LOS PADRES : Crews Continue to Fight 350-Acre Fire

More than 200 firefighters cut firebreaks, dug trenches and dropped water from helicopters Saturday to control a 350-acre fire that began Friday near Bear Mountain in Los Padres National Forest.

The fire was reported at 1:30 p.m. Friday about eight miles west of Pyramid Reservoir and Interstate 5, near the border between Ventura and Los Angeles counties, said Earl Clayton, a Los Padres spokesman. Two firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion but were not seriously injured in the blaze, which reduced humidity to about 7% in the mountainous region around the fire.

Clayton said investigators are trying to learn what sparked the fire, which began burning in heavy brush and spread west toward Alamo Mountain through mostly California white oaks and pinion pines.

Firefighters were recruited from the U.S. Forestry Service, Los Angeles County, Los Angeles City, Ventura County, the Bureau of Land Management and the California Department of Forestry. Split into 11 ground crews and three helicopter crews, the firefighters had surrounded 30% of the fire by 2 p.m. Saturday, Clayton said.

The fire came within 2 1/2 miles of campers and state-owned buildings in Hungry Valley State Park. “But at the present rate of spread, it shouldn’t bother them unless they get a dramatic shift in the wind,” Clayton said Saturday afternoon.

Clayton said the firefighters expect to have the fire fully contained by 6 a.m. Monday. The fire area was not inside the 175,000 acres of Los Padres scheduled to be closed within the week due to fire risk, he said.

“This fire is very early in the year by normal standards. Usually we don’t have fires until June or July,” Clayton said. “The fire potential in Los Padres is more extreme this year than it has been in the last 100 years.”