Walls of flame fanned by a furious wind. Southern California grapples with a giant fire, so determined that firefighters seem helpless. The small brush fire that started Wednesday morning near the town of Camarillo, between Santa Barbara and Santa Monica, ravaged more than 80 km2 of area in just 24 hours. Aerial footage from Los Angeles’s KABC showed what appeared to be rows and rows of destroyed homes in the towns of Camarillo, Moorpark and Somi. At least 132 structures – including many homes – were destroyed by the fire now called the Mountain Fire, and 88 were damaged, firefighters said in a news release Thursday evening. Ten people were injured in the fire, Ventura County Sheriff James Fryhoff said, most suffering from smoke inhalation.
Mountain Fire was, as of Thursday evening, only 5% contained. It continues to spread through the steep hills running toward Los Angeles and along a highway. Under a state of emergency, Governor Gavin Newsom (Democrat) mobilized state and federal resources to fight the fire in the county. An investigation is underway to determine whether Mountain Fire was caused accidentally or intentionally.
In a context of abnormally high temperatures for the entire American West for weeks, the fire was fanned by the Santa Ana wind (or Santana wind), a hot and dry wind which sweeps southern California during the autumn and winter, bringing heat and dust. In recent decades, Santa Ana has been the site of numerous giant fires, notably the Cedar Fire which in October and November 2003 destroyed eleven times the area of Paris and killed fifteen people.
Some residents say they barely had time to leave their homes before it was engulfed in flames. At least 800 firefighters were mobilized on Thursday, with water throwing helicopters, reinforcements should intervene this Friday. But the fight is not on equal terms: “It’s like trying to put out a blowtorch with a water gun,” compared Captain Tony McHale of the Ventura County Fire Department.
Dozens of schools were closed for two days. About 10,000 people were ordered to evacuate suburban neighborhoods, ranches and agricultural areas around Camarillo. “The Ventura County Fairgrounds are at capacity and will no longer be able to accommodate the large animals that have been evacuated,” local authorities said. 125 evacuees spent the night from Wednesday to Thursday at Padre Serra Parish in Camarillo. Some evacuees only had their keys and cell phones with them.
The National Weather Service has issued alert warnings for Ventura and Los Angeles counties that will remain in effect until at least Friday morning even though the winds have dropped back to 35 mph. A short-lived lull, probably, since the Santa Ana winds are expected to start blowing again next week, accelerating the urgency for emergency services to control the Mountain Fire as quickly as possible. “Our goal is not only to take care of the entire community here, but also to stabilize this fire so that we can free up resources and be ready for the next one,” argued Ventura County Fire Capt. Trevor Johnson, during a press conference.
According to the New York Times’ real-time large fire tracking map, 18 are underway, including six in California.
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