Southern California firefighters gain ground over wildfire thanks to decreased winds

CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — Southern California firefighters gained ground Friday against a wildfire that has destroyed at least 132 structures, mostly houses, as favorable conditions were expected to continue through the weekend after two days of dangerous gusty winds.

Forecasters expect light winds over the weekend that will continue to aid firefighters. Meteorologists are monitoring a weather system that could hit Southern California next week but it is not expected to bring another round of extreme winds like earlier this week.

Ventura County Sheriff James Fryhoff said Friday that 3,500 houses have been repopulated, but residents of 2,000 homes still have not been able to go back.

Maryanne Belote was among those who returned Friday to sift through the charred remains of their properties. She went home to her hillside neighborhood in Camarillo, a city northwest of Los Angeles, after making a harrowing escape with her cat, her dog and her horses as the blaze raged in the area. The only thing standing was a rock wall she built.

“If I hadn’t gotten the horses, I would have been devastated, but I have my family and I have my animals so, I’m OK. I will rebuild,” she said standing outside the remains of her home of 50 years while her dog stayed in her car.

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The Mountain Fire started Wednesday morning in Ventura County and had grown to 32 square miles (about 83 square kilometers). It was 14% contained Friday evening.

“We had no external or lateral movement today,” Ventura County Fire Chief Dustin Gardner said Friday. “That is fantastic.”

Bill Nardoni and his family sifted through the rubble of their Camarillo home on Friday afternoon and discovered his wedding ring in a safe. But his wife’s, kept in a different safe in another part of their house, remained missing and Nardoni did not have high hopes that it would be found intact.

Nardoni, his wife and his visiting mother-in-law fled Wednesday morning with their dogs as flames engulfed both sides of their road. They returned Friday to devastation at a home they’d bought only a year ago that was still going through a remodel.

“The house is decimated. There’s nothing to be salvaged really out of it,” he said. “I don’t know what we’ll do.”

Over three days, thousands of people were under evacuation orders as the fire threatened about 3,500 structures in suburban neighborhoods, ranches and agricultural areas around Camarillo in Ventura County.

At least 88 additional structures were damaged in addition to the 132 destroyed. Officials did not specify whether they had been burned or affected by water or smoke damage. The cause of the fire has not been determined.

Ten people suffered smoke inhalation or other injuries that were not life-threatening, Fryhoff said Thursday.

The next day, the sheriff said his deputies will be deploying cadaver dogs in the area as a precaution, even though no one has been reported missing.

Officials in several Southern California counties urged residents to be on watch for fast-spreading blazes, power outages and downed trees during the latest round of notorious Santa Ana winds, including in a rural area of northern San Diego County where a brush fire prompted mandatory evacuations Friday afternoon.

Santa Anas are dry, warm and gusty northeast winds that blow from the interior of Southern California toward the coast and offshore, moving in the opposite direction of the normal onshore flow that carries moist air from the Pacific. They typically occur during the fall months and continue through winter and into early spring.

The red flag warnings, indicating conditions for high fire danger, expired in most of the area Thursday, except in the Santa Susana Mountains where the warnings expired Friday morning when winds began diminishing.

An air quality alert for harmful fine particle pollution was in effect from Friday morning until Saturday afternoon due to smoke from the wildfires.

More than a dozen school districts and campuses in Ventura County were closed Friday due to impacts from the fires, according to the county’s Office of Education.

The Mountain Fire was burning in a region that has seen some of California’s most destructive fires over the years. The fire swiftly grew from less than half a square mile (about 1.2 square kilometers) to more than 16 square miles (41 square kilometers) in little more than five hours on Wednesday.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has proclaimed a state of emergency in Ventura County.

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Rodriguez reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press journalists Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles, Jae C. Hong in Camarillo, California, and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City contributed.