 21, Westchester 17

Los Angeles Hamilton 14, Los Angeles University 0

SOUTHERN SECTION

ALMONT LEAGUE

Alhambra 55, Montebello 48

Bell Gardens 53, San Gabriel 33

Schurr 52, Keppel 20

AMBASSADOR LEAGUE

Aquinas 82, Bermuda Dunes Desert Christian 0

Arrowhead Christian 50, Western Christian 20

Ontario Christian 21, Linfield Christian 14

BASELINE LEAGUE

Chino Hills 28, Damien 25

Rancho Cucamonga 54, Etiwanda 3

Upland 35, Los Osos 7

BAY LEAGUE

Mira Costa 35, Peninsula 27

Palos Verdes 48, Compton Centennial 0

Redondo 24, Leuzinger 6

BIG VIII LEAGUE

Eastvale Roosevelt 43, King 7

Norco 63, Corona Santiago 14

CAMINO LEAGUE

Grace Brethren 56, Moorpark 14

CHANNEL LEAGUE

Lompoc 56, Dos Pueblos 0

San Marcos 46, Lompoc Cabrillo 0

Santa Barbara 34, Santa Ynez 0

CITRUS BELT LEAGUE

Cajon 49, Redlands East Valley 2

Carter 35, Yucaipa 26

Citrus Valley 37, Redlands 0

CITRUS COAST LEAGUE

Santa Paula 34, Carpinteria 14

DEL REY LEAGUE

St. Anthony 27, La Salle 21

DEL RIO LEAGUE

El Rancho 65, Whittier 46

La Serna 45, California 7

DESERT EMPIRE LEAGUE

Palm Desert 28, Palm Springs 10

Rancho Mirage 30, Xavier Prep 14

DESERT SKY LEAGUE

Granite Hills 32, Barstow 14

DESERT VALLEY LEAGUE

Banning 32, Cathedral City 13

Coachella Valley 55, Desert Mirage 0

Yucca Valley 40, Desert Hot Springs 6

EMPIRE LEAGUE

Cypress 24, Placentia Valencia 7

Garden Grove Pacifica 35, La Palma Kennedy 20

Tustin 44, Crean Lutheran 6

FOOTHILL LEAGUE

Valencia 29, Hart 27

West Ranch 36, Canyon Country Canyon 11

FREEWAY LEAGUE

La Habra 44, Fullerton 20

Sunny Hills 49, Buena Park 8

Troy 20, Sonora 12

GARDEN GROVE LEAGUE

Garden Grove Santiago 27, Rancho Alamitos 0

Loara 35, Bolsa Grande 0

GOLDEN LEAGUE

Highland 72, Lancaster 0

Knight 20, Littlerock 6

Quartz Hill 26, Antelope Valley 6

Palmdale 35, Eastside 0

HACIENDA LEAGUE

Charter Oak 22, West Covina 0

Diamond Ranch 21, Los Altos 14

INLAND VALLEY LEAGUE

Canyon Springs 42, Perris 0

Orange Vista 34, Riverside Poly 15

Riverside North 41, Lakeside 34

MARMONTE LEAGUE

Oaks Christian 56, Newbury Park 16

Westlake 34, St. Bonaventure 7

MIRAMONTE LEAGUE

La Puente 56, Garey 0

MISSION LEAGUE

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 17, Gardena Serra 6

MISSION VALLEY LEAGUE

El Monte 26, Arroyo 21

Gabrielino 35, Mountain View 0

South El Monte 51, Rosemead 28

MOJAVE RIVER LEAGUE

Oak Hills 68, Ridgecrest Burroughs 10

Serrano 17, Apple Valley 7

MONTVIEW LEAGUE

Duarte 14, Gladstone 7

MOORE LEAGUE

Compton 48, Millikan 42

Long Beach Poly 68, Long Beach Cabrillo 0

Long Beach Wilson 46, Long Beach Jordan 12

MOUNTAIN PASS LEAGUE

Beaumont 14, Hemet 10

Citrus Hill 37, Tahquitz 7

San Jacinto 41, West Valley 0

MOUNTAIN VALLEY LEAGUE

Moreno Valley 41, Miller 0

Pacific 27, Rubidoux 21

Vista del Lago 77, San Bernardino 0

MT. BALDY LEAGUE

Chaffey 49, Montclair 3

Diamond Bar 53, Chino 13

Ontario 21, Don Lugo 14

OCEAN LEAGUE

Culver City 32, Lawndale 27

El Segundo 41, Beverly Hills 8

Santa Monica 36, Hawthorne 6

ORANGE LEAGUE

Anaheim 49, Century 14

Santa Ana Valley 41, Savanna 3

ORANGE COAST LEAGUE

Orange 43, Costa Mesa 0

PACIFIC LEAGUE

Pasadena 44, Arcadia 10

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

Beckman 35, Irvine 12

Northwood 21, Woodbridge 14

Portola 46, Irvine University 14

PACIFIC VIEW LEAGUE

Buena 14, Channel Islands 13

Oxnard 36, Oxnard Pacifica 27

Ventura 42, Rio Mesa 7

PALOMARES LEAGUE

Ayala 13, Glendora 7

Claremont 25, Alta Loma 17

PIONEER LEAGUE

Inglewood 77, West Torrance 0

North Torrance 55, Morningside 0

South Torrance 64, Torrance 0

RIO HONDO LEAGUE

Monrovia 48, Temple City 7

San Marino 10, South Pasadena 7

RIVER VALLEY LEAGUE

Norte Vista 27, Hillcrest 20

SAN ANDREAS LEAGUE

Eisenhower 35, Rialto 0

Jurupa Hills 34, Rim of the World 7

San Gorgonio 28, Arroyo Valley 0

SAN GABRIEL VALLEY LEAGUE

Dominguez 28, Gahr 0

Paramount 48, Downey 22

Warren 56, Lynwood 6

SEA VIEW LEAGUE

San Juan Hills 35, Aliso Niguel 7

Trabuco Hills 42, Dana Hills 14

SOUTH COAST LEAGUE

Mission Viejo 63, Capistrano Valley 13

San Clemente 42, El Toro 3

SOUTH VALLEY LEAGUE

California Military Institute 62, Sherman Indian 8

SOUTHWESTERN LEAGUE

Great Oak 37, Murrieta Mesa 20

Murrieta Valley 51, Temecula Valley 49

Vista Murrieta 37, Chaparral 17

SUNKIST LEAGUE

Kaiser 37, Fontana 6

Summit 37, Colton 0

SUNSET LEAGUE

Corona del Mar 42, Edison 7

Los Alamitos 42, Fountain Valley 7

Newport Harbor 34, Huntington Beach 3

TRINITY LEAGUE

Mater Dei 56, Servite 11

St. John Bosco 49, JSerra 10

VALLE VISTA LEAGUE

Northview 57, Hacienda Heights Wilson 6

Rowland 41, Covina 20

San Dimas 43, Baldwin Park 26

NONLEAGUE

Bishop Montgomery 33, Pioneer 28

Capistrano Valley Christian 49, Southlands Christian 12

Firebaugh 22, Temecula Prep 20

Heritage 38, Temescal Canyon 12

Mary Star 35, Verbum Dei 0

Ocean View 48, Cerritos 14

