Los Angeles firefighters work on a home destroyed by the Mountain Fire in Camarillo, California, on Friday.
Jae C. Hong/AP
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Jae C. Hong/AP
CAMARILLO, Calif. – Southern California firefighters gained ground Friday against a wildfire that destroyed at least 132 structures, mostly homes, as favorable conditions expected to continue into the weekend after two days of dangerous winds.
Forecasters expect light winds through the weekend that will continue to help firefighters. Meteorologists are monitoring a weather system that could hit Southern California next week but is not expected to bring another extreme wind like earlier this week.
Ventura County Sheriff James Fryhoff said Friday that 3,500 homes have been restocked, but residents of 2,000 homes still have not been able to return.
Maryanne Belote was among those who returned Friday to sift through the remains of the property. She returned home to her hillside neighborhood in Camarillo, a city northwest of Los Angeles, after rescuing her cat, dog and horse during a wildfire in the area. All that stood was a stone wall that was built.
“If I didn’t get a horse, I’d be broke, but I have a family and I have animals, so I’m fine. I’ll rebuild,” he said standing outside the remains of his 50-year-old home while his dog remained in the car.
The Wildfire started Wednesday morning in Ventura County and has grown to 32 square miles (about 83 square kilometers). It was 14% on Friday afternoon.
“We had no external or lateral movement today,” Ventura County Fire Chief Dustin Gardner said Friday. “This is fantastic.”
Bill Nardoni and his family sifted through the ruins of the Camarillo house that afternoon and discovered the wedding ring in the safe. But his wife, who was kept in another safe in another part of the house, remains missing and Nardoni has no hope that she will be found intact.
Nardoni, his wife and mother-in-law came running Wednesday morning with their dogs when the fire broke out on the side of the road. He returned on Friday to demolish the home he bought just a year ago that was still undergoing remodeling.
“The house collapsed. Nothing can be saved properly,” he said. “I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
Over three days, thousands of people were under evacuation orders as the fire threatened about 3,500 structures in suburban neighborhoods, farms and agricultural areas around Camarillo in Ventura County.
At least 88 additional buildings were damaged in addition to the 132 that were destroyed. Officials have not determined whether it was on fire or was affected by water or smoke damage. The cause of the fire has not been determined.
Ten people suffered smoke inhalation or other non-life-threatening injuries, Fryhoff said Thursday.
The next day, the sheriff said his deputies will deploy cadaver dogs in the area as a precaution, even though no one has been reported missing.
Officials in several Southern California counties urged residents to be on the lookout for fast-spreading fires, power outages and downed trees during the latest Santa Ana winds, including in rural areas of northern San Diego County where brush fires prompted mandatory evacuations. Friday afternoon.
Santa Anas are dry, warm and gusty northeasterly winds that blow from inland Southern California to the coast and offshore, moving in the opposite direction of the normal overland flow that brings moist air from the Pacific. It usually occurs during the fall and continues through winter and into early spring.
The red flag warning, which indicates conditions for high fire danger, expired for most of the area Thursday, except for the Santa Susana Mountains where the warning expired Friday morning as winds began to die down.
An air quality alert for hazardous fine particle pollution was in effect from Friday morning to Saturday evening due to smoke from wildfires.
More than a dozen school districts and campuses in Ventura County were closed Friday due to fire damage, according to the county’s Office of Education.
The Mountain Fire is burning in an area that has seen some of California’s most destructive fires over the years. The fire quickly grew from less than half a square mile (about 1.2 square kilometers) to more than 16 square miles (41 square kilometers) on Wednesday in less than five hours.
Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Ventura County.
