Fast-Moving Blaze Burns 650 Acres in Hills Near Piru

An errant spark from a welder’s torch touched off a fast-moving brush fire in the hills near Piru on Sunday, scorching hundreds of acres and sending a dark plume of smoke far into the skies above the small town.

Officials said the wind-driven fire had blackened more than 650 acres by late Sunday and was only 10% contained. It may take several days to fully contain the fire, they added.

Authorities say the fire started about noon Sunday when a welder repairing a metal fence accidentally sent sparks into dry brush near Piru Canyon Road in Modello Canyon. High winds pushed part of the fire into a small valley, temporarily endangering scores of homes, before the blaze moved out of the area and headed west, authorities said.

Alfonso Barragan, owner of Poncho’s Place restaurant, said he was sitting with customers outside his business when he saw a fire engine speed into the hills just north of the restaurant. Minutes later, he said, the hills around the Main Street restaurant were engulfed in flame.

A last-minute change in the wind direction spared his restaurant and nearby homes, Barragan said.

“It was pretty hot,” he said. “It moved really quick.”

County Fire Department spokesman John Foy said no homes were evacuated because “there wasn’t time.”

No injuries were reported by Sunday evening, and a boy and girl who had been horseback riding--and feared to be in danger--were found unharmed far from the fire. Officials say no major structures were in the fire’s immediate path Sunday night.

Bill Hoffer, a meteorological technician at the National Weather Service in Oxnard, said windless, clear conditions today should aid the firefighting effort. No precipitation is expected, however, and highs could reach into the low 80s.

Sunday’s blaze came less than a year after the Hopper Canyon fire burned 26,000 acres near Piru. Fighting that fire cost more than $6.4 million and took the efforts of more than 1,000 firefighters.

Fortunately, fire breaks built to stave off last year’s fire could still aid firefighters with this blaze, fire officials said.

But the current fire is already showing dangerous tendencies, Foy said.

High winds had already caused it to ignite smaller blazes about half a mile ahead of the main fire, he said.

The campgrounds at Lake Piru were closed Sunday afternoon to provide an overnight camp for some of the more than 300 firefighters from Ventura and Los Angeles counties, the Los Padres National Forest and the cities of Ventura, Oxnard, Fillmore and Santa Paula who are battling the blaze. Campers already at the site were allowed to stay overnight.

The Piru fire began two days after a fire was accidentally started in a Santa Barbara County portion of the Los Padres National Forest. That fire, which so far has consumed more than 2,200 acres, started on a private ranch 12 miles north of Santa Barbara on Friday afternoon when a tractor pulling a mower hit a rock and a spark ignited grass.

In the hills just north of Piru’s Main Street, only charred ground and an acrid smell were left late Sunday to remind residents of the blaze that came within yards of homes.

Although restaurant owner Barragan said he was worried about his business, he and several other local residents rushed to the aid of another structure, a newly built home that was even closer to the blaze.

About half a dozen men quickly drenched the house and surrounding brush with water from garden hoses, Barragan said, creating a last-minute fire break that left the home untouched even as the ground around it was blackened.

The 6-month-old house was a priority, he said, so “everybody had to be there.”

Carmen Quijada, who lives down the block from Poncho’s Place, said she first noticed the fire moments before it crossed over a small hill and rushed into the valley.

“I said, ‘God, where are those flames coming from?’ ” she said. “All of a sudden, it just blew up. It made an awful noise.”

Across the street, Delia Hernandez said she watered the area around her parents’ house as flames neared their hillside home. Two tall trees were particularly worrisome, Hernandez said.

“[The fire] was fast,” she said. “Everything was pretty dry.”

The Fire Department’s Foy said residents were lucky the blaze moved away when it did.

“It was quite close,” he said. “Too close for comfort.”