Fire Erupts Near Santa Paula

Ventura County received little respite from brush fires Sunday as a small wind-stoked fire kept firefighters working in the rugged hills south of Santa Paula.

But the more than 150 firefighters who descended on the Santa Paula blaze were able to quickly corral it Sunday afternoon, keeping it to less than 200 acres. No property was damaged, and only one person was injured, a reserve firefighter who was treated for heat exhaustion at Santa Paula Memorial Hospital and released.

Investigators had not determined the cause of the fire Sunday, but they said it appeared to be of suspicious origin. There were no wind-downed power lines or other obvious causes.

Meanwhile in Ventura, fire officials continued to seek clues in the arson fire that lit up the ridgelines above City Hall on Friday night, forcing the evacuation of scores of homeowners. Arson investigators said they had found something at the spot where the fire began in Grant Park above the city’s downtown, but they declined to elaborate. They had no new information on suspects.

Investigators have released few details on Friday’s fire because they do not want to let the arsonist know what they have learned, said one fire official who asked not to be identified.

Ventura Police Officer Jack Richards said he saw a car leaving the area where the fire started while he was nearby on the set of a television shoot. But he did not get a good look at who was inside, and the people in the car are not considered suspects, he said.

“I made that report because I was the one that saw that vehicle, but it was far away and I couldn’t see enough of the vehicle to give a description,” Richards said. “It was in the area right about the same time though.”

Sunday’s fire started shortly after 11 a.m. in some brush south of the Santa Clara River near South Mountain Road, burning up a hillside and down into what is known as Texaco Canyon near Santa Paula, authorities said.

The Ventura County Fire Department sent a sizable team to battle the blaze, and it was contained within an hour, said Sandi Wells, a department spokeswoman. Two fixed-wing air tankers from the U.S. Forest Service dropped flame retardant around the fire, and three county helicopters made numerous water drops.

“We were on heightened awareness and were ready for it,” Wells said.

The morning’s light eastern wind quickly turned to blow out of the northwest, making the mop-up job much easier as the fire burned back on itself, she said.

After the initial flare-up was put down, firefighters and crews from the California Youth Authority and the California Department of Forestry cut a fire line around the burned area.

Although some of the firefighters who worked the 400-acre fire in Ventura were also called in to work the smaller Santa Paula blaze, most of those fighting Sunday’s fire were seeing their first real action of the weekend, Wells said.

“Most of those guys have gone off their shift, but a few were out on both fires,” Wells said.

Near the Ventura County line in Westlake Village, about 50 firefighters quickly contained a three-acre brush fire near the Las Virgenes Reservoir shortly after noon Sunday. Fire crews from Los Angeles and Ventura counties fought the fire, using two Super Scooper aircraft and three helicopters.

The National Weather Service had issued a wind advisory for Sunday for most of Southern California, expecting strong winds from the northeast. But the winds, though still reaching up to 40 mph in several places, proved weaker than expected, and the advisory was canceled Sunday afternoon.

Today is expected to be partly cloudy, with highs in the 70s and extremely light winds, according to the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

Scott Hadly is a Times correspondent and Miguel Bustillo is a Times staff writer. Correspondent Jason Terada also contributed to this story.