Mountain fire's stunning toll: 132 structures destroyed, 88 damaged

, Nathan Solis, Noah Haggerty, Grace Toohey, Clara Harter and Noah Goldberg

Published Nov. 7, 2024 Updated Nov. 9, 2024 7:38 AM PT

Camarillo Heights resident Maurice Kerr stood inside the shell of his burned-out home Thursday morning.

With the surrounding rubble still smoldering and smoke choking the air, the 68-year-old said he did his best to fight the wind-driven Mountain fire, which started raining embers on his home soon after it started Wednesday morning.

But facing 50- to 60-mph winds, the lone fire hose he was using — hooked up to his indoor pool — to try to beat back the flames wasn’t enough. Nor were those of the firefighters who arrived and pulled him out as flames began to engulf the 4,800-square-foot ranch-style home, destroying his and dozens of other residences during the most extreme Santa Ana wind event to hit Southern California in years.

“I finally had to hose myself down to put myself out,” he said.

The stunning toll of the fire became clear Thursday: Officials said 132 structures were lost and 88 damaged, making the Mountain fire one of the most destructive wildfires in the region in several years.

The fire had grown to more than 20,400 acres, forcing thousands to evacuate and straining local resources. It swept into foothill communities around Camarillo and Moorpark, pushed westward by offshore winds that the National Weather Service deemed “particularly dangerous.”

Shooting embers from the fire sparked new blazes up to 2½ miles ahead of the main fire line, officials said. By Saturday morning, the fire had burned 20,630 acres and was 17% contained.

Early Thursday, officials issued additional evacuation orders for residents in the Santa Paula area, just north of the Santa Clara River. They warned that more than 30,000 people live in the potential path of the fire and needed to be prepared for further warnings or orders as strong winds remained a concern.

Gov. Gavin Newsom spent Thursday meeting with first responders and visiting communities affected by the blaze. Around 5 p.m., he proclaimed a state of emergency in Ventura County to help mobilize resources to combat the fast-moving fire.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office estimated that more than 5,000 homes were either under evacuation order or warning.

The fire “remains dynamic, and it remains dangerous,” Ventura County Fire Chief Dustin Gardner said.

After a long night of crews battling the flames, helicopters were back in the air Thursday. Firefighters were focused on hot spots within the Santa Susana Mountains between Highways 118 and 126, said Ventura County Fire Capt. Trevor Johnson.

“It’s rugged, steep ground that only our finest firefighters can even access,” Johnson said. However, he was clear that, with mutual aid and their own crews, “we got the right people in the right places.”

On Wednesday night, resources for firefighters were stretched as fires erupted in multiple locations.

“We put hundreds of firefighter trucks on the system last night, hundreds pumping all night long,” Gardner said at a news conference Thursday.

At one point, the chief acknowledged that “we did run out of water, high up in the heights,” then elaborated that there were areas where “water pressure was either diminished or water flow was diminished.”

Firefighters on the ground did say the water supply interruptions slowed them from fighting fires at times.

Two people embrace as the look at the ruins of a burned home.

In Camarillo Heights — the upscale community home to a large portion of senior citizens, including Kerr — the remains of burned houses dotted the landscape, seemingly engulfed by random, off-shooting embers. On Old Coach Drive, 17 homes were completely destroyed; on Cerro Crest Drive, another 19. All that was left of one home on Valley Vista Drive was a chimney and a burned washing machine.

Kerr said he was grateful he and his wife had made it out alive, though little else survived. He pointed to a large safe lying on its side and said he was waiting for it to cool enough to recover passports and his watches.

He said they loved watching the sunset from what used to be their deck, but it is now nothing more than a few charred support posts. The raised beds of his vegetable garden were burned beyond recognition, his avocado trees now charred black.

“It got even my garden,” he said.

The weather service on Wednesday issued a “particularly dangerous situation” red flag alert, warning of “widespread, extreme fire weather conditions” across southwest California. The alert hadn’t been heightened to that level in the Los Angeles area since 2020.

But forecasters Thursday predicted slightly better conditions compared with the day prior, with expectations that winds would not be as strong as on Wednesday and would decrease more quickly in the afternoon. A standard red flag warning was in effect over the fire area through 6 p.m., according to the weather service.

