Fire problems are felt from one end of Ventura County to the other
The sun came up over Ventura County through a veil of smoke Friday morning as Santa Ana winds stirred chaos for a second day.
There was smoke from the Saddleridge Fire in Los Angeles County, smoke from the Wendy Fire near Newbury Park and smoke from a newer blaze that cropped up before dawn in Ventura: the Olivas Fire.
At the same time, ongoing power outages had left some residents without power overnight, while regional freeway closures choked local routes with detoured motorists. Friday’s wind-driven troubles echoed Thursday’s tumultuous events as multiple brush fires were in play amid outages, downed power lines, darkened traffic signals and shuttered schools.
Threat looms over local residents
Regional impacts of the Saddleridge blaze and localized effects of the Olivas incident were felt strongly across Ventura County.
Simi Valley was initially threatened as smoke and flames from the Saddleridge Fire made a run west.
The fire, which started around 9 p.m. Thursday in the northern San Fernando Valley, closed major freeways east of Simi Valley on Friday. Interstates 5 and 405, as well as the 210 Freeway, were closed at their junctions with Highway 118 through at least late Friday afternoon. The westbound 118 was shut at Kuehner Drive in Simi Valley for hours, but reopened in the afternoon as the fire’s threat eased in Ventura County.
Officials nevertheless urged residents to be prepared for changing conditions.
More:Two dead near L.A. as Saddleridge Fire forces 100,000 people to evacuate
“It appears there’s a lull of activity there, but don’t be fooled. ... There’s a lot of potential for continued growth of this fire,” Dave Richardson, a chief deputy of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, said during an afternoon news conference.
“Ventura County is at potential threat if the fire gets up and continues to progress in that direction,” Richardson said in response to a question.
The fire had destroyed at least 31 structures and burned more than 7,500 acres as of Friday afternoon. One person had died and a firefighter suffered a minor eye injury. About 100,000 Los Angeles County residents had been impacted by evacuations.
All schools in the Simi Valley Unified School District closed Friday because of the fire and weather conditions. Vista Real Charter School in Simi Valley was also closed, according to the Ventura County Office of Education.
On the other side of the county, fire broke out around 4 a.m. in the Santa Clara River bed, just south of Ventura city limits.
As the sun came up and winds quickened, the Olivas Fire near the Buenaventura Golf Course spewed a dark cloud of smoke over the Oxnard Plain visible for miles. Flames in heavy brush and trees were visible from Highway 101.
The fire ultimately burned about 200 acres and closed busy Victoria Avenue for hours between Olivas Park Road and Gonzales Road in Oxnard. Firefighters had gained the upper hand by midafternoon, but said they would be on the scene much longer.
The Ventura County Air Pollution Control District issued air-quality alerts Friday in Ventura, Camarillo and Port Hueneme due to the Olivas Fire. Another alert was issued for Simi Valley, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks due to the Saddleridge Fire.
More than 24 hours without power
Some Ventura County residents remained without power late Friday afternoon after having electricity cut as early as Thursday morning. That’s when Southern California Edison first started de-energizing lines — shortly after 9 a.m. — because of concerns about potentially dangerous fire conditions.
The number of so-called public safety power shutoffs multiplied throughout the day Thursday. By Friday morning, a dozen local circuits and thousands of residents were without power. Two were wind-related outages and the rest were preventive shutdowns.
Areas north of Moorpark and outside Simi Valley, parts of Fillmore and neighborhoods around Camarillo golf courses lost power for more than 24 hours. As of 4 p.m. Friday, officials had no estimate for when power would be restored.
More:Ventura County braces for Saddleridge Fire if Santa Anas change direction
Socorro Lopez Hanson and her family lost power just before 2 p.m. Thursday. More than 24 hours later, the lights had yet to come back on in their neighborhood, part of Los Posas Estates in Camarillo.
“My greatest concern is my husband uses a CPAP,” she said. The nighttime breathing device requires power. Skipping it one night might be fine, she said, but a second night was a concern. The family would likely stay with family or at a hotel if they remained without electricity Friday night, she said.
In all, Edison had shut off power to 21,000 customers throughout its service area, including roughly 7,900 in Ventura County. The actual number of residents impacted is much higher, since Edison’s figure is based on customer accounts.
In most cases, residents and local officials had some notice that power shutoffs could happen as gusty Santa Ana winds picked up and relative humidity dropped to single digits.
About 2,700 customers in Thousand Oaks who lost power Thursday evening didn’t get advance notice and were not included in areas the utility identified as being monitored for possible shutoffs. A spokesperson said the weather shifted quickly Thursday, prompting the shutdown there for several hours. Power had been restored by 11 p.m.
A public safety power outage left Santa Paula Hospital on a backup generator for about three hours Thursday night and Friday morning, Ventura County officials reported. The hospital remained open, but incoming ambulances were diverted to other hospitals. Power was restored about 1:30 a.m.
Traffic troubles spread across region
Highway 126 through Fillmore and Piru saw a glut of extra motorists Friday as traffic was diverted from Interstate 5 due to the Saddleridge Fire. The detour also clogged Highway 23, which extends from Fillmore to the Moorpark area and Highway 118.
In addition to the extra traffic, signals along Highway 126 went dark in Piru and Fillmore as Edison proactively shut circuits in the area, further slowing down drivers.
The California Department of Transportation had hooked up battery packs to keep lights on at the A Street crossing in Fillmore, where the 126 and 23 join up.
Those battery packs wore out after a time, said Natalie Hernandez, a spokeswoman at the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services operations center.
Local sheriff’s officials and the office had asked Edison to re-energize lines in the area because of the problems the outage created, but the utility remained concerned about fire dangers. Sheriff’s deputies had been in the area for hours to direct traffic, Hernandez said.
What will the weekend bring?
Although winds were forecast to die down Friday afternoon and early evening, the National Weather Service extended a red-flag fire warning due to low humidity. Across Southern California and Ventura County, humidity was in single digits.
The warning, which signal conditions that increase wildfire risk, was extended to 6 p.m. Saturday for Ventura County mountains and valleys, but not for coastal areas. The earlier warning had covered all of Ventura County through 6 p.m. Friday.
“It’s very dry pretty much everywhere,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Keily Delerme, “even on the coast.”
Star staff writers Mike Harris and Wendy Leung contributed to this report