Gusts up to 100 mph possible on another day of dangerous fire weather

With a destructive fire burning out of control in Ventura County, Southern California faces another day of intense winds and dry conditions.

That has firefighters across the region on high alert.

By Thursday morning, the fire had burned 14,104 acres with zero containment. Numerous homes were lost.

Conditions

• The National Weather Service issued a “particularly dangerous situation” red flag alert, warning of “widespread, extreme fire weather conditions.”
• The warning was issued for wide swaths of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Much of the surrounding area also was facing dangerous winds, with high-wind or standard red flag warnings issued for mountains in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, the Inland Empire and parts of Orange County.
• In Ventura County, wind gusts were so strong that some firefighting aircraft could not operate at times on Wednesday.
• A blowing dust advisory is also in effect through Thursday.

Forecast

• Red flag warnings remain in effect through Thursday at 6 p.m.
• Thursday’s winds, while not quite as strong as Wednesday’s, will still be dangerous, the weather service said.
• 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.
• Winds will lessen but still be an issue Friday.

Fire behavior

• The high winds sparked several fires Wednesday, the biggest being the Mountain fire in Ventura County.
• Firefighters reported that during the battle Wednesday, they saw embers starting new spot fires 2½ miles ahead of the main fire line.
• More than 65,000 utility customers across the Southland had power cut as of Wednesday afternoon “due to heightened wildfire risk,” according to Southern California Edison. Public safety power shutoffs, which had affected Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura, Orange and Santa Barbara counties early Wednesday, were extended into parts of Kern and Tulare counties. An additional 254,000 households were being considered for safety shutoffs through at least Thursday, SCE reported.