Brush Fire Out of Control North of Ojai : National forest: Officials say about 1,160 people were battling the blaze by Monday night. No serious injuries are reported.

A brush fire in Los Padres National Forest tripled in size to 2,100 acres by Monday night as it burned out of control high in the rugged Ventura County backcountry 15 miles north of Ojai.

Officials had not yet determined whether the fire, which they have dubbed the Lion Fire, was started deliberately. But they pinpointed its origin alongside California 33 near Lions Canyon Campground.

Throughout the day, helicopters filled 75-gallon buckets in nearby Sespe Creek and dumped them on the flames that ate up the sides of steep canyons and gorges throughout the day. Other helicopters dropped water from 200-gallon on-board tanks while five tanker airplanes dropped fire retardant in an attempt to contain the fire.

An estimated 1,160 firefighters were battling the blaze by Monday evening, but officials sent out calls to agencies statewide and hoped to have 1,500 people at the scene by today. Crews were expected to work 12-hour shifts, battling the fire throughout the night.

“With all our technology and equipment, the most important thing about fighting fires is still the people on the ground with hand tools digging fire lines,” said Larry Mercer, a Bureau of Land Management spokesman. “That’s what it’s all about.”

Firefighters’ efforts were hampered by steep terrain and dense brush that in some areas hadn’t burned since the Matilija Fire in 1932.

About a third of the acreage affected in the current fire is within the proposed Sespe Wilderness Area, where ash whitened the barren hillsides like a light dusting of snow.

Temperatures reached 86 degrees Monday and the humidity dipped to a dry 14%. But by evening, a strong west wind had picked up, carrying moist air and cooler temperatures from the ocean. Weather was expected to continue cooling today and through the rest of the week.

By 7 p.m. Monday, the fire was 60% contained, fire officials said. Officials hope to have a line dug around the fire by 6 p.m. Thursday and have it out by 6 p.m. Friday.

On Sunday, winds blowing 30 m.p.h pushed the blaze down canyons to within 30 yards of the main residence at Rainbow Valley Ranch, a Ventura County landmark and onetime Pony Express stop. The ranch, now owned by Sanford and Christine Drucker, escaped with the loss of only an outhouse and a storage shed.

“We’re joyous because all of our possessions have been spared,” Sanford Drucker said Monday as he packed valuables and antiques into the family car.

But Drucker worried about the bears, deer, coyotes and other large animals that his wife called “neighbors.”

“Everyone worries about people, but what about the animals?” he said. U.S. Forest Service officials said, however, that most animals had probably been spared.

“The bears probably high-tailed it up the creek right away,” said Maeton Freel, a forest service spokesman. He said the animals have been using the creek as a travel corridor all summer as the drought drove them nearer the water, and they probably headed east when the fire broke out.

Earl Clayton, a forest service spokesman at the 1.7-million acre Los Padres forest, estimated that the cost of fighting the blaze was approaching $1 million by Monday night. But he said no estimates on damage to the wilderness area and campgrounds were available.

“The watershed in the Sespe Creek has been heavily damaged in some areas,” he said. “With the hills burned off, we’ll have to do something to keep soil and debris from falling into the creek and filling up the channel.”

An estimated 200 to 300 people were evacuated from five forest campgrounds on Sunday. But no serious injuries were reported among campers or firefighters and no major structures were reported damaged. Officials said there may have been some damage to campground restrooms, but hiking trails were left mainly intact.

“There is bound to be debris on the trails, but the fire probably cleaned the brush away from most of them,” Clayton said.

All public highways remained open, with only the road leading to Rose Valley closed to the public.

The fire does not compare to the 1985 Wheeler Fire that burned 118,000 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, Freel said.

“This fire is nowhere near as intense as the Wheeler Fire,” he said. “It was the middle of July, there were dry winds, and it was 110 degrees.”

Lion Fire

As of 6 p.m. Monday, the fire was moving westward along Sespe Creek from the Lions Canyon campground to within one mile of California 33. Some of the burned area, north of the creek, is part of the proposed Sespe Wilderness Area.