Paloma Valley 36, Arlington 27

Paraclete 38, St. Francis 33

Pasadena Poly 42, Saddleback Valley Christian 6

Rancho Christian 28, Salesian 6

Rancho Verde 55, Elsinore 7

Rio Hondo Prep 52, Laguna Beach 14

Riverside Notre Dame 44, Valley View 28

Simi Valley 59, Nordhoff 14

St. Pius X-St. Matthias 40, Godinez 14

Yorba Linda 47, Brea Olinda 7

INTERSECTIONAL

Santa Maria St. Joseph 35, St. Margaret’s 24

Spokane (Wash.) Mead 63, Marina 27

8 MAN

CITY

CITY LEAGUE

Animo Robinson 74, New Designs University Park 34

USC Hybrid 36, Dymally 22

SOUTHERN SECTION

AGAPE LEAGUE

Sage Oak 40, Hesperia Christian 0

COAST VALLEY LEAGUE

Coast Union 61, Maricopa 6

Cuyama Valley 66, Santa Maria Valley Christian 60

EXPRESS LEAGUE

Avalon 80, Downey Calvary Chapel 40

OMEGA LEAGUE

Beacon Hill 50, Calvary Baptist 16

VICTORY LEAGUE

Bloomington Christian 56, Public Safety Academy 20

NONLEAGUE

Chadwick 69, Malibu 16

Flintridge Prep 52, Moreno Valley Riverside County Education Academy 36

Santa Clara 41, Noli Indian 0

Windward 47, Lucerne Valley 0

INTERSECTIONAL

Lancaster Desert Christian 51, Trona 26

TEACH Tech 36, Blair 0

Thursday’s results

CITY

METRO LEAGUE

New Designs Watts 28, Maywood CES 16

SOUTHERN SECTION

BIG VIII LEAGUE

Corona Centennial 69, Corona 7

DESERT EMPIRE LEAGUE

Shadow Hills 26, La Quinta 7

DESERT SKY LEAGUE

Silverado 47, Victor Valley 0

DESERT VALLEY LEAGUE

Twentynine Palms 46, Indio 0

GARDEN GROVE LEAGUE

Westminster La Quinta 29, Los Amigos 21

HACIENDA LEAGUE

South Hills 40, Walnut 0

MIRAMONTE LEAGUE

Ganesha 35, Bassett 21

MOJAVE RIVER LEAGUE

Hesperia 36, Sultana 14

MONTVIEW LEAGUE

Sierra Vista 54, Nogales 15

Workman 21, Azusa 20

ORANGE LEAGUE

Katella 47, Magnolia 7

ORANGE COAST LEAGUE

Estancia 34, Saddleback 0

Santa Ana 35, Santa Ana Calvary Chapel 6

PALOMARES LEAGUE

Bonita 21, Colony 8

RIVER VALLEY LEAGUE

Ramona 33, Patriot 7

SOUTH VALLEY LEAGUE

Nuview Bridge 34, Anza Hamilton 0

SUNKIST LEAGUE

Grand Terrace 41, Bloomington 21

TRINITY LEAGUE

Orange Lutheran 28, Santa Margarita 14

NONLEAGUE

Esperanza 34, Anaheim Canyon 21

Foothill 10, El Modena 0

Laguna Hills 35, Garden Grove 0

Trinity Classical Academy 26, Vasquez 18

Villa Park 39, El Dorado 0

Western 34, Artesia 23

Westminster 47, Silver Valley 35

8 MAN

SOUTHERN SECTION

EXPRESS LEAGUE

Sage Hill 62, Brethren Christian 6

NONLEAGUE

San Jacinto Valley Academy 58, Indio Riverside County Education Academy 0

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A look at The Times’ top 25 high school football teams in the Southland.

Rk. SCHOOL (Rec.) Result | Next game (last rank)

1. MATER DEI (7-0) def. Servite, 56-11 | at Santa Margarita at Trabuco Hills, Friday (1)

2. ST. JOHN BOSCO (7-0) def. JSerra, 49-10 | vs. Orange Lutheran at Orange Coast College, Friday (2)

3. CORONA CENTENNIAL (5-2) def. Corona, 69-7 | vs. Norco, Friday (3)

4. MISSION VIEJO (8-0) def. Capistrano Valley, 63-13 | vs. San Clemente, Oct. 25 (4)

5. NARBONNE (6-1) idle | at Gardena, Friday (6)

6. JSERRA (5-2) lost to St. John Bosco, 49-10 | at Servite at Orange Coast College, Thursday (5)

7. GRACE BRETHREN (7-0) def. Moorpark, 56-14 | vs. Thousand Oaks at Cal Lutheran U., Friday (7)

8. CORONA DEL MAR (7-0) def. Edison, 42-7 | at Fountain Valley at Huntington Beach, Thursday (9)

9. SERVITE (4-3) lost to Mater Dei, 56-11 | vs. JSerra at Orange Coast College, Thursday (8)

10. CALABASAS (5-2) idle | vs. Newbury Park, Friday (10)

11. SIERRA CANYON (6-1) idle | vs. San Pedro at Pierce College, Friday (11)

12. SAN CLEMENTE (7-1) def. El Toro, 42-3 | vs. Capistrano Valley, Friday (12)

13. BISHOP AMAT (5-1) def. Chaminade, 31-21 | at Gardena Serra, Friday (13)

14. BISHOP ALEMANY (5-1) idle | at Chaminade, Friday (14)

15. LA HABRA (5-2) def. Fullerton, 44-20 | at Sunny Hills at Buena Park, Friday (15)

16. CAMARILLO (6-0) def. Bishop Diego, 34-0 | vs. Moorpark at Moorpark College, Friday (16)

17. SO NOTRE DAME (5-2) def. Gardena Serra, 17-6 | vs. Loyola, Friday (20)

18. TESORO (6-1) idle | vs. El Toro, Friday (21)

19. CULVER CITY (7-0) def. Lawndale, 32-27 | at El Segundo, Friday (22)

20. RANCHO VERDE (6-1) def. Elsinore, 55-7 | at Valley View, Friday (23)

21. NORCO (6-1) def. Corona Santiago, 63-14 | at Corona Centennial, Friday (24)

22. LA SERNA (8-0) def. California, 45-7 | at Santa Fe at Pioneer, Friday (25)

23. OXNARD (6-1) def. Pacifica, 36-27 | at Channel Islands, Friday (NR)

24. ORANGE LUTHERAN (4-3) def. Santa Margarita, 28-14 | vs. St. John Bosco at Orange Coast College, Friday (NR)

25. CHAPARRAL (6-1) lost to Vista Murrieta, 37-17 | vs. Murrieta Mesa, Friday (18)

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Disaster is no stranger to longtime Porter Ranch residents. The community has been battered by brush fires, earthquakes and four years ago the largest natural gas leak in United States history.

