By Alex Dobuzinskis
CAMARILLO, California (Reuters) - A fierce, wind-driven wildfire spread on Friday along the California coast northwest of Los Angeles,
threatening 4,000 homes and a military base as residents were evacuated
ahead of the flames and a university campus was closed.
By nightfall more than 950 firefighters
had built containment around about 20 percent of the inferno, which has
blackened more than 43 square miles (111 square kilometers) of dry
brush and chaparral since erupting on Thursday morning.
More firefighters were said to be on the way and fire officials said they hoped that diminishing winds and higher humidity would help them make headway overnight and on Saturday.
Fire managers said
they expected it would take until next Monday to fully contain the
blaze, which sent a pall of thick smoke drifting over the beach
community of Malibu and farther inland across Los Angeles County.
Several farm buildings and recreational vehicles were
engulfed and fire officials said 15 homes were damaged, along with five
commercial properties. While 25 outbuildings were destroyed, no
residential structures were lost and no injuries had been reported.
Some 4,000 homes were considered threatened, with
evacuations ordered for about a quarter of those residences, the Ventura
County fire and sheriff's departments said.
The so-called Springs Fire and a flurry of smaller blazes around the state this week marked a sudden start to a California
fire season that some weather forecasters predict will be worsened by a
summer of high temperatures and drought throughout much of the U.S.
West.
'IT'S ONLY MAY'
"We're seeing fires burning like we usually see in late
summer, at the height of the fire season, and it's only May," Ventura
County Fire Department spokesman Tom Kruschke said.
The temperature in Camarillo hit a record high of 96 degrees F (36 degrees C) by late morning on Friday, according to the National Weather Service.
Strong, erratic winds that complicated efforts to
combat the Springs Fire through much of the first day were calmer on
Friday, officials said. The improved wind conditions allowed several
air-tanker planes equipped for dumping payloads of fire-retardant
chemicals to return to the air along with a fleet of eight
water-dropping helicopters.
The Springs Fire, which may have been ignited by a
tossed cigarette butt, broke out at 6:30 a.m. local time (1330 GMT) on
Thursday beside the U.S. 101 freeway, less than 10 miles from the
Pacific coast. It spread quickly to the edges of the communities of
Camarillo and Newbury Park.
By Friday morning, flames had advanced to within a
short distance of the ocean's edge in some places, forcing authorities
to close several miles of Pacific Coast Highway.
At the Point Mugu U.S. Naval Air Station on the coast,
all non-essential personnel were ordered to stay home for a second day
as flames encroached on a firing range at the extreme western end of the
base, spokeswoman Kimberly Gearhart said.
She said no ammunition was stored at that location, bordered on two sides by coastline and wetlands.
HORSES EVACUATED
But a base housing unit that is home to 110 active-duty
military personnel and their families was evacuated on Friday because
of heavy smoke, Gearhart said, adding there was no immediate fire threat
to that vicinity and military aircraft were continuing routine flights
between the base and a communications post on San Nicolas Island
offshore.
In mid-afternoon, residents were ordered to clear out
of more than 900 homes in Hidden Valley, an enclave of ranches and
estate-type properties southeast of Camarillo. Some 200 dwellings were
evacuated earlier along the coastal highway and adjacent canyon roads,
sheriff's Sergeant Eric Buschow said.
Horse trainer Bryon Wilson, 36, and his wife drove two
trailers into an area of multimillion-dollar ranches around Hidden
Valley Road that was later ordered evacuated.
"As we were loading the horses in (the trailers) this
afternoon, the fire was right at the back of the barn, so we were in
amongst it already," Wilson said.
Previous evacuation orders for two housing subdivisions
at the northern end of the fire zone closer to Camarillo were lifted,
but those neighborhoods remained restricted to residents carrying
identification, Buschow said.
California State University at Channel Islands campus,
including student housing, was closed for a second day, the university
said, although official evacuation orders for the school were lifted.
A separate late-afternoon brush fire in the hills above
Glendale, a suburb just north of Los Angeles and about 50 miles east of
Camarillo, prompted the evacuation of a number of homes and an
elementary school. But water-dropping helicopters and ground crews moved
in to quickly contain it.
A larger fire in
Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, on Thursday destroyed two houses
and damaged two others before firefighters halted its spread, and at
least five other wildfires burned in Northern California.
Hot, dry conditions in Southern California were fed
largely by Santa Ana winds blowing in from desert areas to the east.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman, Colleen Jenkins, Alex
Dobuzinskis and Dan Whitcomb; Writing by Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb;
Editing by Cynthia Johnston, David Gregorio and Xavier Briand)
