Danger remains 'extremely high' as Mountain Fire continues to burn
While the dangerous and strong Santa Ana winds are expected to subside by 6 p.m. Thursday, the fight to contain the Mountain Fire in Ventura County continues to be perilous.
During a news conference Thursday, Ventura County Fire Capt. Trevor Johnson said fire crews are focusing on the northeast corner of the blaze. The flames are moving back to the east, or along the Highway 118 corridor, toward Moorpark again.
This will impact the area north of Somis and south of Santa Paula.
"It's rugged, steep ... only our finest firefighters can even access to work in there," Johnson said. "We've got aircraft working in there to pin it down. They're coming up with multiple options. We don't plan just for one option to work. So, we identify a primary alternate, a contingent operation in there."
With the strong winds, embers can travel up to 3 miles, creating large fire growth, Los Angeles County Department fire behavior analyst Drew Smith explained during the news conference. He said after two years of above average rainfall that led to robust grass growth, the grass is now dry, becoming fine fire fuel for dry and windy conditions.
"The fire danger remains extremely high," Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff said.
More than 14,000 evacuation notifications have been sent out in the evacuation zones. Fryhoff said officials don't have the exact number of people evacuated at this time.
It's unknown how many homes have been destroyed or damaged by the wildfire. Officials said 10 damage assessment teams are heading to the area to do a detailed accounting of the damage.
