Hundreds of Firefighters Attack Growing Blaze in Ventura County

A 13,500-acre brush fire in the northern Ventura County wilderness continued to burn out of control Friday near the Pyramid Lake Recreation Area in Los Angeles County.

Fanned by 12 mph winds, the fire in the Los Padres National Forest was moving primarily northeast as hundreds of firefighters, assisted by more than a dozen water-dropping aircraft, battled the blaze at its outer edges, officials said. Plumes of smoke were visible from nearby Interstate 5.

“Essentially, the fire is moving in all directions,” said Ed Lindquist, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service. “This fire’s going to go on for a while.”

The blaze forced the closure of numerous recreation areas in the forest, including the Alder Creek, Log Cabin and Little Mutau campgrounds and the picnic areas surrounding the lake, Lindquist said. In neighboring Angeles National Forest, the Oak Flat and Frenchman Flat camping areas were also closed.

As of late Friday, no injuries had been reported and no structures were threatened. There was no estimate on when the blaze might be contained.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District issued a smoke advisory for the Santa Clarita Valley and San Gabriel Mountains areas, including the community of Castaic and the cities of San Fernando, Pasadena and La Canada Flintridge.

Ventura County air quality officials, however, said the fire had not yet posed a health problem.

“We’ll be monitoring it, but I don’t expect to issue an advisory,” said Mallory Ham, an air pollution meteorologist for the county Air Pollution Control District. “If we get a shift in the weather, some of the smoke could drift down into our valleys, but it hasn’t yet.”

Overnight temperatures were expected to dip into the mid-30s, which should help firefighters. Bonnie Bartling, a National Weather Service weather specialist, said today’s forecast calls for temperatures in the mid-80s, with humidity of 20% to 35% and winds in the higher elevations gusting up to 30 mph. Temperatures should be slightly cooler Sunday.

The Day fire -- so named because it started shortly before 2 p.m. Labor Day -- initially began in a remote area southwest of Pyramid Lake and within two miles of the Sespe Wilderness Condor Sanctuary. The endangered birds nest throughout the region and aren’t in any immediate danger, officials said.

“The nearest birds that we’re aware of are about 10 miles south, at Hopper Mountain,” said Joe Pasinato, another spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.

On Monday, about 12,000 campers and fishermen were evacuated from the recreation area when the fire erupted in the mountainous forest.

Because of the isolated terrain, fire crews were unable to reach the blaze for the first few days and relied on water-dropping aircraft to stem the flames.

But by the end of the day Friday, roughly 850 firefighters were battling the blaze on all fronts, with more than 100 others working in command posts, Lindquist said.

They were assisted by two air tankers and 16 water-dropping helicopters.

The cause of the blaze, which so far has cost more than $1.4 million to fight, is under investigation.

Los Padres, the secondlargest national forest in the state, encompasses about 1.75 million acres of central California’s coast and mountain ranges.

The forest, which includes the famed Big Sur coastline, stretches from Monterey County into northern San Luis Obispo County and Ventura, Santa Barbara and Kern counties.

According to the Forest Service, wildfires have burned a total of more than 2.3 million acres in the Los Padres forest since 1912, for a historic average of nearly 25,000 acres annually. Chaparral accounts for more than 95% of the acreage burned each year by wildfire.

greg.griggs@latimes.com