Strong winds push wildfire through Southern California community, burning dozens of homes

By MARCIO J. SANCHEZ, CHRISTOPHER WEBER and STEFANIE DAZIO

CAMARILLO, Calif. — An out-of-control wildfire fueled by heavy winds was tearing through a community northwest of Los Angeles for a second day Thursday after destroying dozens of homes and forcing thousands of residents to flee when it exploded in size in only a few hours.

The Mountain Fire prompted evacuation orders Wednesday for more than 10,000 people as it threatened 3,500 structures in suburban neighborhoods, ranches and agricultural areas around Camarillo in Ventura County, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. There was zero containment Thursday morning.

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 by Thursday night 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 homes as embers whipped along residential blocks.

The fire swiftly grew from less than half of 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). Efforts to battle the blaze continued through the night on the ground and with helicopters.

At least 800 firefighters were assigned to the blaze and hundreds more were arriving from around the state, the department said. Damage estimates were expected to begin Thursday, but the Ventura County Fire Department said numerous structures were impacted.

First responders pleaded with residents to evacuate. Deputies made contact with 14,000 people to urge them to leave as embers spread for miles and sparked new flames.

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 already expected to be closed Friday.

Ventura County Fire Captain Trevor Johnson described crews racing with their engines to homes threatened by the flames to save lives.

“This is as intense as it gets. The hair on the back of the firefighters’ neck I’m sure was standing up,” he said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

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 into the region. 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 experience conditions ripe for “extreme and life-threatening” fire behavior into Thursday, after which conditions will calm, the weather service said. A gust of 72 mph (116 kph) was recorded early Thursday at an elevation of about 4,800 feet (1,463 meters) near Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles, the service said.

Forecasters also issued red flag warnings until Thursday from California's central coast through the San Francisco Bay Area and into counties to the north, where strong winds were also expected.

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 of wildfires, Southern California Edison said Thursday. More than 250,000 customers were at risk of power shutoffs due to the wildfire concerns, the company said.

Wednesday's 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.