Then on Thursday night another crisis appeared at the doorstep of the foothill community in northern San Fernando Valley.

Out of nowhere, spot fires ignited homes and sent hundreds of residents fleeing.

For many Porter Ranch residents, measuring the years is also about tallying calamity. They talk about the 2008 firestorm that caused evacuations and property losses. They talk about the long-term effects of the 2015 natural gas leak from the Aliso Canyon facility. Old-timers also talk about the 1971 and 1994 earthquakes, whose epicenters were not far from the community.

Resident David Lasher can still point to a stretch of his neighborhood where fires consumed homes.

“That one over there burned to the ground a decade ago, and that other one,” Lasher said. “The house behind me had the flames go over it and survived.”

On Thursday night, four houses on nearby Beaufait Avenue were consumed by flames as the fast-moving Saddleridge fire tore through the hills of the San Fernando Valley. Three of the scorched homes backed up to the now-blackened canyon wash.

Among them was Lasher’s father-in-law’s house.

One side of the house, where Lasher’s father-in-law has lived for 36 years, was charred by flames. The roof is gaping and buckled in places, while water sits an inch deep in the kitchen from a massive firefight that ultimately saved much of the structure.

Spared from the destruction was a grandfather clock, which sat near the curb of the damaged home Friday afternoon.

“That solid mahogany grandfather clock came through unscathed. It was in the corner,” Lasher, clad in a red U.S. Marine Corps T-shirt and goggles, said as he pointed into the living room.

Firefighters saved much of the house. The family plans to rebuild the rest, Lasher said.

Porter Ranch sits in a wind tunnel that during hot Santa Ana events erupt in flames. This week’s fire started in Sylmar and jumped the 5 Freeway and made a run at Granada Hills and Porter Ranch.

A huge fire in 1988 destroyed 13 homes and damaged 23 others. “It was raining fire, just orange everywhere,” Lasher said of the fire at the time. In 2008, the destructive Sayre fire caused evacuations.

Kim Thompson, who lives at the intersection of Sesnon Boulevard and Jolette Avenue in nearby Granada Hills, evacuated Thursday night with a sense of deja vu.

She thought back to the Sayre fires, which burned to the very edge of her cul-de-sac.

“We’ve been through a lot, but we choose to live here,” she said.

More fire coverage

“You’re on edge. You think you get used to it,” Thompson said, the wind whipping ash and through the air, watering the eyes with smoke, “but you can’t really get used to this.”

This fire burned close to the Aliso Canyon gas plant, where the gas leak sent residents fleeing from their homes for months. Officials shut down the facility and evacuated. Firefighters were on the scene for protection.

The Aliso Canyon gas blowout lasted nearly four months and was blamed for sickening thousands of Los Angeles residents, who moved out of their Porter Ranch homes to escape a sulfurous stench and a medley of maladies including headaches, nausea and nosebleeds.

Just down the street from Lasher’s home, Chris Harian stood in his own front yard Friday afternoon watching as fire trucks and news vans zipped by.

The 33-year-old moved in four months ago and now his new neighborhood was transformed. The nearby hills were bare and black and flecks of white ash were still raining down. Some of his neighbors lost their garages — others lost their backyard guest houses.

A woman up the street was standing on her front porch crying when firefighters approached her, asking if they could inspect her partially charred home.

Harian’s young daughter wandered outside and clung to his leg.

“Go back inside,” he warned. “Too much smoke!”

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Around 11:30 p.m., Harian said, police cars came through the neighborhood blaring their sirens and calling for residents to evacuate via loudspeakers.

The flames looked close. Some neighbors were panicking and blowing through stop signs. Harian — who works in marketing — dropped his two young children off at a friend’s house in La Crescenta, then returned home. He had left his gate open and wanted to check on the home one more time. It was around 1 a.m. when he returned and the situation looked dire.

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“That house was on fire,” he said, pointing at a tan, single-story home up the street. “And that one too.”

Embers were raining down on his roof and a couple of spots were smoldering, Harian noticed. So he propped a ladder against the wall, dragged the hose up to the roof and put out the hot spots.

“I don’t think there’s much left to burn,” Harian said Friday afternoon, covering his mouth and nose with a damp paper towel. But he knew fires are unpredictable.

“It’s good I have insurance,” he said.

Times staff writer Leila Miller contributed to this report.

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Anaheim police have arrested a suspect in connection with a 19-year-old homicide case, officials announced this week.

Leopoldo Vargas Serrano, 47, was arrested at his Houston residence Sept. 11, Anaheim police said in a statement.

Serrano is a suspect in the fatal shooting of Luis Garcia Bucio, 21, a co-worker, after an argument Oct. 16, 2000, police said. The shooting occurred in front of a business in the 1600 block of North Miller Street in Anaheim.

An arrest warrant was issued a few days later for Serrano, charging him with one count of murder, officials said. But attempts to apprehend him were unsuccessful.

In early 2019, detectives working in collaboration with the Orange County district attorney’s office’s special TracKRS unit developed information that Serrano was living under an assumed name in Houston, police said.

Anaheim detectives, with the assistance of Houston police, served a search warrant at the residence last month and arrested Serrano. Serrano was also arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that day for unlawful entry into the U.S., officials said.

On Wednesday, Anaheim police took custody of Serrano from the U.S. Marshals Service in Houston and transported him back to Orange County, where is being held in lieu of $1-million bail, authorities said.

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All evacuation orders were lifted Saturday afternoon in the northwest San Fernando Valley as firefighters continued to make progress battling the 7,900 acre-Saddleridge fire that had shut down freeways and sent thousands fleeing from their homes.

Slightly cooler temperatures and lighter winds aided crews on their third day fighting the fire, which blackened hillsides from Porter Ranch to Sylmar, officials said. As of Saturday evening, the fire was 33% contained.

