Fire Near Ojai School Contained

A 20-acre blaze broke out near a private school in Ojai on Thursday morning, interrupting classes and prompting school officials to send pupils home early.

The blaze was contained by 3:30 p.m. Ventura County fire officials said the school was never in danger, but educators said they believed the smoke drifting into Villanova Preparatory School was thick enough that classes should be canceled for the rest of the day.

“It was just a precaution,” said Sylvia Arriaga, an office administrator at the school. “Everyone’s OK, but a cloudy grayish smoke is around.”

Villanova is a private school of about 250 students. About 90 live on campus, Arriaga said.

The fire broke out about 11:15 a.m. on a steep, brushy hillside on Creek Road south of the school. Investigators are trying to determine the cause.

More than 190 firefighters and two air tankers were sent to stamp out flames. Fire officials said the blaze had the potential to spread quickly.

“There are a number of steep slopes and they are brush-covered,” said Sandi Wells, chief information officer for the Ventura County Fire Department. “And there’s lots of dead grass that can burn quickly and explosively and can lead to a bigger brush fire.”

Wells added that the area has had several raging brush fires in the past.

“In the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s we had some very large fires in the hundreds of thousands of acres,” Wells said.

Two fires also erupted in the same area last summer. On Aug. 23, a fire started when a tractor pulling a rotary mower near Creek Road hit a rock and the sparks ignited brush, blackening 80 acres. And on Sept. 6, a car fire along Creek Road near Clark Ranch jumped into nearby brush, burning 30 acres.