3,500 homes threatened as wildfire rages in Southern California

Firefighters struggled to contain a fast-moving wildfire in Ventura County Thursday that had already destroyed several homes and forced thousands to evacuate — and the dangerous winds that fueled those flames were forecast to continue into Friday.

Extreme Santa Ana winds helped propel several fires across the region, but the wildfire exploded Wednesday, sweeping into the foothills of the communities surrounding Camarillo and Moorpark.

As of Thursday morning, the fire was listed at 14,500 acres with zero containment, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, but after an active night, its actual footprint is likely much larger, officials said.

It is still unclear exactly how many homes have been lost, but the devastation was evident along the hillsides, where the charred shells of structures smouldered.

Additional evacuation orders were issued early Thursday for residents of Santa Paula, located just north of the Santa Clara River. Wednesday’s fire had started south of the river, but strong winds pushed the blaze west, with embers sparking new flames up to two and a half miles ahead of the main fire line.

“When a fire — a wind-driven fire — is spotting that far out, it’s really hard to focus on any kind of perimeter control,” Thomas Shoots, a CalFire spokesman, said from the fire command post at the Ventura County Fairgrounds Thursday. morning.

Helicopters were back in the air Thursday morning, after a long night of firefighting.

“When you have a fire that’s over 14,000 acres, that’s a lot of vulnerabilities where it could potentially just keep spreading,” Shoots said.

The National Weather Service issued a “Specially Hazardous Situation” red flag warning Wednesday, warning of “widespread, extreme fire weather conditions” in Southwest California. The alert had not been increased to that level in the Los Angeles area since 2020.

But as of Thursday morning, forecasters predicted slightly better conditions for the mountain fire compared to the day before, with expectations that the wind “would not be as strong as Wednesday and the wind will die down more quickly in the afternoon.”

Still, winds pushing the fire southwest could sustain speeds of 30 to 55 mph with gusts as high as 100 mph in wind-exposed mountainous locations Thursday, Ventura County emergency officials warned.

While firefighters made some progress overnight, Shoots said there is still concern that the wind will fan more flames across an area ripe for burning, with extremely dry brush and vegetation.

The strong winds can push the fire quickly up the hills and build momentum that can create explosive fire behavior. The area where firefighters saw long-range spotting Wednesday is a mix of urban development surrounded by bush.

“It creates kind of a recipe for disaster,” Shoots said.

He said fire inspectors are out assessing how many structures have been damaged and destroyed, but a precise estimate was not available Thursday, Shoots said.

“We know there was a lot,” he said.

At least 3,500 homes and other structures are threatened and more than 10,000 people have been forced to evacuate, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said federal funds had been secured to help fight the fire.

Southern California Edison began shutting off power to customers in areas where its equipment was deemed at high risk of starting a wildfire.

Nearly 70,000 utility customers across the Southland had power outages Thursday morning “due to increased wildfire risk.” according to the supply. About a third of the outages were initiated in Ventura County, but power was also cut across Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura and Orange counties. Another 257,000 were considered for safety outages in those areas through at least Thursday, as were customers in Santa Barbara and Tulare counties, SCE reported.

The majority of the National Weather Service’s red flags and high wind warnings across the region were set to expire Thursday night, but a standard red flag warning would remain in effect until Friday morning for the Ventura County mountains, Interstate 5- corridor and the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains.

Santa Barbara County Fire Capt. Hugh Montgomery said his crew had successfully saved about a dozen burning homes in the Camarillo hills, but not without challenges.

“We were inside a structure fire and started to make good progress when the hydrants ran dry,” he said. “I think everything is just so depleted of everyone sucking off the water system.

“It’s very unfortunate that people are losing homes and their belongings,” he added, “but from what we’ve heard, people are getting out safely, and that’s the most important thing.”

Red Cross volunteers set up cots and tables as the organization began converting the temporary evacuation center in Padre Serra Parish into a shelter. The Salvation Army arrived with hot meals.

The center opened at 10.30 am. By late afternoon, around a hundred evacuees had sought shelter inside.

A few arrived with minor burns sustained during the evacuation, said Dave Wagner, public affairs volunteer with the Red Cross. Many at the shelter worked to find accommodation with friends or family or in nearby hotels, with limited success. About 90 were to spend the night there, hoping to return home on Thursday.

Linda Elmo, an evacuee, said the flames were moving so fast that she and her husband had little time to escape. A firefighter knocked on the door and urged her and her husband to “go, go, go!”

“It happened so fast,” Elmo said.

Local authorities have issued air quality alerts due to smoke and ash from the wildfire in much of Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Dozens of Ventura County schools was closed Thursday due to the fire, and several are closed until Friday.

Times staff writers Richard Winton, Sandra McDonald and Noah Goldberg contributed to this report.