A home burns along Old Coach Drive in Camarillo during the Mountain fire. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Fueled by blasts from one of the most extreme wind events in years, the Mountain fire leaped and roared through more than 14,000 acres in Ventura County on Wednesday, devouring homes and trapping some residents.
The wildfire threatened 3,500 homes and other structures and forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 people, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said federal funds had been secured to help in the firefight.
Local residents, meanwhile, were trying to make sense of all that had happened in the blink of an eye.
Ron Richards saved his cat Coco, but he has no idea if his house will survive.
He went outside his Camarillo Heights home Wednesday morning to check the Santa Ana winds. He smelled and saw smoke in the distance. The wind was blowing the smoke directly toward him. It got thicker and thicker by the minute.
Richards’ home, on Goldenspur Drive in Camarillo Heights, was in the direct line of the fire.
The 81-year-old took Coco and his laptop and some other belongings and got in his car to head to a friend’s home in Ojai. Now all he can do is hope that his house is not among those that have been claimed in his neighborhood.
“If my house isn’t there when I get back ...” he said, trailing off.
The Mountain fire was one of a pair of fires that ignited amid extreme winds in Southern California and had authorities rushing to save people from fast-moving flames.
“What’s going on on the ground right now is a very aggressive effort by our Fire Department and our mutual aid partners who have responded to support us to protect life first and then follow that up by protecting property,” Andrew Dowd, Ventura County Fire Department public information officer, told KTLA-TV.
Several homes burned in Camarillo Heights, including on Richards’ street. KTLA reported that an aerial view showed at least a dozen homes on fire Wednesday afternoon.
The high winds meant that retardant-dropping airplanes were unable to aid in the firefighting effort, the department said. The fire hopped the 118 Freeway and marched into Camarillo Heights. As a result, the California Highway Patrol closed the 118 Freeway between Oxnard and Camarillo.
Meanwhile, a brush fire broke out at Pacific Coast Highway and Malibu Canyon Road at around 9 a.m. Wednesday. The fire burned 33 acres before firefighters halted its progress, according to Malibu Mayor Doug Stewart. Nearby residents were temporarily under a shelter-in-place order. No one was injured, but three homes were damaged.
In Ventura County, firefighters were facing an uphill battle.
“It’s like trying to put out a blowtorch with a squirt gun,” Ventura County Fire Capt. Tony McHale told KABC-TV.
The fire was burning through neighborhoods where ranches, orchards and small homes dot the landscape, McHale said.
In the afternoon, thick gray smoke filled the air in the hillside neighborhood of Las Posas Estates, which was illuminated by the flashing red lights of fire vehicles and bright orange bursts of small brush fires dotting the sides of the road. Fierce winds whipped up dust and dried leaves, and knocked branches off trees.
Flames were leaping from the remains of a charred structure at Marine View Drive and Vista Del Mar Avenue. Down the street on Vista Del Mar, a fire crew was extinguishing a spot fire with hoses.
As extreme wind events increase the threat of wildfires, Southern California Edison is shutting off power to some of its customers.
Evacuations in the Camarillo Heights neighborhood were underway Wednesday in areas of Camarillo and unincorporated Somis.
Law enforcement and search-and-rescue volunteers were dispatched, according to Ventura County Fire Chief Dustin Gardner.
Crews went door to door knocking and traveled streets with sirens and bullhorns, Gardner said at a Wednesday afternoon news conference.
“This fire is moving dangerously fast,” the fire chief said. “Your homes can be replaced; your life can’t.”
A number of structures had been damaged, officials said at the news conference, but an accurate count was not yet available.
At the Padre Serra Parish on Upland Road in Camarillo, senior evacuees were left stunned and anxious. Many of them sat in wheelchairs at the evacuation center.
Linda Elmo was waiting outside the parish for Ventura County emergency personnel to bring a wheelchair for her to get to the building Wednesday afternoon.
The 75-year-old had noticed the winds picking up near her home that morning and was listening to the news but said she didn’t receive notice about an evacuation until a firefighter was at her house knocking on the door and telling her and her husband to “go, go, go!”
“It happened so fast,” Elmo said.
Elmo, who uses an Inogen portable oxygen machine, said she left half her medication at home.
First responders saved a number of senior citizens. Video showed Ventura County sheriff’s deputies rushing older Moorpark residents in wheelchairs down steep driveways and out of homes amid orange haze and wind gusts, Key News Network video showed. Deputies lifted those who could not walk into police cars and drove quickly away from encroaching fire just coming into view over small hills.
The fires started amid a Santa Ana wind event that was generating 70- to 80-mph wind gusts in some parts of Los Angeles County on Wednesday, triggering power outages, traffic concerns and warnings of fire risk.
“We’re faced with extreme fire weather,” McHale said.
