Power Lines Start 47-Acre Brush Fire Near Ventura

Ventura’s night sky filled with the orange glow of flames late Tuesday after a brush fire erupted on a ridgeline above the central city, charring 47 acres before firefighters started to control it.

Firefighters had not contained the blaze between Crimea Fire and Hall Canyon roads, but officials said that if the winds stayed calm they would soon have a line around it. The fire, caused by downed power lines, did not immediately threaten any homes.

The hilltop sight was an eerie reminder of a fire that erupted in October 1996 and charred 400 acres in the hills above City Hall, forcing scores of evacuations before rainfall and a shift in the wind helped stop it.

“Anyone who lives in California should be prepared for this,” said Dita Wolanow, who lives on a ranch. She and her husband, Bill, anxiously watched the flames about a mile away. The Wolanows, like firefighters, were praying for calm conditions after several days of Santa Ana winds.

Just as Ventura County firefighters finished mopping up the season’s first major blaze, a 500-acre fire north of Fillmore on Tuesday night, and a second one measuring 25 acres outside Oxnard on Monday night, the latest fire erupted.

Flames burned through a steep, hilly region off Crimea Fire Road near a towering telephone relay station.

At one point, winds between 10 and 20 mph began pushing the flames toward the city before a shift sent the fire back toward the mountains.

More than 110 firefighters from the county, state and the cities of Ventura, Oxnard and Fillmore fought the blaze. Winds continued to shift throughout the night but fire officials were confident that hand crews would build a line around it.