Crews Near Piru Fight Fire With More Fire

PIRU —  Trying to fight fire with their own flames, weary crews Friday ignited a vast swath of sun-baked wilderness to halt a 14,700-acre blaze that crept within two miles of Piru.

To rob the blaze of fuel, firefighters lit another 2,000 acres of rugged, chaparral-covered terrain in its path east of Lake Piru. They hope the counterattack, combined with a massive brush-clearing effort, will protect residents and save nearby farms.

“The best way to handle this is to fight fire with fire,” U.S. Forest Service Incident Commander Greg Greenhoe told two dozen anxious residents gathered at Piru Community Center. “The intensity’s too great to put firefighters on the edge of the fire. I assure you we’ve looked at other options. This is probably our last and best chance.”

Shortly before noon, helicopters that earlier dumped water on the fire released hundreds of pingpong ball-size spheres filled with flammable chemicals on the brush. Firefighters on the ground used drip torches to ignite brittle weeds.

The 4-day-old blaze nudged at dozens of citrus and avocado farms and came within half a mile of Lake Piru, but no structures burned. Authorities predicted that residents in Fillmore and Piru would remain safe, although a 22-mile-long containment line around the fire was only 15% complete. Efforts focused on finishing a stretch of that line about 7 miles long between the two communities, just north of farmland along California 126.

“This is citrus and avocado country,” Ventura County Fire Capt. Mark Taillon said. “That’s the livelihood of ranchers in this area.”

Piru residents at the hastily called meeting said they were staying put for now, but were ready to flee quickly. An evacuation plan would move Piru’s 1,000 residents to temporary shelter, which would be operated by the Red Cross at the Community Memorial Building, 511 2nd St., in Fillmore.

Carolina Avila, an elementary school teacher’s aide, packed her car with photo albums and important papers.

“We can see the smoke and flames,” Avila said. “I’m scared of losing everything.”

Some farmers criticized the plan to head off the blaze with another fire.

“I think the back fire could get out of hand,” honey farmer Red Bennett said. “Our biggest concern is that it could burn down our farm.”

Officials said they expected to continue battling the blaze for several days and had not determined its cause. They ruled out arson after scouring the fire’s origin near Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge.

Of the scorched land, about 8,000 acres were federal land under U.S. Forest Service control, while the rest was in unincorporated areas of Ventura County. About 1,900 firefighters were still on the scene. The cost of battling the blaze climbed to about $2 million, according to Bob Kitchens, spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.

A cooling trend continued for the second straight day, bringing temperatures to the low 90s after a wave of triple-digit heat. Increased humidity and southwest winds also worked in the firefighters’ favor. No buildings have been destroyed by the fire, and only four minor injuries have been reported.

In a dramatic effort late Thursday, firefighters saved a wooden cabin near Lake Piru Campground owned by the Mathews family of Fillmore for five generations.

With flames coming within 200 yards, firefighters sprayed the red cabin with fire-resistant animal protein and used the same tactic they later used on a much larger scale: burning out chaparral before the advancing flames.