4 Teenagers Are Cited in Blaze That Chars 600 Acres in Thousand Oaks

A 600-acre fire swept close to million-dollar homes Tuesday, and four teenagers were held on suspicion of starting the blaze, authorities said.

Ventura County sheriff’s deputies arrested Chad Montagnino, 18, of Westlake Village, a 17-year-old from Thousand Oaks, and two 16-year-old boys from Agoura Hills in connection with the fire, which started about 2:25 a.m. in heavy brush near the 4000 block of Lakeview Canyon Road, said Sheriff’s Sgt. Ron Nelson.

The four were cited on suspicion of carelessly causing a fire, a misdemeanor, Nelson said.

Arson investigators determined that the minivan the teens drove into the heavy brush above the gated North Ranch Country Club Estates sparked the fire, Nelson said. The blaze gutted the van and spread, coming within 100 feet of homes.

Fanned by 30-mph winds, the flames swirled for a brief time at the top of a ridgeline above Lakeview Canyon Road. They moved south through rolling hills flanked by homes. Firefighters contained the blaze about 1 1/2 miles south of its starting point, less than 100 feet from condominiums on Via Colinas.

A county code requiring brush to be trimmed back at least 100 feet from homes in the area kept Tuesday’s fire from destroying dozens of houses and condominiums, firefighters and homeowners said.

“If it hadn’t been for the brush clearance, this could have easily gone all the way to the ocean,” Nelson said.

The fire was the latest in a string that has blackened hills and fields across Ventura County in the past week as Santa Ana winds swept through the area.

Fires near Ventura, in Fillmore and around Somis and Santa Paula burned roughly 1,000 acres in the past week and cost more than $1 million in firefighting overtime and equipment.

Firefighters were still tending the South Mountain blaze between Santa Paula and Somis on Tuesday afternoon, although the fire was fully contained.

A downed electric line caused that fire, Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Joe Luna said.

Firefighters from the California Department of Forestry and the Los Angeles County Fire Department continued to battle the blaze with 10 engines and two water tenders, Luna said.

Investigators looking into Tuesday’s fire searched the charred van for clues and collected other evidence.

Scott Quirarte, an arson investigator for the Ventura County Fire Department, said the blaze probably started when the four teens attempted to back the van from an area filled with brush baked dry by the unseasonably warm winds.

“You have a thick layer of grass here, and the vehicle was driving on it,” Quirarte said as he stood near the minivan. “We didn’t find any incendiary devices.”

The van most likely became overheated and ignited the brush as the driver attempted to turn back after getting stuck, Quirarte said.

Nelson said he didn’t know which of the four teens was driving.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested them a short time later near the Thousand Oaks Auto Mall, he said.

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After they were cited, the teens were turned over to detectives with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Lost Hills station, Nelson said.

There they were booked on suspicion of a felony count of taking a vehicle without the owner’s permission, said Det. J.T. Manwell.

The 1993 Dodge Caravan driven into the brush belonged to the mother of one of the Agoura Hills boys.

The parents, Manwell said, “are in a state of shock. The mother had just one payment [left], and then one of them gets the fine idea to drive back into the hills.”

Montagnino was held in lieu of $20,000 bail and was scheduled to be transferred to Los Angeles County Jail on Tuesday.

The three juveniles were booked and set for transfer to a juvenile hall, Manwell said.

The ridgeline with 360-degree vistas of the Conejo Valley is a favorite after-hours haunt for young people, authorities said.

Investigators at the scene collected several wine and beer bottles as evidence.

At least 600 firefighters from Ventura and Los Angeles counties as well as several other city fire departments battled the fire into the late-morning before officials declared the fire 70% contained.

Forty engines and 15 hand-crews fought the fire, Ventura County Fire Department spokeswoman Sandi Wells said.

They were aided by two water-dropping helicopters and two air tankers filled with a chemical agent used to contain wildfires.

The fire was fully contained by 6 p.m. Tuesday, Wells said.

North Ranch, where the average home sells for $1.8 million, is the city’s highest-priced housing development, said John Prescott, city planning division manager.

The subdivisions overlook about 830 acres of brushy hills and canyons known as North Ranch Open Space East.

North Ranch Country Club Estates has about 175 homes, Prescott said, and there are 648 units in the Hidden Canyon Condominiums on Via Colinas.

Condominium residents said they awoke to 50-foot-high flames marching over the ridge toward their homes in a complex that stretches from Thousand Oaks Boulevard to the base of the hills.

Up at 3 a.m. to walk his dog, Dennis Harding said he smelled smoke and heard sirens.

He drove to the other side of the hill to see what was happening and saw the flames heading toward his home.

“The whole side of the mountain was lit up like a charcoal grill,” he said. “When you see flames of 50 and 60 feet coming over the hill, all hot yellow and white, you just want to get out of there.”

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He pounded on neighbors’ doors, making sure they were awake and aware.

While there were no mandatory evacuations, many residents shoved pets and paperwork into their vehicles and parked down the street.

One of them was Susan Lewis, whose bedroom window faces the now-blackened hillside.

“I woke up to a wall of fire at 4 a.m.,” said Lewis, who lives with a pet rabbit and cat in the condo she bought two years ago. “I was really scared. I was sitting in my living room saying prayers.”

Shoeleh Di Julio, who lives with her husband and two daughters in the 900 block of Country Valley Road in Country Club Estates, said a frantic telephone call from a neighbor alerted her to the blaze just outside her back door.

“Smoke was coming in the house, and I was having a hard time breathing,” Di Julio said. “I told my kids to just take stuff that is hard to replace. Even if the house burned down, at least we were safe.”

On Hunter Valley Lane, homeowners scrambled to load valuables in their cars as flames swept near their backyards.

“At first it seemed far away so we weren’t concerned about it and we went back to sleep,” said Lena Kim, who is staying with her parents.

Two hours later, the flames were closer.

Quick-acting fire crews, a little bit of luck on the wind’s direction and the 100-foot weed-abatement area averted disaster, Kim said.

It was a similar story on Via Colinas, where residents said the monthly fee that pays for the brush clearance has been the subject of gripes at previous homeowners association meetings.

“That fire break is what saved us,” Harding said.

* DRY TIME

Santa Ana winds have fire crews on heightened alert. B5