Crews Target Last Hot Spots in Race Against the Santa Anas : Fires: Return of hot temperatures and strong winds is forecast. Green Meadow, Steckel blazes are nearly contained, officials say.

Triumphant at last over Ventura County’s devastating blazes, firefighters Sunday turned to the less dramatic, but equally critical, task of dousing the remaining hot spots before Santa Ana winds kick in again this week.

Firefighters announced early Sunday that they had nearly contained the county’s two most stubborn fires--the Green Meadow blaze near Thousand Oaks and the Steckel scorcher near Santa Paula. The Wheel fire outside Ojai was also at least 90% contained.

Crews predicted that all three fires would be completely extinguished by today, or Tuesday at the latest. But on-duty crews remained vigilant for lingering hot spots and blowing embers, especially since forecasters predict a return of the hot temperatures and strong winds that fanned the massive wildfires.

“Basically, we’re in a downswing and the general feeling is that we’ve finally conquered it,” said O. J. Hunt, spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department. “But the winds are always, definitely a concern.”

Santa Ana gusts up to 35 m.p.h. are expected to blow into the Southland on Tuesday morning, sucking the last moisture from already-arid land and heating temperatures to the low 80s.

“It looks like we could have some good fire weather again,” National Weather Service meteorologist Ed Wentworth said.

To stave off future conflagrations, hand crews will patrol the 69,000 acres of blackened Ventura County brush for the next two to three weeks. Helicopter pilots will also join in the mop-up work, scouring the sooty mountains for wisps of smoke.

Hunt urged residents to call the Fire Department if they spot flames or smoke. But he said people should not be alarmed if the acrid smell over Newbury Park lingers for several days.

Final damage figures released Sunday indicated that 35 dwellings and eight mobile homes were demolished in Carlisle Canyon, Raznow Peak and the Yerba Buena area. The ferocious Green Meadow blaze, which gobbled acres of rugged parkland as it shot clear to the Pacific Ocean, also claimed 23 barns or storage sheds and 17 communication sites. The Steckel fire consumed another barn.

In all, 20 firefighters suffered minor injuries, as did one sheriff’s deputy.

Although the fires left several dozen residents homeless, by Sunday afternoon, only four people had applied for low-interest federal loans to rebuild, according to Hugh Darby of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The U. S. Small Business Administration is offering 4% loans of up to $120,000 to people whose homes were destroyed in the fires. Once a loan application is filed and accepted, it could take at least two weeks before checks are processed.

Federal grants of up to $12,200 are also available, Darby said.

The FEMA disaster relief center at Camarillo Airport will be open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. today and Tuesday. Other agencies represented at the center are the state Department of Insurance, Veterans Administration, SBA, Social Security Administration and Internal Revenue Service.

“It’s like a one-stop shopping center,” Darby said. “I think there’s everybody here that could possibly be of assistance to people.”

The Red Cross center for disaster victims at Yerba Buena Road and Pacific Coast Highway will remain open until Tuesday, from 10 a.m. through 6 p.m. After Tuesday, residents can go to the Red Cross headquarters, 2355 Portola Road, Ventura, for help. Counselors will be on-site, and fire refugees can receive funds for groceries, clothing or emergency home repairs.

Even as the firefighting effort wound down Sunday, the price tag for subduing the infernos continued to grow. The tally for the Green Meadow fire alone was estimated at $3.2 million and climbing, while the Steckel tab rose to $2 million.

Because the Green Meadow fire spread on state-owned lands, the California Department of Forestry will cover most of the costs. The Steckel and Wheel fires also scorched mainly state land, but Ventura County Fire Department Capt. Joe Sing said it would take several days to figure out which jurisdictions would be paying which bills.

“They will be sorting it all out,” he said. “It’s a little premature to say right now” how the costs will be divided.

Overtime will rank high among the expenses, as Ventura County firefighters were mobilized in a “plan four” alert--meaning “no one was off, and everyone was at work,” Hunt said. The state will also have to pay transportation and personnel costs for the dozens of crews that flew in from as far away as Hawaii.

Many of those far-flung firefighters arrived too late to join the most intense battles and found themselves hanging aimlessly around the base camp at Borchard Community Park in Thousand Oaks on Sunday.

Kicking back in the California sunshine, a few dozen men and women from an Oregon hand crew set up a volleyball game on a sand-covered court, their olive-green uniform pants rolled to the knees. Many had been camped in the park on standby throughout the blaze; few had even glimpsed the charred hillsides and seared ridges that had brought them to Ventura County in the first place.

“It’s a nice vacation,” said Robert Burnell, looking beach-bound in shorts, T-shirt and bandanna tied around his head.

“We’re ready to go out there when they need us, but for now, we’re enjoying the sun, playing football and Frisbee and volleyball, getting in our exercise,” Firefighter Barry Dean said. “We’re waiting to go trick-or-treating tonight.”

The Halloween spirit had also infected a five-man crew from Shasta County, who donned $2.99 Ninja Turtle masks and perched atop their gleaming red engine, flashing thumbs-up signs to passing motorists and waiting for clearance to take off for their 14-hour drive home.

“Our biggest complaint is that we didn’t get on the front line, and we wanted to,” Firefighter Scott Head said, waving at residents who had paused to snap the crew’s photo.

Although crew members did get some action protecting homes in the Thousand Oaks area, their experience with the worst brush fire to hit Ventura County since 1985 was pretty tame overall. “Why else do you think we’re sitting up here wearing masks?” Firefighter Tim Smith said.

But most residents seemed to consider all firefighters heroes, regardless of how much front-line duty they pulled. Dozens stopped by to say thanks in person. Two banners hanging on a wall opposite the base camp expressed the community’s appreciation.

And a Xeroxed sheet of admiring letters from elementary-school students circulated among the off-duty firefighters.

From Daniel, a fifth-grader: “I want to be a firemen or a professional baseball player. I think you are doing a good, good job for our state.” From John: “If you see any animals, please save them. Be safe and keep trying, be careful and don’t get hurt.” And from Diana, a starry-eyed girl: “You must be very brave to fight fires.”

One of those brave firefighters left his own note inside a Carlisle Canyon home that was saved.

When Gunnar and Doris Antonson returned to the canyon Friday morning, after spending the evening with their daughter in Thousand Oaks, they found the following letter:

“Hi--sorry we had to break the bathroom window. We needed to make sure there was no fire in your house after the severe firestorm went directly over your home. I’m happy to say your home is still here. Good Luck.--Burbank Fire Department. Capt. Throwbridge.”

Indeed, the flames had burned their guest house and storage shed, and came within a few feet of destroying their $500,000 dream home, which had taken Antonson 15 years to build.

“We thought we had lost our home,” said Doris Antonson, 67. “The firefighters were just fantastic. We have to throw them a big party.”

Gunnar Antonson, also 67, said that although this is the worst fire he has seen in the canyon over the years, he would not consider moving. “It was just chaos for a moment,” he said. “Now I feel peace again. Life is what you perceive it to be. This was just nature expanding, that’s all.”

On Sunday, the Antonsons hung a black and white flag with a skull and crossbones outside their hilltop home. It seemed an appropriate symbol of the destructive fires that had ripped through the canyon, leaving the surrounding hillsides gray and lifeless. But the Antonsons had another reason for raising the menacing-looking flag.

“Oh, that’s for Halloween,” Gunnar Antonson said, chuckling.