Officials Blame 60-Acre Brush Fire on Hot Exhaust Pipe
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SOMIS — A hot exhaust pipe on a pickup truck is being blamed for a 60-acre fire Friday afternoon, authorities said.
The truck got stuck in a riverbed behind a tree farm in the 3400 block of Somis Road shortly after 1 p.m., and heat from the exhaust system set grass on fire, said Tracy Valencia, with the Ventura County Fire Department.
The blaze burned up a hill toward homes on Worth Way in northeast Camarillo.
But because firefighters were able to drop retardant in the area, and because homeowners had kept weeds to a minimum, no structures were damaged, authorities said.
Authorities were concerned that the fire would burn through a nearby avocado orchard, but that didn’t happen.
However, the intense heat might have damaged some of the fruit, officials said.
The truck, driven by a 17-year-old male whom authorities would not identify because of his age, was destroyed, but no one was injured.
Fire crews contained the blaze shortly after 3 p.m. and remained on the scene for a couple of hours to mop up, Valencia said.
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