Blaze Scorches 9,200 Acres Near Santa Paula

Crackling sheets of flame ripped through avocado orchards and orange groves east of Santa Paula on Monday as gusty Santa Ana winds drove a day-old wildfire--uncommonly early for the first major brush fire of the year--through Los Padres National Forest.

Fire licked close to ranch houses and horse corrals, worrying ranchers along the rugged border between the populous Santa Clara River valley and the mountainous Sespe Condor Sanctuary.

That blaze of more than 9,200 acres and three smaller fires in Riverside County flared a month before the traditional start of the fire season June 1--propelled by temperatures in the high 90s, humidity levels that dipped to a parching 8% and winds that gusted up to 70 mph.

The Riverside County fires destroyed a home and several outbuildings and forced the evacuation of a large high school, but no serious injuries were reported.

The Ventura County fire was by far the largest. Sparked by failed low-voltage electrical wires, the blaze started Sunday near Grand Avenue in Fillmore and by late Monday afternoon had moved toward the outskirts of Santa Paula.

But even with forecasters predicting that an eastbound high-pressure front this morning will bring a quick end to the Santa Anas, fire commanders said they did not expect to fully contain the blaze until at least Friday.

Monday’s fight was pitched against the fuel--a low-lying layer of dense, dead brush with dry new grass growing up through it, fire officials said.

Today’s battle will pit firefighters against the terrain, the rough slopes of Los Padres National Forest, where fire roads are few, bulldozers cannot climb and the work is done by hand--and aerial bombardment.

Their efforts are geared to one goal: cutting a ring of firebreaks around the blaze and keeping it from roaring into Santa Paula.

They named it the Grand Fire.

“It burned like a laser across the hillside,” said Fillmore Fire Chief Pat Askren, pointing to the sharp, charred lane that the intensely hot fire had etched through the brush.

About 2,000 firefighters swarmed across rocky hillsides, trying vainly to stop the wind-fanned flames, which had burned out of control since their beginning on a remote Seneca Oil lease at the end of Goodenough Road.

Engine strike teams stood guard by ranch houses. Bulldozers and hand crews cut firebreaks along ridgelines, hoping to block the fire from hopscotching westward into populated Santa Paula Canyon.

Firefighters lobbed blazing pink highway flares into thick brush in less windy areas, setting backfires so the burned land might block the main fire from advancing later. And helicopters and air tankers swooped low over rough terrain, bombing hot spots with water.

But the Canadian Super-Scooper airplanes that Los Angeles County leased at the end of last year’s fire season were not available because this year’s season has not officially been declared, said John Foy, a Ventura County Fire Department spokesman.

“A lot of fixed-wing aircraft weren’t in the plan yet,” he said. “They haven’t signed on for the fire season yet.”

Just northeast of Fillmore, Shirley and Larry Diamond woke before dawn Monday to see a wave of flame cresting the ridge below their hillside ranch and chewing its way toward them through uncut brush.

Like many of their neighbors, the Diamonds still had not cleared brush away from the house to comply with Ventura County’s June 1 weed-abatement deadline. The fire caught them by surprise.

“We’ve had a couple fires in the area over the years, but this was the scariest, being on three sides of the house,” said Shirley Diamond, pointing at the scorched ridge barely 100 yards away. “At one point, that whole area was 20-foot flames and cinders flying. It was just scary.”

As the fire and wind gained strength through the morning, thick, brown smoke poured down the Santa Clara River Valley to the sea, choking off a view of the Channel Islands from the Ventura coast. Between 50 and 60 people on the outskirts of Fillmore and Santa Paula voluntarily evacuated their homes as a precaution.

Ventura residents awoke Monday to a film of white ash coating cars, homes and fruit trees, deposited by the fire more than 20 miles away.

By 11 a.m., flames had devoured 8,000 acres of 40-year-old brush in the national forest and exhausted many firefighters, but the only injury reported was a firefighter’s twisted ankle.

