It’s chaos, as people rush to get out of some Camarillo neighborhoods, while fire trucks roll in to help with evacuations.
Ventura County's Mountain Fire started just before 9 a.m. Wednesday near Balcom Canyon. Santa Ana winds hitting 80 miles an hour instantly turned it into a roaring inferno.
It moved west, in the foothills above Somis. Then, it made a dramatic push south, jumping Highway 118 and moving into the north side of Camarillo.
On Valley Vista Drive, Eric Shiffman pulls his pickup truck out of his driveway, as he prepares to evacuate. Smoke is swirling everywhere. He’s only owned the house for a year, so despite the danger, he’s reluctant to leave.
"I mean, I hope I can save this house. Let me try to reassess to see if I can put some more water on the roof," said Shiffman.
After hosing things down, he does leave. His home survives the blaze.
A few blocks away, Stan Oliveras and his wife discover the inferno is headed their way. Has he ever seen anything like this?
"No, this is the first time," said Oliveras. "I noticed we had a fire in the backyard. The compost caught on fire back there. He (his son) ran out there, and started squirting it down."
Oliveras then notices his neighbor’s house in this area of mini-ranches has just caught on fire. There are no fire trucks nearby, so we drive up the street and corral a truck which comes to save the neighbor’s home.
While most people evacuate, a few stick it out. Mitch Hadley says he made sure his family was safe, but he’s staying at his Valley Vista Drive home.
"I started smelling some smoke in the air," said Hadley. "I walked outside and I see billowing smoke just pumping into the sky...big old billowing smoke. My wife got e-mails from the schools about evacuation orders. I have a child that's in elementary school, middle school and in high school. My wife received evacuation orders for them, and she's picking them up, and is at my mother-in-law's right now. I decided I was going to man the fort, and watch my neighbor's property."
He has some deep cuts on his legs from trying to knock down some spot fires at a neighbor’s ranch.
"I hopped a chain link fence to go to my neighbor's house. He's got an avocado grove, and there's black billowing smoke. I hopped over to see if he was home. I tried calling him...I left him voice mails. He has about six inches of mulch bedded down on his property, which is about three acres," said Hadley. "I tried to do the best I could. There were two younger gentlemen watering it, trying to run across this orchard, putting these little spot fires out. I couldn't keep up, but a fire truck came and took care of it."
But, with fire seemingly everywhere, firefighters can’t save every home.
The fire moved so quickly that many people didn’t wait for evacuation order to leave. Between getting people out from the hilly Camarillo Heights neighborhoods, and getting fire trucks in, it was chaos.
"We had clogged arteries...every artery coming out of the Heights, every artery coming out of the estates, all of the side roads coming out of Camarillo, because we were evacuating thousands of people," said Ventura County Fire Chief Dustin Garder. "It's tough."
He said the inferno moved so quickly, it was impossible to orchestrate an orderly evacuation. He says the fire conditions were so extreme Wednesday, some embers traveled miles to spread the inferno.
"We've had two very long range confirmed spots. One is at two miles and one 2.7 miles," said the Fire Chief. "Those large embers were traveling, and everywhere they hit, they were starting new fires."
The Santa Ana wind conditions helped create the inferno, but the hope is they’ll ease enough Thursday to give firefighters the chance to stop its further spread. Even after that happens, containing the fire is expected to take days.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
