3,500 homes under threat as Mountain fire rages in Southern California

Firefighters are struggling to contain a fast-moving Ventura County wildfire on Thursday that had already destroyed numerous homes and forced thousands to evacuate — and the dangerous winds fueling those flames were forecast to continue at least through the evening.

Extreme Santa Ana winds helped propel several fires across the region this week, but the Mountain fire exploded Wednesday, sweeping into foothill communities around Camarillo and Moorpark.

After an active night, the fire had grown to 14,500 acres with zero containment, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

It remains unclear exactly how many homes have been lost, but law enforcement sources who spoke with The Times on the condition of anonymity said they were aware of at least 20 properties with significant damage.

Residents embrace as they stand before a burned-out home on Old Coach Drive in Camarillo.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

In Camarillo Heights — an upscale community home to a large portion of senior citizens — the smoldering remains of burned houses dotted the landscape, seemingly engulfed by random, off-shooting embers. On Valley Vista Drive, three homes were completely destroyed. No more than a chimney and burnt washing machine remained on one lot.

Firefighters ran out of water in that area late Wednesday, forcing them to shuttle water up to the community — though Ventura County Fire Chief Dustin Gardner said Thursday that such an outcome isn’t unusual.

“We put hundreds of firefighter trucks on the system last night, hundreds pumping all night long,” Gardner said. “We drained water systems down.”

Early Thursday, officials issued additional evacuation orders for residents in the Santa Paula area, located just north of the Santa Clara River. Officials warned that more than 30,000 people live in the potential path of the fire and need to be prepared for further warnings or orders as conditions change. The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Management estimated that over 5,000 homes were either under evacuation order or warning as of Thursday morning.

“It remains dynamic and it remains dangerous,” Gardner said.

Shooting embers from the fire on Wednesday sparked new blazes up to two and a half miles ahead of the main fire line.

“When a fire — a wind-driven fire — is spotting that far out, it’s really hard to to focus on any kind of perimeter control,” Thomas Shoots, a CalFire spokesperson, said from the fire’s command post at the Ventura County Fairgrounds Thursday morning.

Helicopters were back in the air Thursday morning, after a long night of firefighting. Firefighters were focused on hot spots within the Santa Susana Mountains, between Interstates 118 and 126, said Ventura County Fire Capt. Trevor Johnson.

“It’s rugged, steep ground that only our finest firefighters can even access,” Johnson said. However he was clear that with mutual aid and their own crews: “We got the right people in the right places.”

The National Weather Service on Wednesday issued a “particularly dangerous situation” red flag alert, warning of “widespread, extreme fire weather conditions” across southwest California. The alert hadn’t been heightened to that level in the Los Angeles area since 2020.

But as of Thursday morning, forecasters were predicting slightly better conditions for the Mountain fire compared to the day prior, with expectations that winds would “not be as strong as Wednesday and winds will decrease faster in the afternoon.” A standard red flag warning was in effect over the fire area through 6 p.m., according to the weather service.

Winds pushing the fire southwest could sustain speeds of 30 to 55 mph with gusts as high as 100 mph in wind-prone mountainous locations on Thursday, Ventura County emergency officials warned.

A home is engulfed by flames in Camarillo on Wednesday amid the wind-driven Mountain fire.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

While firefighters made some progress overnight, Shoots said there are still concerns that the winds will fan more flames across an area ripe for burning, with extremely dry brush and vegetation.

The strong winds can push the fire quickly up hills, building momentum that can create explosive fire behavior. The area where firefighters saw long-range spotting Wednesday is a mix of urban development surrounded by brush.

“It creates a kind of disastrous recipe,” Shoots said.

He said fire inspectors are out assessing how many structures have been damaged and destroyed, but a precise estimate was not available Thursday, Shoots said.

“We know there was a lot,” he said.

At least 3,500 homes and other structures are threatened and more than 10,000 people have been forced to evacuate, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said federal funds had been secured to help in fighting the blaze.

Southern California Edison began shutting off power to customers in areas where its equipment was considered at high risk of sparking a wildfire.

Almost 70,000 utility customers across the Southland had power cut as of Thursday morning “due to heightened wildfire risk,” according to the utility. About a third of the shutoffs were initiated in Ventura County, but power was also cut across Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura and Orange counties. An additional 257,000 were being considered for safety shutoffs in those areas through at least Thursday, as were customers in Santa Barbara and Tulare counties, SCE reported.

The Mountain fire destroyed homes on both sides of Old Coach Drive in Camarillo.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The majority of the National Weather Service’s red flag and high-wind warnings across the region were set to expire by Thursday evening, however a standard red flag warning would remain in effect through Friday morning for the Ventura County mountains, the Interstate 5 corridor and the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains.

Santa Barbara County Fire Capt. Hugh Montgomery said his crew had successfully salvaged around a dozen burning homes in the hills of Camarillo but not without challenges.

“We were inside of a structure fire and starting to make good headway when the hydrants went dry,” he said. “I think everything is just so depleted from everyone sucking off of the water system.

“It’s very unfortunate that people are losing homes and their belongings,” he added, “but from what we’ve heard people are getting out safely, and that’s the most important thing.”

Only minor injuries were reported from the fire, and Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff said he’s not aware of any missing persons.

Thousands were evacuated as firefighters struggled to douse flames.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Red Cross and other aid workers established an evacuation shelter at Padre Serra Parish on Wednesday, where about a hundred had taken shelter for the night.

Linda Elmo, an evacuee, said the flames moved so rapidly she and her husband had little time to flee. A firefighter knocked on the door, urging her and her husband to “go, go, go!”

“It happened so fast,” Elmo said.

Local authorities have issued air quality alerts due to smoke and ash from the Mountain fire for much of Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Dozens of Ventura County schools were closed Thursday because of the fire, and several are closed through Friday.

While the exact cause of the fire remains under investigation, officials say the fire started near Bradley and Balcom Canyon roads, a remote area north of Somis.

Times staff writers Clara Harter, Jireh Deng, Noah Haggerty, Sandra McDonald and Noah Goldberg contributed to this report.