Red flag warnings remained in effect until 6 p.m. Saturday, but Santa Ana winds were replaced by onshore sea breezes by late afternoon, officials said. Humidity levels ranged from 20% down to 5% within the fire zone.

“We are prepared for any flareups as they occur,” Los Angeles Fire Capt. Branden Silverman said Saturday.

More fire coverage

The fire has destroyed or damaged at least 31 structures, officials said.

The cause of the fire has not been determined, officials said. But investigators are checking on reports that flames were seen coming from a power line as the fire started Thursday night, after Sylmar residents told KNBC and KABC that they saw a fire burning at the base of a transmission tower near Saddle Ridge Road, an area investigators are examining as a possible ignition point.

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“We are aware of a story out there in the media from a witness who saw fire … from a transmission tower,” Los Angeles Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas said Friday night. “We believe that witness, and someone else who said something similar.”

Saddle Ridge Road resident Roberto Delgado, told The Times he saw an isolated patch of flames near the base of the tower Thursday night and called 911. Several neighbors said they too fled after seeing a wall of flames, but couldn’t identify the source.

The tower belongs to Southern California Edison and was energized Thursday night, said Edison spokeswoman Sally Jeun, who added it was too early to assign responsibility for the fire.

“Determining the cause and origin of the fire is a lengthy process. A priority right now is ensuring the safety of our customers, employees and first responders. SCE will fully cooperate with investigations,” she said Saturday.

Though the utility shut off power for thousands of customers beginning Wednesday specifically to lower the risk of destructive fires, the area where the fire started was not included in the shutdown.

“We did not deenergize any power for the Saddle Ridge fire area,” Jeun said.

As of Saturday morning about 870 Edison customers across four counties were still without power as a precaution, she said. Most are in Ventura County, though affected customers are also in Kern, L.A. and San Bernardino counties. After the Santa Ana wind event passes, crews must go out to check the power lines and ensure there’s no downed or damaged equipment before the lines can be reenergized, she said.

By 5 p.m. Saturday, fire officials had lifted all evacuation orders after clearing out about 23,000 homes over the last two days.

Some residents began returning to their homes Friday night and Saturday.

Others never left.

Porter Ranch resident Harout, 56, stayed behind in his Hampton Court home Thursday night when the fire in the canyons nearby exploded. Harout, who asked that his last name be withheld for privacy, said that if he hadn’t stayed behind to try to protect his two-story house, it would have burned like that of his next-door neighbor. That family’s house is now almost completely charred. Blackened pieces of wood litter the driveway.

Around noon Saturday, neighbors came by to the burned house — the only lost home on the block — and stuck posters with messages of support to the parts of the structure that were still standing. “We’re hugging you,” read one blue sign. Another said, “We love you & are here for you.”

A verse from the Book of Joshua inscribed above the wooden doorway had survived the flames: “As for me and my house, we will serve the lord.”

Some residents on Harout’s cul-de-sac said on Saturday they were furious that the Fire Department hadn’t come to the neighborhood when they called in the predawn hours on Friday.

Jaime Castiel, who lives across the street and also stayed behind to try to protect his house, said he called 911 three times — at 1:38, 1:55 and 2:02 a.m. His backyard had lit up with flames and he went to his pool to collect buckets of water to put it out.

“Nobody came!” he said.

A group of neighbors relayed their concerns to David Ortiz, a spokesman with the Los Angeles Fire Department who was in the neighborhood on Saturday. He said he would forward their information to their City Council member and that an investigation would be conducted to see how long it took firefighters to arrive to the street.

“We have to triage, we have to figure out where we have to place these people, where we have to place these resources,” Ortiz told them. “We’d love to put a fire truck in every cul-de-sac, in every neighborhood.”

Authorities recommend that residents heed mandatory evacuation orders for their own safety, instead of staying behind to try to protect their homes.

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and Gov. Gavin Newsom both issued emergency declarations. The governor’s office said it has obtained a federal grant to help offset the costs of fighting the Saddleridge fire and others in the state.

Two firefighters suffered minor injuries while battling the blaze, one to his eye, and a man in his late 50s died after suffering a heart attack while talking with firefighters early Friday, officials said.

Friday afternoon, the wind was pushing the fire west into residential neighborhoods in Porter Ranch and farther west to less-populated areas approaching Rocky Peak Park near the Ventura County line, Silverman said.

He said the wildfire was similar to the 2008 Sayre fire, which leveled the Oakridge Estates mobile home park and was one of the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles history.

Longtime Porter Ranch resident Caroline Walden, as she prepared Saturday morning to leave the emergency shelter in Granada Hills where she spent the night, said she had lost one home in a fire about a decade ago.

This time she was ready — the emergency kit of essentials was assembled and the photo albums were in the car. She and her two daughters left their home early Friday morning as the blaze marched toward more populated areas.

At the recreation center, her two daughters sat with their two pugs Franny and Albert along with their cat.

“I have my real children and fuzzy children,” said Walden, 56. “That’s what matters.”

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The Saddleridge fire broke out about 9 p.m. Thursday on the north side of the 210 Freeway in Sylmar. It has since at times forced shutdowns of portions of the 210, 5, 405, 14 and 118 freeways. Except for some truck routes and a few onramps and offramps, all freeways were reopened by Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, the 825-acre Sandalwood fire in Riverside County was 25% contained, officials said. The fire has burned more than 70 structures, mostly mobile homes, and claimed one life. Two smaller fires in Riverside County — the Wolf and Reche fires — were almost fully contained Saturday morning.

Farther north, the Briceburg fire in Mariposa County was at 5,190 acres as of Saturday morning with 49% containment.

Firefighters spent much of Friday working the interior of the Sandalwood blaze that engulfed a Calimesa mobile home park, Cal Fire Riverside spokesman Jeff LaRusso said. The fire damaged or destroyed more than 70 structures. Overnight they began establishing containment lines around the perimeter, he said, and expect to continue that work Saturday.

Though winds were expected to be calmer Saturday than the 30-mph gusts earlier in the week, there’s still danger, LaRusso said. When a Santa Ana wind event ends, as it is forecast to do today, “you get 100% reversal of the wind,” which can push flames in the opposite direction, LaRusso said.

“That’s going to transition today, on a wildlands fire that is one of the most dangerous times that we have.”

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Jesse Stancarone receives help from his grandson, Jesse Lasher, as they move a grandfather clock that received no damage after the Saddleridge fire burned along Beaufait Avenue in Porter Ranch. The clock has been through three fires and one earthquake, Stancarone said. 

