Authorities in Ventura County, Southern California, said that the Mountain Fire started Wednesday morning, burning several homes and injuring several individuals.
According to the Ventura County Fire Department, it began at approximately 8:50 a.m. in the Moorpark neighborhood, close to the 7900 block of Balcom Canyon Road and Bradley Road on South Mountain. The fire spread from 25 to 1,000 acres in just one hour.
Over 14,100 acres were burned during the night as the Mountain Fire continued to burn with no containment. Funds have been made available by the Federal Emergency Agency to assist in funding firefighting supplies.
Firefighters were concentrating on rescuing lives as the blaze ripped through neighborhoods, according to firefighter Andrew Dowd.
“Our No. 1 priority here at Ventura County Fire, in running this incident, is life safety,” Dowd stated. “And we’re urging all residents that are in the affected areas to make sure that they’re heeding evacuation orders. That’s our No. 1 priority.”
According to firefighters, a number of people were hospitalized due to injuries they experienced. The conditions of none of the victims were immediately known.
VCFD workers reported that the fire had crossed SR-118 and was advancing into the Camarillo area, encroaching on the Camarillo Heights area at approximately 11 a.m.
Hours after the fire began, on Wednesday afternoon, aerial footage saw four separate houses blazing in a Camarillo community close to Cabrillo Way and Highland Drive.
According to workers from the San Bernardino County Fire Department, a strike squad was sent to the scene to help VCFD with the situation.
Orders for evacuation
Many Camarillo, Somis, and Santa Clara River residents received evacuation warnings and orders from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office. At Padre Serra Parish, which is situated at 5205 Upland Road in Camarillo, authorities set up an evacuation center.
It was recommended that homeowners with large pets take their animals to the Ventura County Fairgrounds, which is situated at 10 E. Harbor Boulevard. The Ventura County Animal Services facility at the Camarillo Airport, 600 Aviation Drive, is open to small pets.
According to VCFD, hard road closures were implemented at SR-118 at Tierra Rejada and Wells Road, as well as at Stockton’s Balcom Canyon Road and Lewis’s Las Posas. They also shut down N. Lewis Road at midday.
Closing of schools
As firefighters attempt to put out the Mountain Fire, over a dozen districts and schools have been forced to close.
The Camarillo Heights Elementary School site was evacuated by Pleasant Valley School District officials “due to the wind event and related fires in surrounding communities.” Students who were not picked up were transported to Monte Vista Middle School by bus.
Over a dozen additional districts and schools declared their closures for the remainder of the week.
Strong winds that feed fires
Red Flag Warnings were issued by the National Weather Service because of the fire and the strong winds that are sweeping through most of Southern California.
They declared a “Particularly Dangerous Situation” in this case because to the danger posed by “an ongoing or imminent fire weather pattern.”
As the fire blazed, meteorologists recorded gusts of wind that exceeded 60 miles per hour.
According to VCFD, the high winds forced firefighting fixed-wing aircraft to ground, creating even another obstacle to complete containment.
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There are power outages
SoCal Edison started cutting power to some customers because of the increased fire risk caused by the Santa Ana wind storm, which was expected to extend all day.
The Public Safety Power Shutoffs, which will continue to evolve as the fire burns, impacted about 23,300 SCE customers in Ventura County as of 1 p.m.
While Santa Rosa Technology Magnet School was on a watch list for another outage, Monte Vista and Las Posas Schools were also affected by power outages.
