Strong winds sweep California, fueling fires and spreading damage

Strong winds swept up and down the California coast Thursday, stoking fires in San Francisco and Ventura and leaving overturned trucks, uprooted trees and damaged gas lines in their wake.

Just weeks after record winds shredded the San Gabriel Valley, the National Weather Service again issued high wind warnings with gusts in Southern California’s mountain regions reaching up to 72 mph.

In Ventura County, a 45-acre fire broke out in a rural area Thursday afternoon. Six agencies deployed a combined 100 firefighters and two helicopters to battle the blaze. Fire officials said no structures were in danger, and no injuries had been reported. The fire was about 50% contained at 7 p.m. Thursday and full containment was expected overnight.

“We have a full-out attack on it,” Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Bill Nash said. “The winds are a concern.”

Meanwhile, on the 210 Freeway in San Bernardino County, winds flipped a Superior grocery big rig and a FedEx truck. The gusts also uprooted a 100-foot pine tree in a La Crescenta neighborhood. The toppled tree also damaged gas lines and forced the temporary evacuation of four homes, but no injuries were reported, officials said. In addition, the downed tree has blocked Burritt Way, which may remain closed until Friday, city officials said.

In San Francisco, two people were injured by a fire that broke out in a three-story apartment building and spread rapidly due to winds up to 20 mph.

San Francisco Fire Department Chief Joanne Hayes-White said at least 50 to 60 people were evacuated as the fire spread through a three-story, 28-unit complex; a single-family dwelling, and a vacant school.

Crews battled the blaze for nearly three hours before gaining control. One civilian was taken to a hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation, and a firefighter was treated for burns to the neck, Hayes-White said. Neither injury was believed to be life-threatening.

A small brush fire was also reported in Vallejo, near San Francisco.

The causes of the fires across the state were still under investigation, but officials agreed that the winds exacerbated the situation.

“This is about as strong as it gets around here,” Monterey-based National Weather Service meteorologist Rick Canepa said about the winds.

Canepa said the easterly winds originated in a high-pressure system over the Great Basin and were funneled west over the Sierra Nevada.

The wind warnings and advisories for Southern California will expire by Friday afternoon, according to weather specialist Stuart Seto from the weather service’s Oxnard office. On the wind’s heels is a weekend warmup that will peak with temperatures in the 70s on Sunday.

“No white Christmas,” Seto said. “Christmas Day will be the warmest.”

matthew.stevens@latimes.com