Crews Clamp Down on Several Blazes

Brush fires ranging from less than an acre to 50 acres plagued Ventura County on Wednesday but caused no injuries or structural damage and were mostly contained by evening, authorities said.

U.S. Forest Service firefighters were battling a 50-acre brush fire Wednesday near Lockwood Valley Road and California 33, but the fire was no longer spreading, said Joe Pasinato, a forest service spokesman. The cause of the fire was unknown.

Working on dry and sometimes steep terrain, 150 forest service and county firefighters attacked with engines and hand crews on the ground, while tankers and helicopters doused the fire from the air, Pasinato said.

Moderate vegetation and muggy weather were helping firefighting efforts, Pasinato said.

“It’s looking good for us,” Pasinato said late in the day.

While some firefighters were working to keep the fire from moving northeast on Lockwood Valley Road toward denser terrain, other crews already were being sent home as the fire appeared to be nearing containment, he said.

Earlier in the day, the fire threatened about 200 ranch structures scattered throughout the Ozena area of the valley before the Ventura County Fire Department sent in a strike team to remove brush around the buildings, county fire spokeswoman Sandi Wells said.

The Ozena area also contains a fire station and campgrounds, but no evacuations were necessary and all structures appeared to be safe, Pasinato said.

A brush fire of less than an acre at the Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Laboratory near Simi Valley was quickly contained early Wednesday afternoon by the company’s fire crew, Boeing spokesman Dan Beck said.

The cause of the fire at the field lab, which is regularly used for rocket engine testing, was unknown, Beck said.

There were no injuries or structural damage, Beck said, and the company’s 12-member fire crew contained the fire in less than half an hour with ground engines.

In Santa Clarita, a brush fire sparked by a burning car was fully contained Wednesday morning after charring more than 60 acres and threatening homes, authorities said.

And on the third consecutive day of brush fires in northern Los Angeles County, two new fires burned 12 acres near the Golden State Freeway and Smokey Bear Road, north of Pyramid Lake, a Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman said. Two lanes of the freeway were closed for a short time.

The Santa Clarita blaze began Tuesday when three men driving north on the Golden State Freeway stopped on the shoulder because of car trouble, California Highway Patrol Sgt. Andrew Hernandez said.

“The vehicle caught fire and the winds carried the fire to the nearby shrubbery and right through the canyon,” Hernandez said.

Freeway traffic was backed up for hours, and firefighters advised dozens of residents to voluntarily evacuate the area, though no homes were damaged.

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Times staff writer Sufiya Abdur-Rahman contributed to this report.