Fire in California destroys dozens of buildings

At least 132 buildings in Southern California were destroyed and thousands of residents were forced to flee as a fast-spreading wildfire broke out in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles.

However, officials were confident that firefighters would find better conditions to bring the fire under control as winds were forecast to weaken on Friday.

As of Thursday night, the Ventura County fire had burned more than 32 square miles of land and was 5% contained, according to CalFire. The fire multiplied from a much smaller blaze just hours after it was ignited Wednesday morning.

It was dubbed the “Mountain Fire” and sparked a large response from firefighters, who called in multiple helicopters to drop water on the fire near the Camarillo Heights area.

On Friday morning, 3,500 buildings were still threatened by fire and around 10,000 residents had to be evacuated.

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Because of severe wind gusts of over 50 miles per hour, aircraft were unable to assist Wednesday and into Thursday. Two people suffered apparent smoke inhalation and were taken to hospitals Wednesday, fire officials said. None of the firefighters reported any significant injuries.

In addition to the 132 buildings destroyed, most of which were residential buildings, at least 88 other buildings were damaged. Officials did not say whether they suffered burns or were affected by water or smoke damage. The cause of the fire is not clear.

Ten people suffered smoke inhalation or other non-life-threatening injuries, Ventura County Sheriff James Fryhoff said.

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Officials in several Southern California counties urged residents to watch out for fast-spreading fires, power outages and downed trees during the latest round of the infamous Santa Ana winds.

Santa Anas are dry, warm, gusty northeasterly winds that blow toward and offshore from the interior of Southern California, moving in the opposite direction of the normal land current that carries moist air from the Pacific. They typically occur in the fall months and continue through the winter and into early spring.

Ariel Cohen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard, said Santa Ana winds eased at lower elevations but remained gusty at higher elevations Thursday evening.

Red flag warnings indicating high fire danger conditions have expired in the area, except for the Santa Susana Mountains, where mountain warnings expire at 11 a.m. Friday. The Santa Anas are expected to return early to mid-week next week, Cohen said.

California utilities began shutting down equipment amid high winds and extreme fire danger after a series of massive and deadly wildfires in recent years sparked by power lines and other infrastructure.

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Because of the increased risk, power was shut off to nearly 70,000 customers in five counties, Southern California Edison said Thursday. Company spokeswoman Gabriela Ornelas could not immediately answer whether power had been shut off in the area where the mountain fire broke out.

The wildfires burned in the same areas as other recent devastating 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 buildings burned in Ventura and surrounding Santa Barbara counties. Edison in Southern California has paid tens of millions of dollars to settle damages after its facilities were blamed for both fires.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.