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Fire Contained, but More Winds Forecast

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As crews stamped out what remained of a 500-acre brush fire north of Fillmore on Tuesday evening, county fire officials were bracing for another potentially hazardous combination of warm temperatures and dry winds.

Sandi Wells, a spokeswoman for the Ventura County Fire Department, said the brush fire that blackened remote rolling hills and mountains was fully contained as of 6 p.m. No structures were damaged in the fire.

She said 516 firefighters from Ventura and Los Angeles counties, the state Department of Forestry, the U.S. Forest Service, the city of Montecito and the state Department of Corrections battled the blaze, which started about 6:30 a.m. Monday about 100 feet from a condor monitoring facility.

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The condors, which fly in a 20-mile habitat near the facility, were not harmed, Wells said. Investigators are looking at a number of possibilities, including electrical lines felled by strong winds or a vehicle backfiring, she said.

Tuesday afternoon, a firefighter from the Department of Corrections crew was airlifted from the fire scene to Ventura County Medical Center after he became ill, Wells said.

Officials at the county hospital said the 31-year-old man was in stable condition and would probably be released today.

Forecasters are predicting the Santa Ana winds will kick up tonight and well into Thursday, with gusts in the mountain areas at up to 40 mph and temperatures hitting the mid-70s.

Because of the increased danger posed by the return of the winds, Wells said, county fire crews will remain in a “lower readiness” mode.

County meteorologist Kent Field said temperatures along the coast will top out at 70 degrees Thursday.

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