California wildfire burns out of control but firefighters could get a break when winds diminish

CAMARILLO, Calif. — (AP) — A wildfire northwest of Los Angeles burned out of control for a second day Thursday after destroying dozens of homes, but officials said firefighters could get a break with fierce winds expected to subside by evening.

More than 10,000 residents remained under evacuation orders as the Mountain Fire continued to threaten some 3,500 structures in suburban neighborhoods, ranches and agricultural areas around Camarillo in Ventura County. The blaze, which broke out around 9 a.m. Wednesday, had zero containment, and the cause was unknown.

County fire officials said crews working in steep terrain with support from water-dropping helicopters were focusing on protecting homes on hillsides along the fire's northeast edge near the city of Santa Paula, home to more than 30,000 people.

“It’s been a long 26 hours since this incident started, and it remains dynamic and it remains dangerous,” Ventura County Fire Department Chief Dustin Gardner said at a Thursday morning briefing.

Kelly Barton, 43, watched as firefighters sifted through the charred rubble of her parents’ ranch home of 20 years in the hills of Camarillo with a view of the Pacific Ocean. The crews uncovered two safes and her parents’ collection of vintage door knockers undamaged among the devastation.

“This was their forever retirement home,” Barton said Thursday. “Now in their 70s, they have to start over.”

Her father returned to the house an hour after evacuating Wednesday to find it already destroyed. He was able to move four of their vintage cars to safety but two — including a Chevy Nova that he had since he was 18 — burned to “toast,” Barton said.

The National Weather Service said a red flag warning, which indicates conditions for high fire danger, would remain in effect until 6 p.m. Winds were expected to decrease significantly but humidity levels will remain critically low, forecasters said.

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.

The Mountain Fire was burning in a region that has seen some of California’s most destructive fires over the years. A thick plume of smoke rose hundreds of feet into the sky Wednesday, blanketing whole neighborhoods and limiting visibility for firefighters and evacuees. Aerial TV footage showed flames consuming dozens of homes as embers whipped along residential blocks.

The fire swiftly grew from less than half a square mile (about 1.2 square kilometers) to more than 16 square miles (41 square kilometers) in little more than five hours. By Thursday morning it was mapped at just over 22 square miles (57 square kilometers).

At least 800 firefighters were assigned to the blaze and hundreds more were arriving from around the state, the department said. Numerous structures were affected, fire officials said, but the extent of the destruction will not be known until the 10 damage assessment teams deployed Thursday complete their work.

Marcus Eriksen, who has a farm in Santa Paula, said firefighters kept embers from spreading to his home, his vehicles and other structures even as piles of compost and wood chips were engulfed.

The flames were up to 30 feet (9 meters) 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. Thanks to their work, “we dodged a bullet, big time,” he said.

First responders pleaded with residents to heed evacuation orders. Deputies made contact with 14,000 people Wednesday to urge them to leave as embers spread for up to 3 miles (5 kilometers) and sparked new flames.

Sharon Boggie said the fire came within 200 feet (60 meters) of her house in Santa Paula.

“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. Hours later the situation seemed better, she said.

The Ventura County Office of Education announced that more than a dozen school districts and campuses in the county were closed Thursday, and a few were expected to be closed Friday.

Two people suffered apparent smoke inhalation and were taken to hospitals Wednesday, fire officials said. No firefighters reported significant injuries.

Meanwhile to the south, Los Angeles County Fire Department crews responded to a wildfire Wednesday in Malibu where authorities briefly shut down the Pacific Coast Highway when flames burned near multimillion-dollar properties. Officials said two structures burned in the 50-acre (20-hectare) Broad Fire.

Santa Anas are dry, warm and gusty northeast winds that blow from the interior of Southern California toward the coast and offshore, moving in the opposite direction of the normal onshore flow that carries moist air from the Pacific. They typically occur during the fall months and continue through winter and into early spring.

With gusts topping 60 mph (97 kph) and humidity levels as low as 9%, parts of Southern California could be ripe for “extreme and life-threatening” fire behavior into Thursday, after which conditions will calm, the weather service said.

Forecasters also issued red flag warnings until Thursday from California's central coast through the San Francisco Bay Area and counties to the north.

Utilities in California began powering down equipment during high winds and extreme fire danger after a series of massive and deadly wildfires in recent years were sparked by electrical lines and other infrastructure.

Power was shut off to nearly 70,000 customers in five counties over the heightened risk, Southern California Edison said Thursday, and more than 250,000 other customers were at risk of shutoffs.

Gabriela Ornelas, a spokesperson for Edison, could not immediately answer whether power had been shut off in the area where the Mountain Fire was sparked. Ornelas said outages can be a hardship to customers but at times it is necessary for safety reasons.

The wildfires burned in the same areas of other recent destructive infernos, including the 2018 Woolsey Fire, which killed three people and destroyed 1,600 homes near Los Angeles, and the 2017 Thomas Fire, which burned more than a thousand homes and other structures in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Southern California Edison has paid tens of millions of dollars to settle claims after its equipment was blamed for both blazes.

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Weber reported from Los Angeles. Jaimie Ding and Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles; Ethan Swope in Camarillo; Eugene Garcia in Santa Paula; Amy Taxin in Orange County; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; and Sarah Brumfield in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

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