Firefighters Say Quickly Devised Strategy Worked

With Santa Ana winds, four years of drought and an arsonist ready to strike, conditions in Ventura County were ideal this week for a major disaster.

But--unlike the destructive Santa Barbara blaze in June--three brush fires that erupted outside Santa Paula and Fillmore were contained before they could damage a single house.

Fire experts Wednesday cited five major factors:

* Residents in Santa Paula and Fillmore, accustomed to brush fires in the area, made sure that their houses were protected with one of the most aggressive weed-clearing programs in the state.

* Fire commanders were quick to map out an effective strategy as each blaze erupted. They chose to surround two of the fires and let them burn out while tackling another in a direct assault.

* Fully aware of the extreme fire danger that the Santa Ana winds pose, fire units countywide were on alert. They responded quickly, in great force and had all the equipment they needed.

* At critical times, firefighters got a break from the weather. One of the Santa Paula fires was brought under control partly because the wind suddenly died just as firefighters began their assault.

* The brush itself was slower to burn than in Santa Barbara because other fires in the area in previous years had burned away older, tinder-dry areas.

The first of the three fires broke out Monday night on the slopes of South Mountain in Santa Paula. Within 30 minutes, 15 engines from the Fillmore and Santa Paula fire departments were on the scene, trying to save about 25 houses on South Mountain Road southeast of Santa Paula.

“We knew Santa Ana means strong winds, dry air, high temperatures, high fire danger and a lot of work,” said Ventura County Battalion Chief Bob Bement, who headed the South Mountain firefight.

The first firefighters on the scene were quick to praise area residents for removing weeds around their houses. All of the houses had brush cleared away for a radius of 20 to 50 feet.

“There’s a nice clearing around the house,” said a Fillmore firefighter as he hosed off some trees near South Mountain resident Mark Wintz’s house Monday night, after the fire had swept by and left the house untouched. “It makes our job real easy.”

Ventura County Battalion Chief Dale Miller contrasted the county’s aggressive weed-clearing program to the lack of one in Santa Barbara, where 500 houses were burned in June in a fire that caused an estimated $237 million in damage.

“In Santa Barbara, they had no abatement program and the brush was right up next to the houses,” Miller said.

Firefighters at the Santa Barbara blaze faced the added problem of the age of the brush. That area had not burned for 50 years and the brush, which firefighters call fuel, was dense and tinder dry from four years of drought.

In Ventura County, the brush was only five years old in the area of the Mupu fire and no more than 20 years old in the Shiells Canyon and South Mountain fires.

The strategy employed in fighting the fires was another key element in averting a major catastrophe. In Ventura County, firefighters were able to take advantage of natural barriers and other topographical conditions that did not exist in Santa Barbara.

The planning for containment of the South Mountain fire began soon after the houses were secured by midnight Monday. The first decision the officers made was to wait until the morning instead of digging fire lines blindly in the dark.

Before dawn Tuesday, Bement called a meeting of his top officers to announce the plans for the rest of the day: The firefighters would attack the South Mountain blaze from the flanks and the rear in hopes of gradually shrinking it.

“If you try to take on a fire like that by attacking the head, you’ll get blown out,” said Ventura County Fire Capt. Keith Gurrola, who was at the meeting.

At daybreak, Gurrola and Wildlife Fire Officer Bill Wright were dispatched to study the burn and draw fire lines. In doing so, they took advantage of the opportunities the terrain presented to them.

To the north, the fire was prevented from advancing by a three-tier barrier--the asphalt of South Mountain Road, the moist vegetation of the Santa Clara River bed and a wide strip of heavily irrigated citrus orchards preserved as city greenbelt.

For the duration of the fire, farmers kept their water sprinklers turned on.

Gurrola said Santa Paula was wise in planning a greenbelt around its city. “Whenever you have some kind of buffer like that, it acts as a firebreak.”

The key to the fire strategy at South Mountain was to secure the southern flank of the blaze. The object was to prevent the fire from going over the top of the mountain from the cooler, northern side to the mountain’s sunbaked southern slope.

Fortunately, the mountain was peppered with Texaco Oil rigs and platforms, and several dirt roads leading to them provided the firefighters with all the access and firebreaks they needed to stop the fire from reaching the ridge.

Firefighters were able to take advantage of the steep dirt roads because they were equipped with four-wheel-drive brush engines, which are smaller and more mobile than conventional fire engines.

The wind, or lack of it, was another factor working against the South Mountain fire. Weather services had predicted 50 to 60 m.p.h. Santa Ana gusts for Tuesday, but only 20 to 30 m.p.h. winds materialized.

By noon, the South Mountain fire was encircled and under control, and fire experts turned their attention to the Mupu blaze.

When the Mupu fire was detected on Tuesday morning, fire planners chose the opposite strategy than the one used to fight the South Mountain fire: They would attack the flames head-on.

“Any time you’re fighting a major fire and a second one breaks out, you plan an aggressive attack to catch it before it grows,” said Capt. Wayne Maynard, who acted as planning officer for the fires.

By diverting personnel to the Mupu fire from the almost-contained South Mountain fire, firefighters were able to move fast enough to bulldoze fire lines at the bottom of a ridge near California 150.

Their speed put them in position to take on the blaze when it was still no more than a 30-acre fire. But just as the firefighters began their attack, the winds picked up and the flames jumped the fire lines.

Firefighters regrouped and drew a second line of defense at the bottom of Adams Canyon. As firefighters prepared to take on the Mupu blaze for a second time, aerial tankers took advantage of the relatively plain terrain around the area to bombard it with fire retardant. At the same time, ground crews closed in on the fire from the rear.

The weather changed again in favor of the firefighters: Just as the fire approached the canyon, the winds began to die. As the flames reached the fire line, the winds were blowing at less than 10 m.p.h. in the canyon area and the air cooled off, said Fire Behavior Officer Doug Campbell.

“It was a fortunate turn of events,” Campbell said. “All the factors worked in favor of our ability to gain control.”

Before sundown, the Mupu fire was also nearly contained. But by then, the winds had picked up again and the Shiells Canyon fire in Fillmore was threatening to burn down a row of single-family houses on Guiberson Road.

The Shiells Canyon fire and the South Mountain fire were similar in many respects: Both were wind-aided ridge fires spreading quickly from east to west; both had roads and wet orchards blocking their spread to the north; both had oil company mountain roads providing firefighters with access to the south and both were threatening houses at the foot of the mountain.

For that reason, fire experts used essentially the same plan to fight the Shiells Canyon blaze that had worked at South Mountain.

Once again, fire officials concentrated all their initial efforts on saving the houses. Already in the area in full strength, they had five 15-engine strike teams at Shiells Canyon in 20 minutes, said Ventura County Fire Department spokeswoman Shonna Perry.

“We got a break there,” Perry said. “In most cases, you may be able to get one or two strike teams right away but never five.”

Among the first units to arrive were two strike teams from the city of Los Angeles and they were especially helpful, Perry said.

“They are structure fire strike teams and are especially trained and equipped to protect structures,” she said.

After first securing about 15 houses in the Shiells Canyon area, firefighters again worked their way around the blaze, slowly bringing it under control. By dawn on Wednesday, the last of the three fires had been defeated.

“There’s a sense of accomplishment in fighting fires like these,” said one of the firefighters. “It’s a good feeling. Makes you feel like you’ve completed something.”

Times staff writer Joanna M. Miller contributed to this story.