Crews Ignite 2,000 Acres to Rob Blaze of Fuel

PIRU, Calif. —  Trying to fight fire with their own flames, weary crews Friday ignited a vast swath of sunbaked wilderness to halt a 14,700-acre blaze that crept within two miles of this town in northeast Ventura County.

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

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

Shortly before noon, helicopters that earlier dumped water released hundreds of spheres--the size of pingpong balls--filled with flammable chemicals. 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 have burned thus far. Authorities predicted that residents in Fillmore and Piru would remain safe, although a planned 22-mile-long containment line around the fire was only 15% complete. Efforts focused on finishing a stretch of that line about seven 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 inhabitants to temporary shelter in Fillmore. Carolina Avila, an elementary schoolteacher’s aide, packed her car with photo albums and important papers.

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

Of the scorched 14,700 acres, about 8,000 were U.S. Forest Service land, while the rest was in unincorporated areas of Ventura County. About 1,800 firefighters were on the scene, and the cost of battling the blaze climbed past $1.2 million.