Firefighters Get Workout From Controlled Burn

Firefighters dealt with a 300-acre controlled burn and an accidental three-acre brush fire Wednesday, officials said.

The larger fire was set on South Mountain east of Saticoy so that state and county firefighters could practice using equipment, study fire behavior and reduce dense vegetation, said Joe Luna, a county fire spokesman.

“We accomplished our objective,” Luna said. “It was a success.”

Despite more than two dozen phone calls to the county Fire Department from concerned residents, the flames spread evenly and the burn area was easily contained during exercises, Luna said.

About 100 firefighters participated in the drill, which also reacquainted them with the operations of an incident command post. The fire had the added benefit of helping improve cattle feeding areas by allowing for new growth.

The cost of such a burn, including the manpower and equipment, is $20 to $32 an acre, Luna said. To fight an accidental or arson-set fire in an area thick with brush, the cost can top $2,000 an acre.

Another prescribed burn is scheduled next week in eastern Ventura County in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

In the smaller blaze in north Camarillo, a welder helping erect a wrought-iron fence behind a house on Armitos Drive accidentally started a three-acre fire when a spark from a welding tool ignited some cloth on the ground, fire officials said.

The blaze spread north through some brush. No structures or agricultural land was threatened.