SIMI VALLEY : Firefighters Control Hillside Brush Blaze
Ventura County firefighters battled a “nuisance” brush fire for several hours Friday afternoon, bringing it under control after it had burned 42 acres of rugged hillside in eastern Simi Valley.
County arson investigators are looking into the cause of the blaze, which broke out just after 1 p.m. in heavy brush south of the Arroyo Simi near the end of Stearns Street, said Battalion Chief Hal Wilsey.
While county firefighters and California Youth Authority inmates carved firebreaks into thick, unburned brush downwind from the fire, a county helicopter swooped overhead and dropped thick showers of water on the flames.
Elsewhere, county fire crews hosed water onto the edges of the blaze from two tanker trucks, and two bulldozers churned through the brush cutting more firebreaks.
“It’s not a big problem,” said Operations Battalion Chief Fred Baugher as firefighters worked to control the flames. “It’s trying to burn against the wind and up the hill. . . . It’s more of a nuisance than anything else.”
More than 100 firefighters worked on the blaze, finally containing it by 4:06 p.m. Friday, Wilsey said.
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