Wind-whipped fire strikes Conejo Valley




FRANTIC—Above, a downed tree blocks Rockfield Street in Oak Park. At right, firefighters set a back burn on a hillside next to Erbes Road during the Jan. 14 Thousand Oaks fire. The week’s windy weather played havoc everywhere. The howling gusts caused by a sudden change in weather systems finally subsided on Wednesday. Courtesy of Sharon Lehrer

FRANTIC—Above, a downed tree blocks Rockfield Street in Oak Park. At right, firefighters set a back burn on a hillside next to Erbes Road during the Jan. 14 Thousand Oaks fire. The week’s windy weather played havoc everywhere. The howling gusts caused by a sudden change in weather systems finally subsided on Wednesday. Courtesy of Sharon Lehrer

Investigators are looking into the cause of a wind-driven brushfire that burned 250 acres off Erbes Road in Thousand Oaks last week and forced the evacuation of over 70 homes.

Capt. Robert Welsbie with the Ventura County Fire Department said fire crews used helicopters and bulldozers to extinguish the Jan. 14 blaze, which was reported shortly before 5 p.m. in red-flag conditions and burned dangerously close to homes.

According to the National Weather Service, winds during that Santa Ana event ranged between 30 to 50 mph.

“We fought it from the air and the ground,” Welsbie said.

Dozers used their blades to scrape the ground down to the mineral soil in order to separate the fire from unburned vegetation.

Photos of the area the day after the fire show a series of blade tracks dividing the scorched earth from the untouched hillside.

Ventura County Sheriff ’s deputies deployed a new “hi-lo” style siren to alert residents on Fernleaf Court and Mapleknoll Place that they were being evacuated.

MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers

MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers

Los Angeles County Fire Department and the Los Angeles Fire Department provided mutual aid, and the agencies stopped forward progress on the blaze roughly three hours in.

No structures were damaged, but one car was destroyed along with some fencing.

The Sunset Hills trailhead and trails, which lead to views of the Wood Ranch Reservoir, a 10,000-acre-feet storage reservoir owned by Calleguas Municipal Water District also known as Bard Lake, remain closed due to fire damage.

The Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency estimated it would be another week or two before the dozer damage to the trails is repaired.