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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An Orange County firefighter pulls hose into a damaged home after the Saddleridge fire burned along Beaufait Avenue in Porter Ranch. 

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Members of the Manokian family gather with friends as they watch firefighters mop up around their home, which was destroyed in the Saddleridge fire in Porter Ranch. 

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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Both the 5 and 14 freeways were closed to traffic through Newhall Pass because of the Saddleridge fire. 

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Firefighters mop up around the Manokian home, which was destroyed in the Saddleridge fire in Porter Ranch. 

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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L.A. firefighters work to put out hot spots after the Saddleridge fire burned along Beaufait Avenue in Porter Ranch. 

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Clifford Mangang, 80, sits at the Sylmar Recreation Center with his dogs, Lola and Nina. He evacuated his home at 10 p.m. Thursday and slept in his car until 5 a.m. Friday, when he could get to the center. 

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

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Blondie, a yellow Labrador, and other pets are sheltered at the Sylmar Recreation Center.  

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

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Firefighters clear brush and mop up a hillside along the 14 Freeway, which was closed to traffic through Newhall Pass because of Saddleridge fire. 

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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A Los Angeles Fire Department helicopter drops water on a Saddleridge fire flare-up as brush crews clear fuel behind homes on Via Urbino in Porter Ranch. 

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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Fire rages behind homes on Via Urbino as firefighters battle the Saddleridge fire in Porter Ranch. 

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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An LAFD brush crew heads out to clear fuel behind homes on Via Urbino as firefighters battle the Saddleridge fire in Porter Ranch. 

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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Firefighters keep an eye on the Saddleridge fire burning behind Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar. 

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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The 5 Freeway is empty near the junction with the 14 Freeway as the Saddleridge fire closed both routes to all traffic. 

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

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A firefighting plane paints the hill with fire retardant to protect Olive View Medical Center from the wind-driven Saddleridge fire in Sylmar. 

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Los Angeles city firefighter Dennis DeGeeter hits a hot spot on a home on Hampton Court as firefighters battle the Saddleridge fire in Porter Ranch. 

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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A L.A. county firefighter sprays water on a condominium on Tampa Avenue engulfed by flames as the Saddleridge fire burns through Limekiln Canyon in Porter Ranch. 

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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The Saddleridge fire climbs the ridgeline in Sylmar, closing parts of the 210 and 118 freeways Friday morning. 

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Ozzy Butler throws water onto the deck of his parents’ house as the Saddleridge fire burns along Thunderbird Avenue in Porter Ranch early Friday morning. 

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Randy Butler tries to protect his home as the Saddleridge fire burns along Thunderbird Avenue in Porter Ranch on Friday morning. 

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Ozzy Butler talks on the phone as his father Randy tries to protect their house as the Saddleridge fire burns along Thunderbird Avenue in Porter Ranch on Friday morning. 

(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)

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Firefighters work to contain the Saddleridge fire from spreading as a home burns in Porter Ranch. 

(Patrick T. Fallon/For The Times)

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A firefighter uses a garden hose to douse flames in the backyard of a home to keep the Saddleridge fire from spreading in Porter Ranch. 

(Patrick T. Fallon/For The Times)

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The Saddleridge fire burns in Wilbur Tampa Park near homes on Friday in the Porter Ranch neighborhood of Los Angeles. 

(Patrick T. Fallon/For The Times)

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The Saddleridge fire burns behind homes on Friday in Porter Ranch. 

(Patrick T. Fallon/For The Times)

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A firefighter works to contain the Saddleridge fire from spreading as structures burn in Porter Ranch. 

(Patrick T. Fallon/For The Times)

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Residents evacuate as the Saddleridge fire creeps towards houses in the Oakridge Estates community in Sylmar late Thursday night. 

(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

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Firefighters lay hose line to contain the Saddleridge fire just after midnight early Friday morning. 

(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)

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A helicopter makes a drop on the Saddleridge fire as people evacuate the Oakridge Estates. 

(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

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A first responder stands in an intersection as people evacuate the Oakridge Estates during the Saddleridge fire. 

(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

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Firefighters fight to contain the Saddleridge fire just after midnight early Friday morning. 

(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)

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Firefighters work to contain the Saddleridge fire late Thursday night. 

(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)

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Firefighters move out of the way of a dozer crew while working to contain the Saddleridge fire. 

(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)

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A firefighter makes sure residents evacuate from the Oakridge Estates in Sylmar late Thursday night. 

(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)

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A firefighter watches as a helicopter flies overhead. 

(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)

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Residents evacuate from the Oakridge Estates community late Thursday night. 

(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)

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Embers swarm around a burned-out truck trailer destroyed by the Saddleridge fire just after midnight early Friday morning in Sylmar. 

(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)

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Firefighters work to contain the Saddleridge fire late Thursday night. 

(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)

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Firefighters lay hose line to contain the Saddleridge fire late Thursday night. 

(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)

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 hopscotched west from Sylmar — leaping over the 5 Freeway into Granada Hills and Porter Ranch, at times consuming 800 acres an hour.

More than 1,000 firefighters from multiple agencies fought the sprawling blaze night and day, deploying eight helicopters and amphibious fixed-wing “super scoopers.” Ground crews manned bulldozers to cut containment lines into nearby hillsides. At least one air tanker blanketed fire retardant across the ridges between Granada Hills and Porter Ranch.

By Friday afternoon, 7,500 acres had burned.

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and Gov. Gavin Newsom both issued emergency declarations. The governor’s office said it has obtained a federal grant to help offset the costs of fighting the Saddleridge fire and others in the state.

Mandatory evacuations have been issued to roughly 23,000 homes north of the 118 Freeway from Tampa Avenue west to the Ventura County line. Officials warned that other communities near the fire need to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.

Deputy Chief Jorge Rodriguez of the Los Angeles Police Department said the city sent alerts, used police public address systems and sent dozens of officers knocking on doors as the fire swept west. “A lot of people left, but some didn’t,” he said. “We aren’t going to force people to leave.”

It was depressingly familiar territory, not just because of the Sayre fire in Sylmar that burned 489 homes in 2008 but also the Aliso Canyon gas leak four years ago that forced the evacuation of 11,000 people in and around Porter Ranch, and the fire that destroyed 13 homes in Porter Ranch in 1988.

With the unrelenting wind, warm temperatures and low humidity, officials said they expect it will take days to get the blaze under control.

“Nobody is going home right away,” said Los Angeles Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas.

One firefighter suffered a minor injury to his eye while battling the blaze, and a man in his late 50s died after suffering a heart attack while talking with firefighters early Friday, officials said.

