Firefighters Fear Ojai Blaze May Spread : Fire: An area of heavy, dry brush near the end of Gridley Road continued to burn last night.

A persistent fire that destroyed 530 acres of brush near Ojai but spared nearby neighborhoods continued to burn Wednesday night despite the efforts of weary firefighters who had been working around the clock.

An area of heavy, dry brush near the end of Gridley Road burned Wednesday evening, and firefighters were worried that winds whipping through the canyons might ignite hot spots in other areas.

Flames from the fire came within 10 feet of some high-priced houses on Foothill Road, but miraculously left no damage, said Battalion Chief Dan Spykerman of the Ventura County Fire Department.

The fire began at 5:06 p.m. Wednesday after a 220-volt power pole short-circuited and sent sparks into dry brush, firefighters said. Southern California Edison Co., which owns the poles, is still investigating the incident, said Mark Olson, area manager for the company.

In the intervening day and a half, several firefighters were overpowered by the 106-degree temperatures and taken to an American Red Cross station set up near the fire.

In all, the first-aid station treated one person delivering meals and 15 firefighters for heat exhaustion, poison oak, dizziness, bee stings and other minor ailments, Spykerman said.

Two firefighters were transported by ambulance Wednesday to Ojai Valley Community Hospital. One was treated for a cut on the knee from a chain saw accident. The other was treated for an asthma attack. On Tuesday night, a firefighter also was taken to the hospital for a sprained ankle.

No firefighters were seriously injured.

Some firefighters who arrived shortly after the fire started continued to battle the blaze for 18 hours, holding on until the next crew arrived.

Shane Harper, 20, worked his regular shift Monday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. when he received the call of the Ojai fire. He then began a 16-hour stint on a mountainside, clearing brush and catching a brief two-hour nap on the ground.

“I’m really tired,” Harper said. “I wish I could take a shower and go to sleep.”

But sleep was not possible for most of the 700 firefighters from the U.S. Forest Service, the Ventura and Los Angeles county fire departments and elsewhere in the state recruited by the California Department of Forestry, said Sandi Wells of the Ventura County Fire Department.

“They’re tired,” Wells said. “It’s been very hard for the firefighters.”

Crews in three helicopters continued dousing the area Wednesday, drawing water from a nearby lake on the first hole of the county-owned Soule Park Golf Course. Firefighters operating two bulldozers continued to clear a path around the fire.

Hand crews surrounded the fire along Gridley and Foothill roads, working on smoldering spots with shovels, axes and saws.

The workers, eyes red and weary, hesitated to grumble about their fatigue.

“There’s no use complaining about it,” said Dave Proett, a fire crew supervisor with Ventura County who worked from 5 p.m. Tuesday until 9:30 a.m. Wednesday with only two hours of sleep.

About 180 firefighters were expected to stay through Wednesday night, Spykerman said.

Just as the county’s fire crews were hoping for a respite, their colleagues in Santa Barbara County requested assistance to help battle two major fires that broke out Wednesday afternoon, just north of the city of Santa Barbara.

Twenty-five fire engines and 100 firefighters responded to the call for help.

Fire officials fear that this summer will be particularly tough on firefighters. A four-year drought has left the hills tinder-dry, and experience shows one major fire is often accompanied by other fires.

Those circumstances stretch personnel, forcing them to work longer hours, under tough conditions.

At the fire in Ojai, Supervisor Ted Yzaguirre carefully kept tabs on his 10-member crew, particularly the younger firefighters inexperienced in working in the brush.

Yzaguirre, who has fought fires for 30 years, closely scanned the workers, watching for tired eyes and drooping faces.

He said that it takes a lot of inner fortitude to work so long and diligently.

“To be able to work throughout the night comes from in here,” he said tapping his head. “It depends on how tough you are mentally. What you’re looking for is a person who continues to work without saying, ‘I can’t do it.’ ”

He found two of those men during the Ojai fire and described the pleasure of teaching them the ropes of a hard, yet rewarding, job.

“It’s fun,” Yzaguirre said. “You get these guys that are greenhorns.”

He said that as they spent their first sleepless night battling the fire, “their eyes got about that big.”

Harper was one of those newcomers to the crew.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Harper said. “I was scared at first, but there was so much excitement it turned into fun. It was a challenge.”