Santa Barbara County Fire Capt. Hugh Montgomery was among the many regional firefighters deployed to the Mountain fire. His shift began at 8 a.m., and he said he expected to work for 24 to 36 hours.
By 5 p.m., his crew had successfully salvaged around a dozen burning homes in the hills of Camarillo but not without challenges.
“We were inside of a structure fire and starting to make good headway when the hydrants went dry,” he said. “I think everything is just so depleted from everyone sucking off of the water system.”
Although water pressure has been an issue, the incessant high winds have been the biggest challenge when it comes to stopping fires from consuming homes, he said.
“It’s very unfortunate that people are losing homes and their belongings,” Montgomery said, “but from what we’ve heard, people are getting out safely, and that’s the most important thing,”
As the sun set, it glowed an ominous bright orange behind the thick black plumes of smoke rising up from the Camarillo hills. While most evacuated homes were dark, with no inhabitants to turn the lights on, others were lighted up by flames as firefighters continued to combat structure fires into the night.
At the evacuation center, Karen Cihigoyenetche, 81, told The Times she and her husband Raymond, 92, had evacuated with their “bug out” bags packed with dollar bills, extra clothes and medicine. The route to the evacuation center, however, was packed with vehicles — a drive that usually took 15 minutes was an hourlong slog.
Cihigoyenetche, who said she and her husband both have health problems, became emotional recounting her fear for her neighbors and the possibility of losing her home. She noted, however, that before she adopted her terrier mix dog, Simon, he survived the Thompson fire, which left scars on his back. Now, she said, they’d survive this fire together.
Residents across Southern California are facing a level of fire danger that hasn’t been seen in years.
The National Weather Service issued a “particularly dangerous situation” red flag alert, warning of “widespread, extreme fire weather conditions” through Friday across southwest California. The alert hadn’t been heightened to that level in the Los Angeles area since 2020, according to Ariel Cohen, the lead meteorologist for the weather service’s office in Oxnard.
“This is a very rare category that we use to describe the most extreme, critical conditions,” Cohen said. “The potential is there for exceptionally large fires to form.”
Newsom announced Wednesday that California had secured a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to aid in firefighting efforts.
“This is a dangerous fire that’s spreading quickly and threatening lives,” Newsom said in a statement. “State resources have been mobilized ... and this federal support from the Biden-Harris Administration will give state and local firefighters the resources they need.”
In an effort to mitigate risks, on Tuesday night Southern California Edison began shutting off power to customers in areas where its equipment was considered at high risk of sparking a wildfire.
More than 65,000 utility customers across the Southland had power cut as of Wednesday afternoon “due to heightened wildfire risk,” according to the utility. Shutoffs, which had affected Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura, Orange and Santa Barbara counties early Wednesday, were extended into parts of Kern and Tulare counties. An additional 254,000 were being considered for safety shutoffs through at least Thursday, SCE reported.
The extremely high winds, low humidity and dry brush were creating a “very volatile combination,” Cohen said.
The alert was issued for wide swaths of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Much of the surrounding area also is facing dangerous winds, with high-wind or standard red flag warnings issued for mountains in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, the Inland Empire and parts of Orange County.
“This is definitely a rare footprint size for a Santa Ana wind event,” Cohen said. “It’s rather uncommon ... for the high winds to expand all the way through the L.A. Basin.”
He said high winds were expected to affect coastal areas as well, including the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Long Beach.
The strongest gusts were expected in the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains, where gusts of 50 to 100 mph were predicted and humidity levels were expected to drop to as low as 8% — creating prime conditions for “extreme and life-threatening” fire behavior, according to the weather service.
Although fast-moving fires were the main concern, the weather service also was urging residents to be on guard for downed trees and power lines, and for dangerous winds on certain roadways. In the Antelope Valley, a high-wind advisory was in effect on the 14 Freeway from Ward Road to the Kern County line, where the California Highway Patrol was urging people to be extra cautious driving large vehicles or hauling trailers.
“There’s a lot of damage going on out there, very dangerous driving conditions,” Cohen said. The CHP responded to an overturned semitruck on the 210 Freeway early Wednesday blocking eastbound lanes, officials said.
As a result of the elevated fire risk and high winds, Topanga Canyon Boulevard was closed between Mulholland Drive and the Pacific Coast Highway at 6 a.m. Wednesday. The closure was expected to continue until 6 a.m. Friday.
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High winds also were expected in the San Francisco Bay Area and on the Central Coast, where the weather service issued a standard red flag warning that started Tuesday morning and was set to extend through at least 7 a.m. Thursday.
Pacific Gas & Electric initiated thousands of power shutoffs beginning Tuesday night across Northern California, affecting up to 22,000 customers by late Wednesday.
In addition to the preventive shutoffs in an effort to avoid fire sparks, the utility said more than 32,000 lost power Wednesday due to wind damage. Planned and unplanned outages were expected to continue through at least Thursday.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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