Maria fireplace in Ventura County explodes to 7,400 acres, threatening Somis and Saticoy

A fire exploded in Ventura County weekday night, quickly intense over seven,400 acres and burning structures.

The blaze, that has been dubbed the Maria hearth, bust out atop South Mountain, simply south of Santa Paula, and was moving toward the little agricultural cities of Somis and Saticoy. a minimum of 2 structures are lost, and 1,800 area unit vulnerable.

Authorities issued obligatory evacuations for a swath of homes boxed by South Mountain Road on the north, Route 118 on the south, la Avenue on the west and Balcom canon Road on the east. With night falling, firefighters were attempting to box the hearth therein space and keep the flames from spreading north toward Santa Paula and south toward Somis.

The evacuation orders encompassed concerning seven,500 people, the hearth Department aforementioned. The Camarillo center was opened as Associate in Nursing emergency shelter.

Aerial video footage showed a minimum of one home burning on the southern flank of the hearth, close to La Loma Avenue and Center Road.



About four hundred firefighters were battling the fireplace, with helicopters dropping water on the blaze as engine crews on the bottom tried to stay it from spreading toward homes.

Because the blaze poor out high on the ridge, it gave authorities time to conduct evacuations before the flames emotional down the mountain and into residential areas, Ventura fireplace Assistant Chief John McNeil aforesaid. however the remote location additionally created it troublesome for fireplace trucks to access, he said.

“I need to assure you that this is often not the Thomas fireplace,” he said, touching on the large 2017 fireplace. McNeil aforesaid the situation of the Maria fireplace means that it'll in all probability run out of fuel to burn once it reaches a lot of manicured landscape at all-time low of Capitol Hill.

At one purpose, aerial firefighting efforts were hampered by a tiny low drone that was being operated on top of the fireplace, apparently by somebody trying to photograph the blaze, Ventura County law officer Bill Ayub aforesaid. Aerial operations had resumed by concerning eleven p.m.

By the time of day, winds were still processing the fireplace from the northeast to the southwest, with sensors recording winds at concerning twenty to thirty mph, aforesaid David Gomberg, a specialist with the National Weather Service’s Oxnard workplace. a giant downside was the persistently dry air — the ratio within the space of the fireplace was a bone-dry five-hitter.



There was one silver lining — the fire broke out when winds were easing; had this area ignited just 24 hours earlier, “we’d be talking about 50 mph to 60 mph winds, and that’s a whole different ballpark,” Gomberg said.
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The Santa Ana winds from the northeast were expected to remain persistent through Friday morning and probably through midafternoon. At around 3 p.m., forecasters expect sea breezes from the Pacific Ocean to make their first appearance since Tuesday.
Ventura County is already dealing with the Easy fire, which started Wednesday and threatened the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. That fire has burned 1,700 acres.
Santa Paula sits in the Santa Clara River Valley, among the most dangerous wind and fire corridors in Southern California. The river valley forms a wind-tunnel-like corridor, essentially connecting the high desert and the Santa Clarita Valley with the Oxnard Plain on the Ventura County coast between Oxnard and Ojai. The topography carries the potential for funneling severe Santa Ana winds...

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