Third body found in Woolsey Fire area; containment increases to nearly 50 percent

As additional evacuation orders were lifted Wednesday and crews strengthened their grip on the region’s wildfires, officials announced the discovery of a third body in the Woolsey Fire area.

The body was discovered by law enforcement authorities sometime Tuesday in the 32000 block of Lobo Canyon Road in Agoura Hills, said Sarah Ardalani, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner.

Ardalani said the agency was notified of the discovery around 5:45 p.m. Tuesday.

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Investigators were en route to the scene to recover the body Wednesday morning, she said. No additional information was immediately available.

On Friday, two bodies were found in a vehicle on a driveway along Mulholland Highway in Malibu. The deaths remain under investigation.

The 3,685 firefighters on the line increased containment of the Woolsey Fire to 47 percent and battled flare-ups on the incident’s western edge in Ventura County. The fire covered 97,620 acres as of Wednesday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The Hill Fire, which burned a few miles northwest of its larger counterpart, remained at 4,531 acres and was 94 percent contained as of Wednesday, Cal Fire said.

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Cal Fire officials estimated that 483 structures had been destroyed in the Woolsey Fire and 86 had been damaged. Approximately 22 percent of the damage assessment in the area had been completed as of Wednesday, the fire agency said.

So far, two structures have been destroyed by the Hill Fire, and two more damaged, Cal Fire said.

More evacuations lifted 

Firefighters’ efforts on the Woolsey Fire translated into the lifting of mandatory evacuation orders for neighborhoods in Los Angeles and Ventura counties on Wednesday.

On the eastern and southern edges of the fire area, residents of some hard-hit Malibu areas and more neighborhoods in Calabasas and Lake Sherwood were permitted to return to their homes.

Los Angeles County officials said the Malibu Colony neighborhood and the Malibu civic center area would remain closed. Some residents would be returning to homes untouched by flames while others returned to ashes.

In vehicles parked at a turnout on Pacific Coast Highway just across from the Neptune’s Net restaurant, victims of the Woolsey Fire waited out the blaze. 

MORE:Residents capture the horrors of the Woolsey Fire on Snapchat

Although he lost everything but the clothes and other few items he took, Ernest Contreras was surprised by the kindness of others. He was among a group of people who had parked recreational vehicles and vans along the highway. 

“Some nice people brought cases and cases of water,” Contreras said. 

On Friday, he watched as the hillside was aflame. A home high up on the hills behind Neptune’s Net seemingly remained untouched amid the charred ground surrounding it.

Contreras’ medicine for gout had run out by the time he made it to the turnout, and the condition was flaring up. Contreras and the others didn’t want to leave their Malibu spot for more supplies, like his medicine, because law enforcement wasn’t going to let them back in. 

MORE:Southern California Edison reports outage minutes before Woolsey Fire starts

That’s what Contreras told a firefighter who was just being relieved from duty. The firefighter then told him to lock up his car because he was taking him to Oxnard to get more medicine. The firefighter dropped him off back at the turnout, too, but only after the firefighter spent a few hours with his wife, Contreras said. 

Carl Wilson lives in the area, too, but his home survived. He said that’s because he stayed and fought it, without the help of firefighters. He said big fires start with small fires, so putting out those small fires is the goal. 

Despite his tenacity, Wilson’s wife evacuated and has been staying on his boat docked at Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard. 

Wilson and a friend planned to spend some time at the beach Wednesday. 

Meanwhile, just north on the picturesque coastal highway, groups of firefighters from Utah, Washington and Idaho were still at work. They waited for orders at a staging area at Sycamore Cove. 

‘Outpouring of love’

Piles of rubble lay where buildings once stood at Camp Hess Kramer on Wednesday. It sits closer to Pacific Coast Highway and farther from the path the flames took. Gindling Hilltop Camp sits back from the road, and the staff has been told it was hit much harder. 

The Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles opened the two camps on the 110-acre property near the edge of the Ventura County line in 1952.

“The loss of my second home is very difficult,” said Seth Toybes, camp director for both sites.

But he found the community support uplifting.

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“You know, I’m really lucky it’s not my everyday home, but the outpouring of love and support for the community is just overwhelming,” Toybes said. “It’s just been inspiring.” 

A small staff that primarily lives and works on the site year-round evacuated the grounds when the more than 90,000-acre blaze made a run for the Pacific Ocean in recent days. 

In the busy summer season, about 400 campers, the vast majority of whom are Jewish, and 150 staff members spend time there, Toybes said. 

In the off-season, the grounds are rented out for retreats and special events such as weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs. Throughout the year, it’s also rented out to the Los Angeles County Outdoor Science School, Toybes said. 

Toybes and other executive staff have not yet been able to return to see the damage for themselves. The temple’s head of security was escorted through the area by a fire chief so most of the information is coming from them and news reports. 

“We estimate that it’s about a 90 percent loss,” Toybes said. 

The arts and crafts building at both sites was still standing. A hall with a stage had burned down. Only two cabins at each camp were spared, Toybes said. 

On Wednesday, burned vehicles, brush and trees dotted the grounds and surrounded a murky swimming pool. The tennis courts appeared to be OK, and a green lawn of grass appeared untouched.