Sparks Blamed in 2 Grass Fires; 25 Acres Burn

Sparks were blamed for starting two separate swift-moving grass fires in Ventura County on Sunday in which two firefighters collapsed from heat exhaustion and a total of 25 acres burned.

The first fire broke out in Somis at 2:10 p.m. when Ken Forsberg, who recently purchased a house on Worth Way near the 3700 block of Somis Road, was working on his yard with a gas-powered weeder, according to county Fire Department spokeswoman Pam Sears.

A blade from the tool struck a rock, creating sparks that ignited surrounding brush, and the fire quickly spread in the 102-degree heat. The blaze destroyed about 10 acres of brush and about 40 trees in an avocado orchard, said Battalion Chief Ron Sims.

Firetrucks from a nearby county station had a difficult time reaching the fire, he said. “These are all dirt roads used by off-road vehicles,” Sims said at the fire command post set up on a steep hill behind Somis Road. “It was impossible to get our water-tender trucks up here.”

The trucks, which hold 4,000 gallons of water, were parked at the foot of the hill, and smaller firetrucks shuttled the water up to firefighters.

In all, nearly 100 county and state Department of Forestry firefighters battled the blaze using water and hand tools.

Other firefighters in a helicopter siphoned water from a nearby pond and dropped it on the blaze, returning 10 times before the fire was contained at about 3:30 p.m. The blaze did not spread to the three nearby ranch-style mansions, he said.

One firefighter was treated at the scene for dehydration and heat exhaustion, Sims said.

The second fire occurred at 3 p.m. at a ranch owned by Nichols Olsen at Olsen and Moorpark roads in Thousand Oaks, Sears said. An employee from Ike’s Pump and Drilling Inc. in Oxnard was working on a water pump when sparks from his equipment ignited grass.

About 15 acres of brush burned before 40 firefighters--including one team using a water-dumping helicopter--contained the blaze at 4:30 p.m., Sears said. County Firefighter Sam Villavecencio was treated at the scene for heat exhaustion.