Authorities Plot Strategy After Arson Outbreak

A team of fire investigators and Sheriff’s Department detectives met Tuesday afternoon to coordinate their attempts to nab the suspect or suspects who have been lighting fires across the county.

The meeting was prompted by an intense series of arsons that occurred Tuesday just after midnight in and around residential neighborhoods in Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park. The fires burned more than a dozen acres.

Firefighters from stations across the county raced to extinguish 10 fires, all intentionally set within a two-hour period, department spokeswoman Sandi Wells said.

Three other brush fires started Sunday and Monday in the same area are also being looked at, Wells said.

“We don’t know if this is a single person setting these fires or a group of persons, but we’re going to try and find out,” she said. “[Investigators] have been able to draw some connections between the fires, however.”

The Fire Department is asking for help from anyone who might have information regarding the fires, Wells said.

The Sheriff’s Department will assign one of its investigators to the case, Sheriff’s Department Lt. William Montijo said. The two departments often work together on arson cases, Montijo said.

Since April, the Ventura County Fire Department arson investigation unit has been responding to a series of arsons that included a 145-acre blaze just north of Ojai Saturday and eight other fires set near Ojai in April and May.

Three of those fires were particularly disturbing for department officials because they were set during the four-day, 10,000-acre Grand fire between Fillmore and Santa Paula

All of the fires early Tuesday were set either next to a road or within walking distance of a road, Wells said. And the arsons this season seem to have been set during hot spells when the fires have the most likelihood of spreading, she added.

Arson is blamed for the devastating Green Meadow and Steckl Park fires that destroyed 69 residences and burned 68,302 acres of brushland in the fall of 1993.

“That’s the kind of thing we’re trying to prevent from happening again,” Wells said.

Since the weekend, fire investigators and detectives have been sifting through the ashes of more than a dozen fires countywide looking for clues that might lead to who is lighting the blazes.

The rash of fires began Tuesday a few minutes past midnight with a blaze at Rancho Conejo Boulevard and Lawrence Drive. That fire was contained within about 30 minutes, but not before a second fire was set off Hill Canyon Road and another at Potrero Road and Wendy Drive, near the White Stallion ranch. That one took two hours to control.

Then just before 1 a.m. another fire was reported at Cresthaven Drive and Westlake Boulevard, and another at Hillcrest Drive and Rancho Conejo Boulevard. About 50 minutes later, a series of five spot fires were set along West Potrero Road in Long Grade Canyon between Camarillo and Thousand Oaks.

Fires continued throughout Tuesday, with yet another small blaze erupting in Westlake about 6:30 p.m.

County fire officials said 1 1/2 acres of wild grass off Triunfo Canyon Road burned, and two juveniles were detained on suspicion of starting the Triunfo Canyon blaze late Tuesday.

“They were playing with model rockets,” a Ventura County Fire Department dispatcher said. “But it was not related to [Tuesday morning’s] incidents.”

Anyone with information on the fires can call the Ventura County Fire Department’s 24-hour information line at 388-4276, or fire investigators at 378-7003.

Correspondent Jeff McDonald contributed to this story.