Friday afternoon, the wind was pushing the fire west into residential neighborhoods in Porter Ranch and farther west to less-populated areas approaching Rocky Peak Park near the Ventura County line, said Capt. Branden Silverman, an LAFD spokesman.

Porter Ranch is “basically the hot spot right now,” Silverman said. “We’re trying to keep it boxed in above the 118 Freeway. Obviously that’s a good fire break for us, but if the winds shift to the south, then that would be into Chatsworth.”

Silverman said the wildfire is similar to the 2008 Sayre fire, which leveled the Oakridge Estates mobile home park and was one of the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles history.

The Saddleridge fire broke out about 9 p.m. Thursday on the north side of the 210 Freeway.

By early Friday, it was at the Oakridge community’s door again. Residents, including Herrera, were evacuated, and many waited in their cars nearby watching the flames’ hypnotic destruction.

“I can’t quite pull myself away,” Herrera said. Her cat Satchel, who survived the fire 11 years ago, was in her car. “I don’t want to go through this again, and he doesn’t either,” Herrera said.

Danny Rios, 59, lives in Oakridge with his father. His parents lost their home there in 2008 and Rios had lost his own, but they decided to return for the quiet natural setting. His mother has since died, and he didn’t know how his father might cope with another potential loss.

“It’s a horrible, horrible feeling to lose your home, to lose everything in it,” he said.

In Granada Hills, retired nurse Patricia Strucke, 79, watched the flames burn in Riverside County on the 9 p.m. news and felt sick thinking of the families some 90 miles away whose homes were at risk.

“Your house can be gone in five minutes,” she remembered thinking. “I can’t watch this. It’s too horrible.”

She walked into the kitchen and put her empty glass in the sink. Then, she looked up. Through her kitchen window, she saw a glowing red semicircle licking at the hills.

“My God!” she said. “There’s a fire in Sylmar.”

She rushed to wake her husband, Edward, 77, who uses a wheelchair, warning him they may need to evacuate. But it was still a good distance away, so she kept monitoring it.

Around 11:30 p.m., as the flames chewed down a hill about 200 yards from their home, Patricia barged into the couple’s bedroom. “Get up!” she told her husband. “We’re going.”

Edward slipped on shoes and got into his wheelchair. Outside, ash rained down on the home they’d lived in for 45 years. As they drove away, Patricia realized she’d forgotten her husband’s most important medication, an anti-coagulant, but it was too late to go back.

She thought, too, of the many memories they’d made inside the home.

She thought of her two grandchildren, now teenagers, and how they learned to swim in their backyard pool. She thought of the times they came over after school to work on homework or when they helped tend her tomato plants. “Am I going to have a home?” she thought.

Unsure of where to go, the couple pulled into a Ralphs parking lot to wait. Edward called the police, asking if they knew of any evacuation centers. Not yet, they said. When he called back, officials directed them to the Granada Hills Recreation Center. They arrived around 1:30 a.m. and spent the night on cots set up by the Red Cross.

About 8:30 a.m. Friday, a neighbor called to say that he’d managed to get close to their house. Everything was ashy and the air was still choked with smoke, but the home seemed safe, he told her. Relief washed over Patricia. But she said she knows embers can change things quickly.

More fire coverage

About 9:30 a.m., a Red Cross volunteer handed Edward a blue mask to block the smell of smoke. Another volunteer waved goodbye, saying her shift had ended. “Bye!” Edward said, waving. “No offense, but I hope I never have to see you again.”

Sitting nearby, Amelia Peters, 78, was a ball of nerves. She’d been in a panic the day before the fire after her landlord had given her a 60-day eviction notice. Worried about her future, her blood pressure spiked to 180 on Thursday, she said, and her husband took her to the emergency room.

She returned home that night only to find herself monitoring flames from her windows. “I’m packed and ready to go as soon as they give evacuation orders,” Peters texted a friend. They left around 4 a.m. and drove to the rec center with their chihuahua, Bambi.

She left behind her collection of blue-and-white ceramics and all of the paintings her three children had made over the years — her own little gallery, she said. But most of all, she was worried about her husband, a music producer, who didn’t want to leave all of his equipment and decided to wait it out at home.

At the evacuation site Friday morning, Peters looked down at her right arm, still bandaged from a blood draw at the hospital. “Yesterday I went to Kaiser, because I was so stressed,” she said, laughing softly. “Now, I’m way more stressed.”

Kim Thompson of Granada Hills evacuated at midnight and had enough time to return for a bottle of wine. Her neighbors were less willing to leave: “Up here, we’re stubborn. My neighbors are spraying their roofs right now.”

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A little after 1 a.m., Thompson heard from a friend that fire crews were allowing two homes on Jolette Avenue to burn to the ground. She thought back to the Aliso Canyon evacuation and the Sayre fire, which burned to the very edge of her cul-de-sac.

“We’ve been through a lot, but we choose to live here,” she said.

“You’re on edge. You think you get used to it,” Thompson said, eyes watering in the smoke, “but you can’t really get used to this.”

Times staff writers Hannah Fry, Colleen Shalby, Matthew Ormseth, Leila Miller, Matt Stiles and Alejandra Reyes-Velarde contributed to this report.

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Most Angelenos can’t see the Saddleridge fire, but they have been breathing it as a dirty blanket of smoke settled over much of the city and raised air pollution levels.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District on Saturday issued a health advisory, urging people to limit their exposure to the smoke by remaining indoors and avoiding vigorous physical activity.

District monitors showed elevated levels of particle pollution throughout the San Fernando Valley, in the western areas of Los Angeles and coastal areas west of the 110 Freeway.

In Santa Monica, the weekly farmers market and other outdoor events were canceled because of the smoke and poor air quality.

A shift in the winds Saturday night and Sunday morning could push the smoke across much of the Los Angeles Basin and eastward as far as the San Bernardino Valley. The health advisory was expected to remain in effect through Sunday morning.

The fire is burning in hills bordering the northern edge of the San Fernando Valley. The fire’s growth slowed Saturday as winds diminished. As of Saturday evening, the fire had charred more than 7,900 acres and damaged or destroyed at least 31 buildings.

It was 33% contained.

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Smoke from wildfires contains extremely fine particles that can lodge in the lungs, potentially causing serious health problems.

Here are some tips for dealing with wildfire smoke from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Monitor air quality reports during a fire if you are:

• a person with heart or lung disease, such as heart failure, angina, ischemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema or asthma.
• an older adult, which makes you more likely to have heart or lung disease than younger people.
• caring for children, including teenagers, because their respiratory systems are still developing, they breathe more air (and air pollution) per pound of body weight than adults, they’re more likely to be active outdoors, and they’re more likely to have asthma.
• a person with diabetes, because you are more likely to have underlying cardiovascular disease.
• a pregnant woman, because there could be potential health effects for both you and the developing fetus.

