Out of control
Winds churn California wildfires, making the firefight more difficult.
VENTURA: The same vicious winds that turned three Southern California wildfires into destructive dynamos were also making the firefight more difficult.
The water-dropping planes and helicopters essential to taming and containing wildfires have been mostly grounded because it’s too dangerous to fly them in the strong wind. Tuesday saw gusts of over 80kph.
Commanders hoped to have them back in the air yesterday morning, but the winds were whipping then too, fanning the flames that spurred evacuation orders for nearly 200,000 people, destroyed nearly 200 homes and remained mostly out of control.
“The prospects for containment are not good,” Ventura County Fire Chief Mark Lorenzen said.
“Really, Mother Nature’s going to decide when we have the ability to put it out.”
Southern California’s so-called Santa Ana winds have long contributed to some of the region’s most disastrous wildfires. They blow from the inland toward the Pacific Ocean, speeding up as they squeeze through mountain passes and canyons.
The largest and most destructive of the fires, a 220 sq km fire in Ventura County northwest of Los Angeles, nearly reached the Pacific on Tuesday night after starting 48km inland a day ago.
The wildfire jumped the major artery US Highway 101 to a rocky beach northwest of Ventura, bringing new evacuations, though officials said the sparse population and lack of vegetation in the area meant it was not overly dangerous.
The fire destroyed at least 150 structures, but incident commander Todd Derum said he suspects hundreds more homes have already been lost.
Lisa Kermode and her children returned to their home on Tuesday to find their home in ashes, including a Christmas tree and the presents they had just bought. — AP