Thousands of firefighters continued to contain a massive wildfire that claimed 174 homes in Ventura County as weather forecasters warned residents to prepare for winds to pick up speed starting Monday.
Fire crews have contained about 36 percent of the fire’s perimeter by Monday afternoon, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).
No one was killed in the quick-moving fire.
Winds are expected to kick up again starting Monday night but are not expected to reach the speed of last week’s gusts.
According to National Weather Service meteorologist Ryan Walburn, humidity in the area should rise.
Walburn said the weather service did not issue a red-flag warning for the two-day event but only posted a weather advisory.
Fog and clouds were expected to develop in coastal areas, with wind gusting up to 25 miles per hour in the higher elevations.
“The reason there’s not a red flag warning for Tuesday and Wednesday wind event because that we believe the fuel moistures are going to be sufficiently more moist and the humidity is going to be a little bit higher,” Walburn told the public Sunday.
The National Weather Service issued a special “red flag warning” for the area last week just before the fire started.
Forecasters also warned the public it would be a “particularly dangerous situation” because of dry conditions and low humidity, accompanied by Santa Ana winds—a Southern California weather phenomenon that sends strong and extremely dry wind gusts through coastal and inland regions.
Ventura County Fire Department Chief Dustin Gardner said the fire impacted more than 30,000 people and 100 businesses that employ about 1,000 people.
“It’s been a long few days,” Gardner told the community Sunday. “For all of you that were impacted by this fire, for all of you that have suffered loss, we feel for you.”
Although the county’s fire department was prepared for the special fire danger last week, bumping up staffing levels to 300 firefighters, they also readied 65 emergency units, four hand crews, three bulldozers, and three firefighting helicopters to drop retardant that worked all day and night.
Within 90 minutes after the fire started, fire crews from all around the region came to help battle the blaze, Gardner said. Partners arrived from Orange, Los Angeles, and Kern counties, along with U.S. Forest Service, and local cities.
At the height of the emergency, more than 1,000 firefighters were working on extinguishing the fire, according to the fire chief.
“We had resources from South Central [Los Angeles] drive Code 3 all the way up here, get off the freeway and engage in pulling people out of burning homes within 90 minutes,” Gardner said.
Most of the firefighters worked 30 hours during the first shift to save lives and homes, Gardner said.
“I know we suffered great damage, but thousands of homes were saved, and hundreds of lives were rescued,” he said.
At one point, sheriff’s deputies saved an elderly woman from her home as the flames arrived.
The fire started in the rural area of Somis at Balcom Canyon and Bradley roads, around orchards and fields. According to Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff, strong winds carried a burning ember from that location 2.5 miles away to the residential area of Camarillo Heights.
“We called in every available resource we had,” Fryhoff said at Sunday’s town hall meeting.
Two county jails were also locked down, allowing deputies to help rescue fire victims.
More than 14,000 people were evacuated during the height of the fire and many were still waiting to return home, according to the sheriff.
Southern California Edison, which serves area residents with electricity, began working Sunday to replace 30 poles, according to Fryhoff.
Fourteen fire investigators were still searching for the origin and cause of the fire Monday, fire officials told community members at a town hall meeting Sunday.
Crews were focused on mopping up and patrolling Camarillo Heights and suppressing the fire, he said.
