Calmer winds helped California firefighters battle the once out-of-control Mountain Fire on Friday as they continued to defend homes from the destructive blaze, officials said.
By Friday evening, the fire had burned 20,630 acres, with firefighters achieving 14% containment amid improving weather, Andrew Dowd, Ventura County Fire Department spokesperson, said at a news conference Friday evening.
The fire did not expand and made very little movement by the end of the workday on Friday, Ventura County Fire Chief Dustin Gardner said at the news conference.
“The fire has laid down,” he said. “That is fantastic.”
Evacuation orders have been lifted for 3,500 homes, with another 2,000 still covered by the orders, Ventura County Sheriff James Fryhoff said.
Residents of about 1,000 of those homes could be allowed to return by Sunday, he said. Holdups include environmental inspections to ensure the properties are safe, and customary searches by cadaver dogs, though no missing people have been reported, Fryhoff said.
Communities in the Santa Susana Mountains and nearby foothills between Santa Paula and Moorpark, 50 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, were subject to evacuations that impacted an estimated 15,000 people Thursday into Friday, Sgt. Monica Smith said.
The area of the fire is home to nearly 40,000, according to a population profile published by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire.
Ventura County Animal Services said 115 horses, five ponies, three donkeys, seven sheep, 33 goats, four mini horses, one cattle, and 20 alpacas are being sheltered Friday as evacuees.
The blaze destroyed 132 structures through Thursday, and 10 people have been reported injured, according to Fryhoff and to Ventura County Fire Department spokesperson Andy VanSciver.
The extent of injuries and condition information was unavailable. Cal Fire said firefighters are among the injured.
Officials did not offer an updated number of impacted structures Friday evening. Gene Potkey, a Cal Fire assistant chief, said structures in the fire area were the subject of intensive, onsite damage inspections that were ongoing.
A 10-home street in the hilly community of Somis, near the fire’s start, was nearly wiped out, with only one remaining after flames marched through, NBC Los Angeles reported Thursday.
Resident Jessica Graham told the station family members tried to save their home but flames reached a well, cut off the water supply they were using to fight it, and quickly threatened their lives before they escaped.
“I know we’ll be OK,” she said. “We still have our lives and none of us were taken from our families.”
Firefighters used their trucks to get some residents away from the looming flames, Ventura County Fire Capt. Trevor Johnson has said. The area’s housing stock is relatively new, with many homes built after 1980.
Utility Southern California Edison said Friday that power was restored to almost all Ventura County customers after it instituted a Public Safety Power Shutoff for some communities in the fire area.
Warm, dry offshore winds erupted overnight Tuesday and helped spread the fire, which started Wednesday morning amid high temperatures in the 70s.
A gust of 62 mph was recorded within an hour of the fire’s start, according to weather service data, and the morning produced multiple gusts above 40 and 50 mph — tropical-storm-level winds.
On Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for the area of the fire and announced the Federal Emergency Management Agency approved a grant that could cover much of the local costs of fighting the blaze.
Cal Fire said 2,420 personnel were assigned to the fire. They were assisted by 14 helicopters and 378 engines, the agency said.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation, Cal Fire said.
The Ventura County Air Pollution Control District said Thursday that unhealthy air from smoke was expected in the Conejo Valley, Simi Valley and Moorpark. Humanitarian organization Direct Relief was giving out N95 masks at the Ventura Family YMCA to help residents fend off smoke exposure.
On Friday, wind gusts were 12 mph or less, with a nearly two-hour morning stretch of no perceptible winds, according to National Weather Service data.
The fire area’s remaining red flag fire warnings, which declare conditions are ripe for fast-erupting blazes, expired at 11 a.m. Friday, weather service meteorologist Ryan Kittell said.
Winds are shifting from offshore to onshore, meaning they’re coming from the cooler Pacific, but they will still produce dry gusts because the air has been so dry, even over the Pacific, Kittell said.
There was some uncertainty over whether improving conditions would hold.
The weather service forecast calls for the possibility of light rain Monday afternoon, with a possible return for warm, dry conditions later next week.
At Friday’s news conference, federal incident meteorologist Ryan Walburn discounted the chance of rain and added the possibility of returning offshore winds later next week — a prognosis that is within the possibilities of the National Weather Service’s outlook.
Ventura County Fire Department battalion chief Nick Cleary said the Mountain Fire could end up acting like 2018’s Woolsey Fire in L.A. and Ventura counties, which burned nearly 100,000 acres as offshore winds fueled its initial growth, gusts shifted onshore, then offshore winds returned to encourage more destruction.
“We’re kind of looking at those same conditions,” he said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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