Gusty Winds Knock Down Trees, Cut Power

The first Santa Ana winds of the season whipped through Ventura County on Monday, churning up seas that threatened small vessels in the Santa Barbara Channel and downing trees that complicated the morning commute on county roadways.

Gusts as high as 60 mph left thousands without power and fanned an 80-acre brush fire in Moorpark.

“It’s kind of a strange pattern,” said Jeff House, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., a private firm that provides forecasts for The Times. “It went from calm at 6 a.m. to gusts above 20 mph at 7 a.m.”

Winds continued to rise throughout the morning, with the National Weather Service reporting a 47 mph gust in Simi Valley and a blustery 60 mph atop Laguna Peak near Point Mugu.

“It’s a cool Santa Ana,” House said. “This is not your fire-causing classic that people think about.”

A blaze did break out on a tract being prepared for development in Moorpark, in an area bounded by Highway 23, Spring Road, New Los Angeles Avenue and Tierra Rejada Road. More than 100 firefighters fought the fire, using three helicopters and an air tanker.

No houses were threatened, and the fire was fully contained about 7 p.m. Monday, fire officials said.

“The wind was definitely a big factor,” said Joe Luna, a spokesman with the Ventura County Fire Department. “This would have been a routine small grass fire, but with the high winds it just fanned out.”

The cause of the blaze was unknown.

County officials placed fire personnel on a heightened state of readiness Monday morning, deployed bulldozers around the county and brought in additional staff to man water tenders.

While last winter’s heavy rains have minimized the fire danger this year, Luna said conditions could easily change if warm, dry winds continued to suck moisture out of vegetation.

Two vessels requested emergency assistance from the U.S. Coast Guard, including one occupied by an unidentified Castaic man aboard a 16-foot power boat, who was having trouble navigating 6-foot waves off the Ventura coast. He broadcast a distress call after his bilge pump stopped working eight miles offshore, though he made it back to Ventura Harbor safely on his own.

“He got into some rough water out there, and it scared him,” said Merv Larson, a patrol officer with the harbor master’s office. “He thought he was going down at the time. He arrived here with a lot of water in his boat, but it didn’t sink.”

A Coast Guard cutter towed a 27-foot sailboat to the mainland after the yacht lost its engine and both anchors while moored at Scorpion Anchorage on Santa Cruz Island.

Elsewhere, Southern California Edison crews were kept busy as falling trees and severed branches downed power lines serving 6,700 customers in Camarillo, Ventura, Oxnard, Santa Paula and Somis.

County officials said two crews customarily devoted to tree pruning abandoned their regular duties to patrol areas where winds were most prevalent. Roads across the county were littered with debris.

A hefty ficus limb broke off and crashed into the side of Ed Ryan’s house on Bayview Avenue in Ventura on Monday morning, jolting awake his wife and daughter.

“They said it felt like an earthquake,” Ryan said.

The limb from the 40-year-old tree demolished a small portion of roof and damaged a car parked in a neighbor’s driveway, Ryan said.

The driving wind caused a different kind of misery for asthmatics and allergy sufferers.

Dr. Sanjiv Verma with the Allergy-Asthma Group of Ventura County said the number of people reporting discomfort increased by 25% Monday.

“With these winds you get more calls from people who’ve had their symptoms under control and all of a sudden they get out of control,” he said. “We’ve had people with nasal and sinus allergies who are just having a terrible day.”

Breezy conditions should continue today, bringing temperatures into the low 80s inland, before dying off Wednesday.

Times staff writer Kate Folmar contributed to this story.