High concentrations of smoke can trigger a range of symptoms.

• Anyone may experience burning eyes, a runny nose, cough, phlegm, wheezing and difficulty breathing.
• If you have heart or lung disease, smoke may make your symptoms worse. People with heart disease might experience chest pain, palpitations, shortness of breath or fatigue. People with lung disease may not be able to breathe as deeply as usual and may experience coughing, chest discomfort, wheezing and shortness of breath.

• Subscriptions make our reporting on California wildfires possible. Get full access to our journalism for just 99 cents for the first four weeks. Already a subscriber? Your contribution helped tell this story. Thank you.

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P.J. Lennon had a plan for his retirement: To pay his bills, he would rent out the one-bedroom house that sits alongside his home in the Hollywood Hills.

He fixed it up with Buddha sculptures and artwork and began advertising it online through Airbnb and VRBO. Travelers paid up to $199 a night to sleep in the hideaway with banana trees and a show-stopping view.

He was banking on that money to pay the bills, he said, after a career as an actor, model and photographer. When he dies, Lennon said, “I just want to be carried out of my own home in a pine box.”

But he fears he may not be able to remain there under an ordinance that says Angelenos can rent out only their “primary residence” for short stays, not a second home or investment property. Lennon said those rules would eliminate his only source of income, likely forcing him to sell his house and move.

“I don’t want to be forced out by the government,” he said.

Tenant activists and other critics of short-term rentals argue the rules will help prevent apartment buildings from being bought up and run like hotels, pulling units off the market in the middle of a housing crisis. The Los Angeles City Council approved the rules in December after more than three years of debate over how to regulate night-to-night rentals.

But hosts like Lennon who rent out something other than their primary residence — a phenomenon the city has dubbed “vacation rentals” — have argued that an outright ban goes too far. As the city prepares to start enforcing the law in November, some are pleading with the city to rethink its plans.

A newly formed group called Homeshare Alliance Los Angeles has been pushing council members to permit some Angelenos to rent out a secondary unit to travelers. They argue that the city has unfairly lumped them in with “commercial operators” advertising dozens of units.

“They’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” said Chani Krich, one of the leaders of the alliance. “We support getting rid of commercial operators. … But thousands of mom-and-pops need to be protected.”

Tenant advocates have resisted that push, citing the dire need for housing.

“You’re pulling a unit off the market,” said Cynthia Strathmann, executive director of the nonprofit Strategic Actions for a Just Economy. “We’re allowing all this housing to funnel off the market so a few people can make money?”

City officials have estimated there are between 8,000 and 13,000 listings for “vacation rentals” in L.A. When the new law allowing people to rent out their primary residence for short stays was approved, several council members proposed a second ordinance that would permit people to do so with other properties as well. In February, city staffers tossed out a number of options, including capping the number of vacation rentals for each host.

“I assumed they were going to have everything in place by the time they started enforcing everything,” said Marta Cross, who lives in a Highland Park duplex and rents out the second unit for short stays.

But nothing has been drafted — and some council members don’t think it should be. Councilman Mike Bonin, who represents coastal areas including Venice, called permitting vacation rentals “nothing short of a full-frontal assault” on the rental rules and argued that doing so could fatally complicate the enforcement system before it had a chance to work.

Bonin added that if mom-and-pop operators are relying on income from a second unit, “it would be great if those units were being rented by people who live permanently in Los Angeles” as tenants.

As L.A. faces a housing crisis, “every second unit is a unit that could be made available for housing and should be made available for housing,” said James Elmendorf, policy director for the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, which advocated limiting short-term rentals.

Many hosts say that they can’t or won’t do that. Some rental operators say they need to be able to use a second unit from time to time to put up family or other visitors, making it impossible to bring in a longtime tenant. Others say it just won’t bring in enough money to cover their bills.

Lennon said he had rented his property to tenants before, only to end up with scofflaws who stopped paying the rent. When he went to court to eject them, “I lost what little savings I had,” he said.

In Eagle Rock, Peter Hwang bought a triplex and is living with his family in one unit, renting another to a longtime tenant, and advertising the third for short stays.

Hwang said that if he couldn’t rent out that third unit to travelers, there would be no way he could afford to keep renting to his tenant — an elderly woman whose rent he hasn’t raised.

Renting out both units to long-term tenants would mean “hemorrhaging money every month,” he said. If the city starts enforcing the rules, Hwang said he would have to consider selling the triplex.

Cross said that with her second child due in November, she is trying to get rid of the furniture in her second unit in Highland Park and find a tenant.

The higher rates she can get from short-term rentals — between $100 and $140 a night — have helped cushion the irregular income she and her husband bring in as an actress and jazz musician, she said.

“It’s going to be OK for a few months,” Cross said. “But I worry about the month after that.”

Hosts have also raised concerns about soon-to-be enforced restrictions on hosting such rentals in “granny flats” or accessory units, as well as a blanket ban on units that fall under the Rent Stabilization Ordinance, which limits rent hikes. Krich said that if those rules are not changed, she would likely have to sell her property and delay starting a family.

Online platforms like Airbnb and VRBO have urged the city to hold off on enforcing the rules. VRBO representatives have argued that L.A. should wait and continue to work on “holistic” rules that regulate night-to-night rentals in all kinds of properties, including “traditional vacation rentals.”

Homeshare Alliance Los Angeles, the recently formed group for hosts, has suggested allowing people to rent out two units — their primary residence and a second unit — on L.A. parcels with four units or fewer. It also wants people living in rent stabilized units to be allowed to offer up their own primary homes for short stays.

The push to delay enforcement and revisit the rental rules has worried tenant activists and other critics of Airbnb-type rentals. A coalition of tenant advocates, community groups and the hotel industry has urged city leaders to start enforcing the restrictions in November to “stop the bleeding of our housing stock.”

“If the city wants to strategically focus their enforcement resources on … corporate owned and operated short-term rentals, I don’t think you’re going to hear us complain,” said Bill Przylucki, executive director of the community organizing group People Organized for Westside Renewal.

But “this is the law,” he said. “There are elections in 2020 if you’re really that upset about it.”

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No week can be without artistic controversy — and this week offers one over a popular desert biennial and another over the Nobel Prize for literature. I’m Carolina A. Miranda, staff writer at the Los Angeles Times, with everything that’s simmering:

Desert X in Saudi Arabia

Desert X, the Coachella Valley art biennial, is headed to Saudi Arabia for its 2020 iteration, and the move has generated an outcry, especially in light of columnist Jamal Khashoggi‘s brutal assassination last year. The Times’ Deborah Vankin reports that three biennial board members have resigned in protest: artist Ed Ruscha, curator Yael Lipschutz and fashion designer Tristan Milanovich.

