Truck Crash Sparks 80-Acre Brush Fire

A trucker hauling honeybees lost control of his flatbed pickup and crashed into a power pole Tuesday, sparking a fire that had scorched nearly 80 acres of grass in a Moorpark ranching community by nightfall.

Ventura County fire officials said the blaze between Grimes Canyon and Walnut Canyon roads was fully contained by 9 p.m.

The fire broke out about 5:15 p.m. when the pickup overturned into a ditch near Broadway and Grimes Canyon roads, causing a power surge along the line that sent sparks shooting.

The unidentified driver was not injured, and containers holding the bees stayed intact.

The sparks along the line ignited five small spot fires ranging from an acre to 15 acres, and a separate blaze occurred at the site of the crash, said Sandi Wells, chief information officer for the Ventura County Fire Department.

Flames spread quickly across the hillsides, coming within 100 feet of several ranch homes and corrals filled with horses, goats and other animals, Wells said. Weed clearance by area homeowners helped prevent the flames from reaching any buildings, Wells said.

There were no injuries and no evacuations, but firefighters briefly struggled to contain flames when slight winds kicked up, officials said.

The fire forced closure of Broadway and Walnut Canyon Road for several hours, rerouting hundreds of Moorpark-bound drivers, Wells said.

A total of 135 firefighters from the county, city of Ventura, California Department of Forestry and U.S. Forest Service battled the fire, along with two water-dropping helicopters.

The blaze was the second brush fire in Moorpark since the start of fire season last month.

On June 26, a hawk dropped a gopher snake onto an electrical line next to the Campus Park neighborhood in Moorpark, sparking a fire that charred about five acres and briefly threatened homes.

The largest fire of the season occurred June 29 when two boys playing with fireworks in the Lang Ranch area in eastern Thousand Oaks sparked a blaze that burned 275 acres, fire officials said.