Community meeting set for residents affected by Hill, Woolsey fires

Ventura County and Thousand Oaks will host an informational town hall meeting Wednesday night for residents of the city and unincorporated Oak Park whose properties have been destroyed or damaged by the Woolsey and Hill fires.

The 6:30 p.m. meeting will take place in the Thousand Oaks City Council chambers, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd.

Experts will provide information on watershed and debris flow assessments, public health concerns, debris removal, rental assistance and local resources.

County and city staff members will be available to answer questions.

Ventura County wildfire coverage:

• Live updates: Woolsey Fire destruction raised to 435 structures
• Flare-ups cause concern in Conejo; Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to visit
• Southern California Edison reports outage minutes before Woolsey Fire starts

The county and the city say they will continue to work together to get information out to all residents impacted by the fires.

That includes a joint recovery website, venturacountyrecovers.org as well as the city's site, toaks.org.

Farmers Insurance has set up a mobile claims center for its customers in the parking lot of the Thousand Oaks Library, 1401 E. Janss Road.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday night, the City Council, in a formality at a special council meeting, adopted a resolution ratifying the city's proclamations last week of a local emergency — the two fires.

The ratification allows the city's emergency powers and additional liability protections to continue.

The council opened its regular meeting that followed the special meeting Tuesday night with a moment of silence for the 12 victims of last week's shootings at the Borderline Bar & Grill — as well as the gunman, former Marine Ian David Long, 28, of Newbury Park.

"Over the past week, our city has experienced two significant tragedies," Mayor Andy Fox said in reference to Wednesday's shootings and the fires that started the day after.

"Tonight, we'll be standing for a moment of silence for the victims of the Borderline shootings and yes, even for the assailant, who, at one point in his life, served our country as a United States Marine, and certainly for his family," Fox said.

The council adjourned the meeting in memory of the victims, with Fox reading their names aloud — but not Long's.

The victims were Sean Adler, 48; Blake Dingham, 21; Jacob Dunham, 21; Cody Gifford-Coffman, 22; Ventura County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Ron Helus, 54; Alaina Housley, 18; Daniel Manrique, 33; Justin Meek, 23; Mark Meza, 20; Kristina Morisette, 20; Telemachus "Tel" Orfanos, 27; and Noel Sparks, 21.

"On behalf of the council, let me just say thank you to the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people in this community who have truly loved their neighbor," Fox said. "They've come through in an unbelievable fashion, both in their donations for the families, lining up to give blood and simply showing up for their neighbor."

The council and city staff wore orange ribbons with the city pin to remember the victims and to stand with those who have been impacted by the fires.

Fox said the orange stands for strength and endurance.