Gov. Brown declares state of emergency as thousands flee California wildfire
Gov. Brown declares state of emergency as thousands flee California wildfire
05 December 2017
Published by https://www.usatoday.com/
USA – SANTA PAULA, Calif. — A ravenous, fast-moving wildfire driven by powerful Santa Ana winds scorched 70 square miles near Los Angeles on Tuesday, destroying more than 100 buildings and driving tens of thousands of area residents from their homes.
The blaze quickly spread from the hillsides above this city of 30,000 people, about 60 miles west of downtown Los Angeles, down toward the town and west to Ventura. Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for Ventura County.
“This fire is very dangerous and spreading rapidly, but we’ll continue to attack it with all we’ve got,” Brown said. “It’s critical residents stay ready and evacuate immediately if told to do so.”
Wind gusts sometimes exceeding 60 mph complicated the effort, said Rich Macklin, spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department.
“I personally have never seen structures destroyed in Ventura County like this,” Macklin said. “We’re doing everything we can to keep in front of this thing.”
More: Losses from California wildfires top $1B — and is ‘just the beginning ‘
A firefighter was taken to a hospital and was reported in stable condition, Macklin said. Earlier, authorities said one person was killed while attempting to leave when a car overturned. They later said that a dead dog was found in the vehicle, but no people.
The inferno comes less than two months after a series of wildfires roared through Northern California’s wine country, killing more than 40 people and incinerating thousands of homes.
So far in 2017, wildfires have scorched some 1,700 square miles in California, an area roughly the size of the state of Rhode Island. It’s also the fourth-most in the past 30 years and about twice the long-term average, according to CalFire.
After years of drought, it might be the rains that finally swept the region last winter that helped fuel this year’s blazes, according to Mark Bove, a research scientist at reinsurance firm Munich Re.
“The rain caused a period of rapid vegetation growth, especially in brush and grasses that cover the state’s hillsides. But the rain stopped by spring, and the new vegetation slowly dried out, becoming ample kindling and fuel for wildfires,” he said.
First reported about 6:20 p.m. PT Monday, the Thomas Fire grew from 50 to 100 acres in minutes. Flames quickly jumped Highway 150, which cuts a path from Ojai to Santa Paula on the eastern end of the Ventura County.
By 2:30 a.m., the fire had spread to 26,000 acres.
“The prospects for containment are not good, really Mother Nature is going to decide when we have the ability to put it out because it is pushing hard,” Lorenzen said at a news conference late Monday night.
The power went out in Santa Paula, Ventura and cities throughout the county just before 10 p.m., as more neighborhoods were ordered to evacuate. Authorities knocked on doors and woke people up to tell them to evacuate.
“It’s difficult to follow. It’s a fast-moving fire,” Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said late Monday.
“You must abide by these evacuation notices. You saw the disaster and the losses up north in Sonoma and this is a fast, very dangerous moving fire.”
Flames reached Ventura before midnight Monday, causing the city to issue mandatory evacuations. Ventura Fire Marshal Joe Morelli said tens of thousands of residents were without power.
“This is probably one of the most significant events in our city ever,” Morelli said.
At Vista del Mar Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Ventura County, an administration building and a unit for adolescents swallowed up by the flames. Therapist Mehrzad Bazyar, watching the buildings burn Tuesday, pointed at an obliterated corner of a building.
“That was my office,” he said, noting that the building “had just been decorated for Christmas.”
Southern California Edison spokeswoman Susan Cox said it was unclear just how many homes were without power, and officials had no estimate for when power would be restored.
‘The smoke was orange’
At the Ventura County Fairgrounds, one of two shelters set up by the Red Cross, two families and about seven people sat in the dark near the cots by 10 p.m.
Roman Barita, a farmworker who lives in a trailer park, knew it was time to evacuate when he climbed the hill near his home and saw brilliant red flames.
“I’ve never seen that before,” said Barita in Spanish, as his 17-year-old son translated.
Barita came to the shelter with his wife and son, and then contacted the others in his family.
He hoped his neighbors evacuated, too. “Because there’s little kids and families,” he said.
Carlson writes for the Ventura County Star, Bacon for USA TODAY. Contributing: Megan Diskin, Tom Kisken and Arlene Martinez, Ventura County (Calif.) Star; Doyle Rice, USA TODAY; The Associated Press. Follow Cheri Carlson, Megan Diskin, Tom Kisken and Arlene Martinez on Twitter: @vcCheri, @megandiskin, @tomkisken and @avmartinez
