Fire Burns 118 Acres, Threatens 150 Homes

By TRACY WILSON

May 25, 1997 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

THOUSAND OAKS — A swift-moving fire scorched 118 acres of brush in northern Thousand Oaks on Saturday afternoon, panicking residents in the Sunset Hills neighborhood as flames burned within 25 feet of their homes.

At least 150 homes in the ridge-top community overlooking the Santa Rosa Valley were threatened by the 3 p.m. blaze in the McCrea Wildlife Refuge, which started when a motor home caught fire in the 4700 block of North Moorpark Road.

Fighting winds of 15 to 20 mph and a vast wall of flames, Ventura County firefighters contained the blaze by about 6 p.m. using ground crews and air tankers. No structures were damaged, but three people suffered injuries.

“One thing that was really tough about this fire is that it went straight to a housing tract,” Battalion Chief Dan Spikerman said. “Getting equipment up there fast enough was tough.”

But 100-foot fire breaks, flame-retardant shingles, and ground and air attacks by a five-agency firefighting front kept the flames from claiming any structures.

The gust-driven fire--the first to strike the Sunset Hills area in a decade--left many residents with rattled nerves and marked the first significant blaze of the 1997 fire season, which opened April 15. At the height of the blaze, temperatures were reported at about 80 degrees.

Shortly after the fire started, dozens of residents scaled walls to water down their houses with garden hoses in anticipation of the advancing flames.

“You gotta do what you can,” said 45-year-old computer support manager Ray Lemieux, spraying water on the roof of his five-bedroom Avenida Amelgado home. Lemieux and his wife, Lucia, moved to Thousand Oaks from Hollywood five years ago.

Tears streamed down 39-year-old Lucia Lemieux’s face as she loaded baby pictures, computers, camera equipment and 10,000 photo slides into their car when the fire neared their home.

“It really makes you feel vulnerable,” she said. “We moved up here so our daughter could grow up safe. Makes you forget all the trivial stuff.”

Nearby on Calle Fidelidad, Karin Lindgren, 56, and Sten Lindgren, 61, sprayed grass, bushes and trees surrounding their home. At one point, they walked to the ridge to look at the fire, but the wind from the approaching flames pushed them back.

“The fire moved so fast we didn’t have much time to react,” Sten Lindgren said. “It is hard to believe that this thing can be happening.”

Thousand Oaks residents since 1968, the Lindgrens recently remodeled their home. It was the prospect of losing their refurbished kitchen that worried them most.

“I just put in a new kitchen, and I have been waiting 29 years,” Karin Lindgren said.

At one point, the fire burned toward Calle Contento on the south side of the wildlife refuge. Residents who gathered along the ridgeline behind their home to watch canyons burn below were told to move back by firefighters.

“There’s a lot of helicopters out behind us,” said 37-year-old Kerri Kale, who lives in the 900 block of Calle Contento. “They’re dropping water. We can see the burnt hills.”

Less than a quarter-mile away, Jerry Heisler and three other golfers continued their game despite the approaching flames.

“I’m watching it,” Heisler said, teeing off at the fifth hole of Sunset Hills Country Club. “If it comes across the highway, well, I’ll stop.”

The fire started about 3 p.m. after flames from a burned-out RV ignited dry brush on North Moorpark Road. A Ventura County sheriff’s deputy found a man and a woman walking along the road shortly thereafter, officials said.

Both individuals suffered from smoke inhalation, and the woman, identified as 48-year-old Caroline Cash, received first- and second-degree burns to her face, officials said. The deputy administered first aid and called paramedics.

Both were taken by ambulance to Columbia Los Robles Hospital.

Also, an unidentified man who lives on Avenida Amaranto suffered smoke inhalation while standing on a ridge top watching the fire.

Before firefighters extinguished the remaining hot spots Saturday evening, rabbits and quail returned to some scorched areas to forage for food.

“We’ve got a great view now,” said 48-year-old Chris Steckler, a marriage, family and child counselor who lives on Avenida Amelgado. “It looks like the moon.”

Wilson is a Times staff writer and Steepleton is a correspondent. Correspondent Coll Metcalfe also contributed to this story.