Out of Control Ojai Blaze Burns 6,000 Acres

Stoked by hot, dry weather, fires crackled across Southern California on Monday, sending firefighters into helicopters and tanker trucks to battle the blazes.

A wildfire 20 miles north of Ojai more than doubled in size Monday to 6,000 acres as an expanding crew of firefighters struggled to contain an inferno fed by churning winds.

“This fire is out of control,” Darren Drake, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, said as he surveyed 20-foot-high flames on a ridge in the Sespe Wilderness.

Thick brown smoke tinted much of Ojai Valley and ashes reached as far as Thousand Oaks, coating sidewalks, cars and front lawns.

The blaze, one of four wildfires burning across the Southland, showed no signs of slowing down as officials prepared to bring in additional firefighters trained to battle large-scale wildfires.

“This fire has the potential to be catastrophic,” Drake said. “A lot of things are really up against us.”

Only 10% of the fire had been contained by Monday evening, and there remained no estimate as to when firefighters will have the blaze under full control, said Joe Pasinato, a spokesman for the Forest Service.

The cause remained under investigation.

Since the blaze began near the Pine Mountain Inn off California 33 about 3 p.m. Saturday, the wildfire has caused the closure of a stretch of the state highway and several popular campgrounds and hiking areas, including Rose Valley, Pine Mountain and Wheeler Gorge. The area’s wilderness trails attract about 5,000 visitors a year, Forest Service officials said.

Meanwhile, in the San Bernardino National Forest, firefighters rappelled out of helicopters into a remote area and set up makeshift camps to fight a fire near Lake Arrowhead.

They battled the blaze until they were too exhausted to continue and then slept on the ground until they were ready to fight some more, said Capt. Mark Whaling.

“It’s called coyote tactics,” Whaling said. “It’s not like backpacking.”

That fire, believed to have been started by firefighters on a training exercise, was 80% contained Monday. It burned 2,700 acres, injured three firefighters and destroyed four buildings and a bathhouse. It cost nearly $1.8million in firefighting expenses, Whaling said.

South of that blaze was the Bee fire, which destroyed 432 acres after starting Sunday afternoon east of Hemet. Firefighters expected full containment by dark.

In the Sequoia National Forest near Lake Isabella northeast of Bakersfield, 450 acres burned in a fire that started Sunday evening.

In the Angeles National Forest, 125 acres burned north of Glendora in Susana Canyon in a blaze that started Monday.

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Times staff writer Jessica Garrison and the Associated Press contributed to this report.