Agencies Close Charred Parks and Trails : Environment: The state Department of Parks and Recreation suffers the greatest amount of damage in terms of area.

The Chatsworth-Santa Susana and Thousand Oaks blazes charred thousands of acres of parkland in the Santa Monica and Santa Susana Mountains and the Simi Hills, prompting state and federal open space agencies to close parks and trails.

In terms of area, the California Department of Parks and Recreation suffered the greatest damage. The Thousand Oaks blaze raced seven miles through Point Mugu State Park to the beach, blackening an estimated 10,000 acres of the 14,980-acre park.

The fire damaged two park campgrounds along Pacific Coast Highway and burned a camp host’s trailer, also charring popular hiking areas in La Jolla Valley and Sycamore Canyon. But park officials said the canyon’s venerable sycamores and oaks have withstood many previous fires and will probably survive this one.

“It was a very quick fire” that “seemed to have burned the underbrush and the thick vegetation under the canopies,” said Norm Chapman, a lifeguard supervisor with the state parks department.

The Thousand Oaks fire wavered erratically through the day, slapped back and forth between the Santa Ana winds and damp marine layer. Late Wednesday it was advancing toward backcountry areas of Leo Carrillo State Beach.

Two deer routed by the fire were seen wading in Magu Lagoon--a sight that was a first for supervising state park ranger John Falk.

Wildfires are an integral feature of chaparral ecosystems, usually bringing a bumper crop of spring wildflowers. But “certainly it’s a tragedy for all the wildlife that’s going to get injured, killed or displaced,” Falk said.

The fire was indiscriminate, chewing up National Park Service and Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy lands as well as state parks department lands.

Near the northern flank of Point Mugu State Park, it scorched much of the 640-acre Broome Ranch, recently acquired by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, an affiliate of the conservancy.