Wood as Gold : Fuel: The cold weather gives vendors of oak, eucalyptus and avocado logs a red-hot business. A weak economy helps boost sales.

While most Ventura County residents bury themselves beneath heavy coats and comforters during these cold winter months, Michael Cunningham’s business finally emerges from hibernation.

As a firewood vendor, Cunningham scowls through the summer, waiting for the cold spells that his business depends on.

“Whenever it’s cold, I’m smiling,” said the Carpinteria-based seller of six kinds of firewood, whose firm does most of its business in Ventura County. “It’s really busy right now. Since the storm, everybody is screaming for it. I’ve gotten 30 or 40 calls a day and everybody wants it yesterday.”

Other firewood dealers report similarly brisk sales, brought on by recent rains and near-freezing temperatures.

“I think all wood dealers are doing very good business,” said Jerry Kenton, owner of West Coast Tree Service in Ventura, who sold out of 150 cords of wood before Christmas.

(A cord is a measurement of eight feet in length, four feet in height and four feet in width.)

Firewood vendors, who say heating a home is cheaper with firewood than natural gas, cite a still-sputtering economy that they say has boosted the popularity of wood heating.

“With three or four logs, you can heat up a house all evening,” said George Gamboa, who sells oak from his Best Tree Service in Ventura. “A lot more people are using it for heating this year to save money because it costs less than natural gas.”

The prices of the most popular types of firewood go from $100 per cord for avocado, $175 for eucalyptus and walnut and up to $350 per cord for oak.

The high cost of oak is attributed to its capacity to burn longer and hotter than less expensive woods. In addition, the cost has escalated since February, when the county approved an ordinance that bans the cutting of oak trees without a permit.

That law has led to the relative scarcity of oak wood, dealers say.

“The only oak we get are the ones that have to come out during construction, and even then the owner has to have a permit to take them out,” Cunningham said.

Gamboa said he buys his oak wholesale from outside the county, although he said that not all vendors are so honest.

“It’s a very touchy situation,” he said. “A lot of guys are doing it illegally, which really hurts my business. I spend a lot of money following the law by trucking in my wood.”

And despite its being a seller’s market for oak, some vendors said they refuse to take advantage of the situation by jacking up their prices.

“Times are real tough for some people,” said Cunningham, who added that he hasn’t changed his price of $225 a cord for oak in three years. “I don’t want to be a vulture.”

The character issue is quite a hot topic among wood brokers, who admit that their profession does not enjoy the best of reputations.

“There are a lot of shysters in this business,” Cunningham said.

And Jim Lewis, a firewood dealer in Somis, advises: “Look out for ironwood. You’ll know it because it stinks and you need an incinerator to burn it.”

But for Dan Walters, 31, of Oxnard, who bought his first cord Tuesday, having wood means being prepared.

“Heck, even if it doesn’t rain for 40 days and 40 nights like the forecasts say, I feel a little bit better knowing that I’ve got a pile of wood right outside my door . . . just in case.”