Wildfire Alert Spurs County Arson Patrols

With fast, hot Santa Ana winds sucking moisture from the air, Fire Capt. Rod Megli cruised the brush-choked canyons around Thousand Oaks on Tuesday, looking for signs of arson and fire:

Smoke plumes. Parked cars in remote areas. Suspicious people hiking alone through the brush. Anything that could help his department jump onto a new fire quickly and catch the person responsible.

“We’re being the extra eyes and ears, and making our presence known and assuring the public that we’re alert to the fire hazards,” said Megli, one of two captains cruising the rugged mountain roads by truck Tuesday with 250 gallons of water, a diesel pump and a radio. “And we’re making sure that if anyone’s out here thinking they’ll start a fire, they know they might get caught.”

But the air over the county remained mostly clear. The brush was largely unburned, except for two small fires in Somis that were extinguished late Tuesday by a strike team standing on alert nearby. The cause of both fires is under investigation.

And 130 men and women of the Ventura County Fire Department--25% more than usual--remained on a Plan 2 wildfire alert because of the potentially explosive weather.

With the winds Tuesday blowing just as hot, dry and swift as they were Monday, Ventura County Fire Chief Bob Roper and Assistant Chief David Festerling again put the department on a Plan 2 alert at 8 a.m.

Plan 1 is normal operation.

Plan 3 means a major fire is underway, all vacations are canceled, training is postponed, firefighters stay on duty for as long as they are needed and nearly the entire department is considered ready for battle--or actively engaged, said department spokeswoman SandiWells.

But Plan 2 is that edgy state of alertness in between.

Plan 2 means the department stands at alert, putting men such as Megli and Capt. Tony Salas on arson watch so they patrol regularly through the riskiest spots in the county, such as Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Upper Ojai, Santa Paula and Fillmore.

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It means sending the department’s arson investigators out to interview old arson suspects and cruise past the areas they might be tempted to torch.

It means posting a task force of three engines and 12 firefighters on standby in Somis, near the center of the fire district, where they could roll out at the first hint of fire in any direction.

On days like these, when the temperature and winds are high and humidity is low, a firefighter’s shift is a constant game of hurry up and wait, said Fire Capt. Thomas Law.

Law and his crew stood by with specially equipped brush engines, which are smaller than the “pavement queens,” as firefighters call the engines used to fight structure fires. Their shorter wheelbase makes them easier for firefighters to drive and turn around on steep, narrow back-country roads.

“We don’t want to thrash our normal engines taking them off-road,” Law said.

A brush engine also has a separate motor powering its water pump, which allows a firefighter to walk alongside and spray water where needed while the main motor moves the rig through the brush, Law said.

Each brush engine carries 500 gallons of water, and the three used in the task force can lay one mile of hose, Law said. A water-tanker truck assigned to the task force also stood ready, filled with 2,500 gallons of water.

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Law said the firefighters were anxious and ready to fight any blaze.

About 4 p.m., Law’s task force got its first taste of smoke. The first of two barranca fires erupted near the intersection of Donlon Road and California 118 in Somis.

The second fire burned a quarter-mile south and firefighters kept watch over both blazes, dousing the flames and letting the fires burn themselves out.

But Plan 2 is as much a state of mind as it is a state of readiness. Department commanders keep a wary eye on the weather, gauging the heat and wind and humidity as they deploy their forces.

Today’s weather is expected to be as dry and windy across the county as it was Tuesday--with winds steady from the northeast at 15 to 25 mph near the coast and 20 to 35 mph with gusts near 40 in the inland canyons, decreasing in the afternoon, Ventura County meteorologist Kent Field said.

Humidity, which is usually up to about 25% this time of year, is expected to remain at a parched 5% to 15%, with the driest areas being Moorpark, Ojai and Thousand Oaks, he said.

Ojai was the hot spot Tuesday with an afternoon high of 96 degrees. Temperatures today are expected to be 2 to 3 degrees warmer across the county, said Field.

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Santa Ana winds are expected to start tapering off Thursday, with cooler, wetter and calmer onshore breezes moving in on Friday, he said.

But for now, the department tries to stay ready, warning wildland residents to look out for suspicious people or vehicles, to keep from accidentally sparking brush fires themselves and to call 911 at the first hint of fire.

Salas cruised out on arson patrol around Fillmore on Tuesday, hoping to prevent any firebugs from setting a blaze.

“What makes a firebug start a fire on a day like today is knowledge of the weather and the wind,” Salas said. “Firebugs are off a little bit mentally. They get a surge of power by starting catastrophes.”

From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Salas and the other arson units cruised the back roads and canyons, taking down license plate numbers of cars in the more remote areas, and looking for hot spots. Often this meant getting out of the truck and peering down a canyon with binoculars.

“Arson is one of the hardest crimes to convict someone of,” Salas said. “You almost have to catch them in the act of starting the fire.”

One area on Salas’ beat was the Sespe Canyon, north of Fillmore, where last year the Grand fire burned hillsides up and down the canyon.

Standing on the side of a dirt road leading to Squaw Flat, at the northern end of the canyon, Salas said many fires start between 1 and 2 p.m., when the south-facing hillsides of mountain ranges are their hottest and driest.

“There is a lot of vegetation on the north-facing side,” he said. “But the hot slopes on the south-facing side are the hottest during the fire season, and they are the most dangerous for us.”

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In addition to suspicious cars, Salas and the arson units were on the lookout for people using power machinery in dry brush.

On a dirt road leading through the 1,000-acre Rancho Simpatica, in western Fillmore, Salas came upon ranch hands using a gas-powered wood splitter.

“They are doing it safely,” said Salas. He noted that the engine appeared to have the proper spark arrester, and crew members had set the gas can down on the road opposite from where they were working, out of harm’s way.

“I did tell them that they should be wearing safety goggles,” Salas said.

Ranch foremen Angel Gallo pointed out that the spot where they were working was near the flash point of the Grand fire.

“It was hell over here,” said Gallo, 55, recalling how the hoses he and his co-workers had were no match for the blaze, which eventually consumed 11,000 acres.

The Ventura County Fire Department canceled its Plan 2 alert about 7 p.m. Tuesday, but officials said they would be ready to resume operations again today if weather predictions hold true.

Firefighters from Ventura County were not the only ones ready to battle a blaze Tuesday. Russell Ahlers-Williams, a firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service, was in Fillmore on a surveying project when he was called back to the Wheeler Gorge Fire Station about 1 p.m.

“Whoop!” Ahlers-Williams yelled. “Turn around and go on home. There’s a fire.”

Loading his gear into a familiar green forest service pickup truck, Ahlers-Williams said, “I was out here measuring the site for a permanent facility here, and now I’m going to Orange County.”

“It’s a good thing, too,” he said, alluding to the extra pay he will receive for fighting the blaze. “I just had a baby about a month ago, and the kid needs new shoes.”

Times correspondent Veronique de Turenne contributed to this article.