Raging out of control, Southern California's most active brush and forest fire in years was destroying residences and estates on October 23, 1935, in Altadena and vicinity. The photo shows the blackened ruins of La Vina Sanitarium, from which 60 persons, many of them bed-ridden patients, were saved by heroic efforts as glowing embers showered over the buildings in dense clouds of smoke. Fourteen child patients added to the difficulty of rescuers' work. Shortly after the patients were removed to safety in Pasadena hospitals, the raging flames swept down from the denuded hills in the background and destroyed the frame buildings of the sanitarium. Rescue workers in autos and ambulances dashed through walls of flames along Lincoln Avenue to carry the patients to safety. The fire started along the Mount Lowe incline and was fanned by a 50-mile wind toward Altadena.
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