400-Acre Brush Fire Fully Contained

A brush fire that burned more than 400 acres near Piru and injured five firefighters was fully contained early Tuesday.

After a night of digging fire lines and putting out small spot fires, crews had the blaze under control by about 10 a.m., said Sandi Wells, spokeswoman for the Ventura County Fire Department.

Of the five firefighters suffering from heat exhaustion, one was taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, where he was treated and released, said Dennis Cross, a spokesman from Los Angeles County Fire Department. Cross said the man was assigned to a flight crew out of Pasadena.

Wells said the other firefighters, part of an inmate camp crew, were treated at the scene.

The blaze began about 2 p.m. Monday near the Ventura-Los Angeles county line when crews cutting grass along California 126 hit a rock and ignited the dry brush.

The identity of the roadside crew responsible for the fire has not been determined, said Joe Luna, a spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department. It appears the fire was started accidentally, meaning those responsible won’t have to repay the roughly $1 million spent to extinguish the flames, Luna said.

Fire moved quickly up a steep hillside and into San Martinez Canyon, later burning the vault cover of an underground oil pipeline. Oil workers shut down the supply line and allowed the residual oil to burn off.