Lipschutz told Vankin that staging an exhibition in Saudi Arabia was “completely unethical.” And in an interview with the Desert Sun, Ruscha compared it to “inviting Hitler to a tea party.”

In the galleries

Times art critic Christopher Knight reviews the Hammer Museum’s retrospective on L.A. painter Lari Pittman (whom I profiled last month). Writes Knight: “Rather than one-dimensional agitprop, Pittman’s paintings offer complex states of agitated being. (Trauma is never fully assuaged.) At once sweet, sour and spicy, the flavor is Pachamama — ancient Andean goddess of immovable mountains, who also delivers earthquakes.”

Also on Knight’s docket: an exhibition of work by Philip Guston at Hauser & Wirth, which includes the artist’s scathing pen-and-ink drawings of Richard Nixon from the 1970s. “Today, in 2019,” writes Knight, “as presidential scandals erupt and an impeachment inquiry unfolds, be prepared for flashbacks.”

He also reports on an exhibition by Sayre Gomez at François Ghebaly Gallery, a “disconcerting show” that is “spot-on for the anxieties of life today,” as well as an immersive installation by Ernesto Neto at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. “The Amazon rainforest of Brazil, Bolivia and Peru is aflame from a greedy mix of agribusiness and climate change,” says Knight. “But in Neto’s art, a thoughtful space for absorbing the nutrients of social interaction unfurls.”

At Karma International L.A., contributor David Pagel checks out paintings of car wrecks by Alex Becerra that are “violent collisions of images,” as well as “thoughtful meditations on the way we make sense of modern life.”

Pagel also reports on L.A. painter Tomory Dodge’s “fresh and jaunty” abstractions at Philip Martin Gallery and a show by Dona Nelson at Michael Benevento Gallery that “scares off viewers who want abstract paintings — especially abstract paintings made by women — to be safe.”

The Times’ Makeda Easter charts the historical phenomena that shaped the work on view in “Where the Sea Remembers,” a show of contemporary art inspired by Vietnam at the Mistake Room. “The year 2007 — when Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization — is an important point of context for the exhibition,” she writes. “It marks a peak in the country’s efforts to open its economy, soften its borders.”

Contributor Sharon Mizota took a renegade tour of the Getty Center with a group called Bad Ass Bitches. “It is all about looking critically at traditional art history through the lens of female empowerment,” she writes.

Classical notes

Who will replace Plácido Domingo as general director at L.A. Opera? No one, reports The Times’ Jessica Gelt. “L.A. Opera’s board of directors announced that it will consolidate the role of general director with the duties of company president and chief executive officer Christopher Koelsch, whose title will remain the same.”

There are new faces in classical music around Southern California: American conductor Michael Christie began his tenure at the New West Symphony in Thousand Oaks, and Venezuelan Rafael Payare took over the baton at the San Diego Symphony. “Both orchestras are embracing the mission of refreshing the modern concert experience for a new generation,” writes Times classical music critic Mark Swed.

Swed also writes about performances by the L.A. Phil that reflect how director Gustavo Dudamel has refused to accept the singular “America” into his vocabulary — “only Américas or Americas.” The shows featured work by U.S. composers such as Barber, Gershwin, Previn and Copland alongside works by the Mexican Carlos Chávez and a new composition by Argentine composer Esteban Benzecry.

On the stage

At South Coast Repertory, Adam Bock’s “The Canadians” is receiving its world premiere under the direction of Jaime Castañeda.

The first half plays “like a Canadian version of ‘The Office,’” writes Times theater critic Charles McNulty, and the second is “a queer version of ‘The Love Boat.’” But “something real takes over,” says McNulty, “a quiet truth about the way strangers can enter our lives, even for a short time, and permanently extend their horizons.”

At the Hollywood Pantages, the national tour of “Anastasia” has landed. “Every backdrop is eye candy, saturated with luscious color,” writes Margaret Gray. But the narrative, based on the myth that the daughter of Czar Nicholas II survived the 1918 assassination of the Romanov family, needs work: “Even the best song in the world can be exasperating if it doesn’t seem to be taking the story anywhere.”

Santa Barbara Ensemble Theatre Company’s high-tech, modern-dress production of Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure,” a play at whose heart lies a sexual assault, makes a “chillingly effective” connection with the present, reports Philip Brandes.

Bekah Brunstetter‘s “Miss Lilly Gets Boned,” about the romantic travails of a 35-year-old virgin, got its West Coast premiere courtesy of Rogue Machine. And the results are mixed, writes F. Kathleen Foley, with action that “vaults from the twee to the dire.”

Lastly, The Times’ Ashley Lee has a report on how projection design, an area of theater that often goes unrecognized (it’s not traditional scenic or lighting design), is remaking works on stage. These special effects, which include projected animations, have “unlocked new storytelling possibilities for theatermakers,” she writes.

Ready for the weekend

Daryl H. Miller has the week’s guide to what’s doing in small theaters, including a haunted house version of “Macbeth.”

My weekly arts Datebook features a show at the MAK Center that provides a feminine lens through which to examine the work of Modernist architect R.M. Schindler.

And Matt Cooper rounds up nine great things to do in L.A. this week, including performances by soprano Renée Fleming and Dove Cameron in “The Light in the Piazza.”

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In other news…

— Architectural Digest, which was founded in L.A., is celebrating its 100th year of publication.
— Times design writer Lisa Boone wraps up the San Fernando Valley’s best architecture in one four-hour tour.
— “It’s smart, surgical, sprawling and slightly soulless.” Critic Michael Kimmelman pays the newly revamped Museum of Modern Art a visit.
— Critic Wesley Morris says black theater is having a moment — and it’s thanks to Tyler Perry.
— How a new version of “Porgy and Bess” raises old questions about race and opera.
— Argentine feminists remake the tango.
— The Nobel Prize for literature was awarded to Polish author Olga Tokarczuk and Austrian novelist Peter Handke this week.
— The prizes are an attempt for the Nobel to reestablish credibility in the wake of a #MeToo scandal, but “it’s only been half successful,” writes former Times book editor Carolyn Kellogg in the Chicago Tribune. “These winners are a home run and a big miss. Handke is a disaster.”
— The Kennedy Center is displaying paintings by George W. Bush, and it’s “unfortunate,” writes Philip Kennicott.

And last but not least…

Fred Armisen, art aficionado.

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