Wind Keeps Brush Fire Away From Fillmore : Pole Canyon: Arson is suspected in a blaze that burned more than 255 acres and could have threatened the city’s 11,000 residents.

A raging brush fire that swept through Pole Canyon, narrowly missing the city of Fillmore, had burned more than 255 acres of dry shrubs late Saturday.

Easterly winds of 10 m.p.h. pushed the flames away from the city, sparing Fillmore’s 11,000 residents from what could have been a major catastrophe. The fire, which burned to within a couple miles east of the city, raced over the city’s best-known landmark, an “F” overlooking California 126, but the chalk letter was not damaged.

“We were fortunate that we have a sea breeze today and not Santa Ana winds,” said Sandy Wells, a spokeswoman for the Ventura County Fire Department. “If it were blowing in the opposite direction, the fire would be headed directly into the city” from where it began two miles away.

Wells said that even if the fire continues to burn today, it is not likely to reach Fillmore.

Saturday, the cloud of smoke coming out of the canyon could be seen as far east as Moorpark and as far west as Oxnard. The fire had caused no injuries or structural damage late Saturday. A spokesman for the Southern California Edison Co. said power and transmission lines were not damaged.

About 130 firefighters, 25 engines, four helicopters, three tankers and two airplanes from the county Fire Department and the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection responded to the emergency.

Among them were 51 minimum-security inmates from the Fenner Canyon facility of the California Youth Authority. The inmates have been trained by state forestry personnel as reserve firefighters.

As the planes and helicopters dropped water from the air, fire crews climbed the rugged hills armed with hose packs, axes, chain saws and shovels to clear a semicircle on the east end of the canyon, where they prepared to fend off the flames.

“As the fire turns on top of the ridge and heads downhill in the shade and without wind--that’s when we hope to get lucky,” said George Lund, Ventura County deputy fire chief. “We’re hoping to contain it sometime tonight.”

But by nightfall, the fire remained uncontrolled. “I think we’re gonna be out all night and through the heat of tomorrow,” Lund said.

The cause of the fire had not been determined Saturday, but arson investigator Peter Crunk said it was not started by natural causes.

“It was definitely arson,” he said. “Whether it was intentional or negligent I don’t know yet, but whoever did it should have not been there with the elements to start a fire.”

Crunk said he believes that the fire was started by two young backpackers who were seen by witnesses running from the scene. Witnesses could not provide a description of the suspects, Crunk said.

Police blocked off 4th Street and a dirt road leading to Pole Canyon, but residents were not evacuated. Barbara Harm, whose home was the closest to the fire, prepared for the worst by hosing her rooftop and clearing brush around her property, with help from half a dozen relatives who came to her aid.

“If it comes, we’re ready for it,” Harm said. Her daughter, Jodie Lloyd, 20, had joined the state forestry department a month ago and on Saturday was part of the fire suppression team.

“Isn’t it something that in her first fire she gets to go out to protect her own home,” Harm said.

Other residents seemed less worried. Saturday’s was the fourth fire near Pole Canyon in the past five years, they said.

“As long as it keeps blowing up canyon, we don’t have to worry about it,” said Carl Stephens III, who was sitting in his swimming pool watching his four young sons and nephews swim.

Ventura County firefighters had a busy afternoon. In addition to the Fillmore fire, firefighters put out a one-acre fire in Santa Paula near the 12th Street bridge, and 15 firefighters responded to a fire north of Ventura near Ventura Avenue and Canada Larga Road that burned two acres of brush. There were no injuries or structural damages reported in either incident.

The Fillmore fire was the second big fire of the year reported in the county. In April, an unattended campfire burned more than 600 acres in Los Padres National Forest.