VENTURA : Barranca Brush Fire Just Misses 2 Homes

Stray embers from a brush fire that started in a ravine near Ventura’s Barranca Vista Park on Saturday afternoon narrowly missed two homes.

Several park-goers continued their picnics while nearby homeowners struggled to extinguish some stray hot spots from the fire, which began in the barranca near Ralston Street and Antelope Avenue about 4 p.m. The fire was extinguished about an hour later.

Richard McKay, a resident in the 7100 block of Lemur Court, which backs up to the barranca, said he called the Fire Department when he noticed flames shooting up a grove of eucalyptus trees.

Shortly after the call, wind carried burning fragments across the ravine to a grassy section just outside his neighbor’s and his own back fence, McKay said. His son and a few neighborhood children rushed with hoses to put out the spots, he said.

“If it hadn’t been for the kids putting out the fire, the whole side would have gone,” McKay said.

His neighbors, Thomas and Stasia O’Neill, said Saturday’s fire makes the third time flames have erupted in the barranca this year.

Thomas O’Neill said a stretch of the barranca from Ralston Street to Bristol Road--including the portion behind his house--is the only part that is not cleared by the city.

“It’s the county’s responsibility,” O’Neill said. “I think it’s finally time to write that letter I’ve been talking about.”

But McKay, a 22-year resident of the area, said the homes have never been seriously threatened by fires, although a portion of his back fence was burned about 10 years ago. He said the eucalyptus trees and other undergrowth in the barranca provide a wind block from the ocean.

Asst. Chief Ken Hess of the Ventura City Fire Department said the cause of the fire has not been determined, but it probably started from a child’s campfire. McKay said children and transients often build campfires in the barranca.