“Firefighters were engaged right off the bat with pulling people out of their houses and saving lives,” said Trevor Johnson, Operations Chief of the Ventura County Fire Department at a press conference today to discuss the Mountain Fire northwest of Los Angeles. He said it was “a tough fire fight” from the moment emergency personnel arrived on scene this morning in the area between between Moorpark and Somis.
The Mountain Fire is currently at 10,480 acres with 0% containment. Emergency responders have made more than 14,000 contacts to evacuate people in the community, according to officials. Two civilians were transported to the hospital with smoke inhalation.
One day after a historic presidential election, every local newscast in Los Angeles was focused on coverage of the Mountain Fire, including images of homes burning, correspondents on the ground and interviews with evacuees and local officials.
“This is a classic Santa Ana wind event. We’ve got sustained winds over 50 mph with gusts over 80,” said Ventura County Fire Chief Dustin Gardner. “Every firefighter in the region, all of our partners — from Los Angeles County, Orange County, Kern County, Santa Barbara County, our partners at CalFire, our partners in law enforcement, the Sheriff, every helicopter, every fixed wing aircraft, everything we’ve been able to get ahold of — is here fighting this fire, and it is moving at a dangerous rate of spread.”
A major contributing factor, said Gardner, is those winds. As a result, “This fire has spotted more than two and one-half miles out in front of itself.”
Red Flag conditions are “expected to continue through at least sundown tomorrow,” according to VCFD division chief & incident commander Jeff Change.
Thousands of residents have already been evacuated in the zones outlined in purple below.
The fire presently continues to move west through the Santa Clara riverbed area south of the City of Santa Paula. That city and the community of Saticoy are expected to be the next areas evacuated.
Other concerns include the densely populated Camarillo Heights area and the 101 freeway corridor that connected Los Angeles with Ventura and Santa Barbara.
The blaze brought flashbacks of the massive Thomas Fire that started north of Santa Paula in December 4, 2017 and burned through portions of the area now threatened. Three weeks later, it had scorched 281,000 acres and burned hundreds of homes, becoming — at the time — the largest wildfire since record-keeping began in California.
According to Johnson, the cause of the fire is currently under investigation.