By midafternoon, Rancher Edwin McFadden had watched fire roar through one-third of the 250 acres of avocado trees at his Rancho Simpatica.

“It’s easily a million dollars,” he said of his losses wearily.

McFadden and a crew of 30 ranch hands had worked since midnight with shovels and truck-mounted water tankers trying to keep the fire from damaging any more of the 1,000-acre citrus and avocado ranch.

While neighbor Joylene Papnicolaou loaded her horses onto a Ventura County Animal Regulation trailer, McFadden prepared to surrender even more of his turf.

He tied bright orange ribbons to trees, marking for firefighters the quadrants of his orchards he was willing to lose. Los Angeles County Fire Department crews set backfires, deliberately burning brush ahead of the main fire that would act as a firebreak later.

Bleary-eyed and exhausted, McFadden said he would sacrifice some of his trees to save the rest of the ranch.

“The fire crews have a good plan. I’m trying to help as much as I can,” he said.

Ventura County animal control workers evacuated the Steckel Park Aviary, whisking ostriches, emus and nearly 150 other exotic birds away from the flames.

In teams, they evacuated horses from ranches along California 150, trucking them to a temporary corral at the Ventura County Fairgrounds.

John Lockhart and wife Wendy Basil evacuated three horses, a donkey and a pony Sunday afternoon. As the wind picked up and fire raged close by overnight, they began fearing for their own lives.

Burning brush “just started coming down the hill like fiery boulders, and the wind was so strong, it seemed like the palm fronds would be blowing off,” Basil said.

“I never imagined it would be this scary,” Lockhart said. “It was like being surrounded by a ring of fire.”

“We haven’t seen a bed in over 24 hours,” said L.A. County Fire Engineer Victor Spencer, bivouacked with teammates at the end of Bridge Road near Steckel Park.

The team had walked through the neighborhood earlier, sweeping dead leaves and branches off roofs to deprive the fire of opportunities.

“We’ll be out here another two days,” he said, his voice heavy with fatigue.

East of Steckel Park, firefighters began preparing a fire line to meet the flames bearing down from the west.

Using four bulldozers, they cut a 16-foot swath through the brush 2 miles long. Santa Barbara County firefighters stood by, waiting for flames that were still nearly 8 miles away.

“We put the line in where we felt comfortable and let the line burn to where we are, just as long as no structures are threatened,” said Ed McGready, battalion chief for Santa Barbara County.

No homes lay between the fire and the line of firefighters. Any oil wells there had been capped, and authorities had resolved not to worry about saving the derricks or following the fire into the remoter reaches of Los Padres--at least until the strong winds died down.

“Some areas we just have to let it burn into the brush and go after it when the weather changes,” said Dave Goodin, U.S. Forest Service division supervisor. “Our main priority is to keep it out of the town.”

Near Steckel Park, Leslie Reed fed hamburgers and snacks to her kids.

“I’m going to try to get lunch down into everyone before we have to decide whether to pack and go,” she said.

Her son Tanner, 4, seemed ready.

“I have an iguana, and I’ll have to bring it,” he said resolutely. “Kitty too.”

In rural Riverside County, a fire that started in a eucalyptus grove spread rapidly as winds scattered burning leaves through a small, rural neighborhood.

Soon, wood-shake roofs on several structures were ablaze.

Firefighters from the California Department of Forestry contained that fire after it had blackened about 100 acres of grass and brush.

Another fire near Lake Elsinore burned two travel trailers and two other vehicles and blackened about 40 acres before firefighters stopped it.

And about 5 miles west of Rubidoux, a wind-whipped grass fire spread across a 120-acre alfalfa field, forcing evacuation of about 2,200 students from Jurupa Valley High School.

Reed is a Times staff writer and Hadly is a correspondent. Staff writers Tom Gorman and Eric Malnic and correspondents Eric Wahlgren, Andrew Blechman and Jeff McDonald contributed to this story.

* DOWNWIND

Smoke and ash drift across western Ventura County. B1

* RELATED STORIES: B3