Town known as ‘Shangri-La’ threatened by fire
OJAI, CALIF. — The biggest and most destructive of the windblown fires raking Southern California shut down one of the region’s busiest freeways Thursday and threatened Ojai, a scenic mountain town dubbed “ShangriLa” and known for its boutique hotels and New Age spiritual retreats.
Most of Ojai’s 7,000 residents were warned to clear out late Wednesday and patients unable to walk were moved from the Ojai Valley Community Hospital because of unprecedented, hurricane-force Santa Ana winds in the overnight forecast.
The winds turned out to be less fierce than expected, but firefighters still had to contend with gusts that fanned the fire to 150 square miles and put thousands of homes in jeopardy.
Down along the coast, fires flared along U.S. Highway 101, forcing an evacuation of the tiny community of Faria Beach.
“Anyone in your homes still, you need to leave now,” a California Highway Patrol officer said through a loudspeaker while driving down a smoke-shrouded street. “The fire is here, you need to leave.”
Joseph Ruffner, who left earlier in the week, said he was staying put.
“This morning there was a wall of fire back right over here,” he said. “I didn’t think it was no big deal, but it’s coming back to burn what it didn’t burn yesterday.”
The highway, which runs the length of the state and is a major commuter corridor to Los Angeles, was closed intermittently along the 28-mile stretch between Ventura and Santa Barbara.
The Ventura County blaze and three other major fires burning in the Los Angeles area have put tens of thousands of people under evacuation orders and destroyed nearly 200 homes and buildings, a figure almost certain to rise.
A woman was found dead in a wrecked car in an evacuation zone near the city of Santa Paula, where the Ventura County blaze began Monday night, but officials could not immediately say whether the accident was fire-related.
In Ojai, the normally bustling town was practically vacant as smoke hung along the surrounding hillsides. Known as “Shangri-La,” both for its role as the stand-in for a Himalayan utopia in the 1937 Frank Capra movie “Lost Horizon” and for the magical vibe it is said to have, the town has attracted artists, hippies and spiritual thinkers for generations.