Elevacuating a Santa Paula home after a wildfire destroyed two houses in the first day of the Mountain Fire, CAMARILLo (Calif.)
CAMARILLO, Calif. — A Southern California wildfire has destroyed 132 structures, mostly homes, in less than two days, fire officials said Thursday as raging winds were forecast to ease.
Ventura County Sheriff James Fry Hoff said there have been ten people injured in the fire. Most of them suffered from smoke inhalation or other non-life-threatening injuries.
Some 10,000 people remained under evacuation orders Thursday as the Mountain Fire continued to threaten some 3,500 structures in suburban neighborhoods, ranches and agricultural areas around Camarillo in Ventura County.
Some homes along the hillsides of Santa Paula, a city with over 30,000 people, are being protected by crews in steep terrain with support from water-dropping helicopters.
Kelly Barton was watching as firefighters searched through the charred rubble for her parents’ home, which had a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean. The safes and a collection of vintage door knockers were undamaged by the crews.
Her father returned to the house an hour after evacuating Wednesday to find it already destroyed. Barton said he was able to move four of their vintage cars to safety, but two were burned to death.
The Mountain Fire in Santa Paula, California, on Thursday afternoon: Firefighter Eriksen, 50-year old neighbor, and state of emergency
Officials in several Southern California counties urged residents to be on watch for fast-spreading blazes, power outages and downed trees during the latest round of notorious Santa Ana winds, including in a rural area of northern San Diego County where a brush fire prompted mandatory evacuations Friday afternoon.
Santa Anas are dry and warm gusts of wind that blow from Southern California toward the coast and offshore in a different direction than normal moist air from the Pacific. During the fall and winter, they occur.
The red flag warnings were the only red flag warnings which were still in effect in most of the area on Thursday.
The Mountain Fire is burning in a region that has seen several destructive fires in the past. The fire grew quickly from just a half square mile to more than 16 square miles within 5 hours on Wednesday. By Thursday evening it was mapped at about 32 square miles and Gov. Gavin Newsom had proclaimed a state of emergency in the county.
The fire that ravaged a farm in Santa Paula kept firefighters from spreading to his home, vehicles, and other structures, as it engulfed compost and wood chips.
The flames were up to 30 feet tall and moving quickly, Eriksen said Thursday. Their speed and ferocity overwhelmed him, but the firefighters kept battling to save as much as they could on his property. He said they dodged a bullet thanks to their work.
“We thought we were going to lose it at 7:00 this morning,” Boggie said Thursday as white smoke billowed through the neighborhood. She initially fled with her two dogs while her sister and nephew stayed behind. She stated that the situation seemed to be better hours later.
The 2018 Woolsey Fire: A devastating fire for a Camarillo man and his wife, Bill Nardoni, and his family
More than a dozen schools and campuses in the county were closed on Thursday, and a few of them will be shut down on Friday.
After a number of deadly wildfires in recent years caused by electrical lines and infrastructure, California’s utilities started to power down equipment during high winds and extreme fire danger.
The 2018 Woolsey Fire, which killed three people and destroyed 1,600 homes near Los Angeles, was one of many destructive fires that burned in the area in recent years. The company has paid a lot of money to settle claims after it was found that its equipment was involved in the fires.
The flames engulfed both sides of their road as Nardoni, his wife and his mother-in-law fled. The home they purchased a year ago was destroyed on Friday when they returned.
Bill Nardoni and his family sifted through the rubble of their Camarillo home on Friday afternoon and discovered his wedding ring in a safe. But his wife’s, kept in a different safe in another part of their house, remained missing and Nardoni did not have high hopes that it would be found intact.
“If I hadn’t gotten the horses, I would have been devastated, but I have my family and I have my animals so, I’m OK. I will rebuild,” she said standing outside the remains of her home of 50 years while her dog stayed in her car.
Ventura County Sheriff’s Office: Re-opening and winds expected at the end of the BFKL Dark Matter Searches
The Sheriff said that the population of Ventura County had been repopulated by 3,500 houses, but some people still haven’t been able to go back.
Forecasters expect light winds over the weekend that will continue to aid firefighters. Meteorologists are monitoring a weather system that could hit Southern California next week but it is not expected to bring another round of extreme winds like earlier this week.