Nevertheless, the dangerous conditions sparked multiple regional fires on both days.

The Broad fire broke out near Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu on Wednesday morning and burned 50 acres before firefighters reached 98% containment by Thursday afternoon, according to Cal Fire. The Frenchman fire ignited in the Angeles National Forest around noon Thursday and burned some 50 acres before firefighters halted its progress around 2:30 p.m., according to the L.A. County Fire Department.

Then, just before 1 p.m., the Santa Lucia fire sparked in Santa Barbara County and burned 150 acres. Forward progress was halted and 5% containment reached around 3:10 p.m., the Santa Barbara County Fire Department said.

Officials had feared just such an outcome as winds fanned flames across an area ripe for burning, with extremely dry brush and vegetation.

Strong winds can push fire quickly up hills, building momentum that can create explosive fire behavior, said Thomas Shoots, a spokesperson for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The area where firefighters saw long-range spotting Wednesday is a mix of urban development surrounded by brush.

“It creates a kind of disastrous recipe,” Shoots said.

This is the second time in recent months that Southern California has faced multiple blazes during high-wind events. In September, the 44,000-acre Line fire, 56,000-acre Bridge fire and 23,500-acre Airport fire all ignited within a few days of one another.

Darren Kettle, chief executive of Metrolink, was among the evacuees — and among those who lost a home to the fire.

His house is in Las Posas Estates, near the hills of Camarillo Heights. He and his wife realized the fire was moving in their direction early Wednesday, so they packed up a few items in case an evacuation notice came. It soon did.

“When I left the house, I saw smoke and flames and it looked like it was blowing in a different direction,” Kettle said. “It just takes one ember in a bad spot.”

Later, people started to send pictures and videos that showed Kettle’s home, and those of several neighbors, burning. A neighbor confirmed the house was lost.

“The only thing left standing of our house is the two chimneys,” he said. “It was just, my heart dropped to my stomach. It’s just shocking, traumatic. ... Speechless. Just the range of emotions.”

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but officials say the fire started near Bradley and Balcom Canyon roads, in a remote area north of Somis.

On Thursday morning, almost 70,000 utility customers customers across the Southland had power cut “due to heightened wildfire risk,” according to Southern California Edison. About a third of the shutoffs were initiated in Ventura County, but power was also cut across Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura and Orange counties.

But by Thursday afternoon, the utility was slowly reenergizing lines and planned to have most back to full capacity by Friday, said Dave Eisenhauer, an SCE spokesperson. At 3 p.m. about 45,000 customers still had power shutoff.

The ruins of homes as palm trees bend in the wind.

The majority of the weather service’s red flag and high-wind warnings across the region were set to expire by Thursday evening, although a standard red flag warning was set to remain in effect through Friday morning for the Ventura County mountains, the Interstate 5 corridor and the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains.

Santa Barbara County Fire Capt. Hugh Montgomery said his crew had successfully salvaged around a dozen burning homes in the hills of Camarillo but not without challenges.

“We were inside of a structure fire and starting to make good headway when the hydrants went dry,” he said. “I think everything is just so depleted from everyone sucking off of the water system.

“It’s very unfortunate that people are losing homes and their belongings,” he added, “but from what we’ve heard people are getting out safely, and that’s the most important thing.”

Only minor injuries were reported from the fire, and Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff said he was not aware of anyone who was missing.

A singed flag in the foreground as a roaring fire consumes a home.

American Red Cross and other aid workers established an evacuation shelter at Padre Serra Parish on Wednesday, where about a hundred had taken shelter for the night.

Linda Elmo, an evacuee, said the flames moved so rapidly she and her husband had little time to flee. A firefighter knocked on the door, urging her and her husband to “go, go, go!”

“It happened so fast,” Elmo said.

Local authorities issued air quality alerts because of smoke and ash from the Mountain fire for much of Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Dozens of Ventura County schools were closed Thursday because of the fire, and several are closed through Friday.

Times staff writers Jireh Deng, Noah Haggerty, Sandra McDonald and contributed to this report.