Winds May Stoke SoCal Wildfires

Ferocious Santa Ana winds of up to 70 mph were expected to arrive by Saturday morning as crews struggled to surround a large forest fire.

"They haven't materialized yet, but we anticipate extremely strong winds by morning," said Dan Bastion of the U.S. Forest Service.

Firefighters spent the week building fire lines in an attempt to protect Ojai, Santa Paula and Fillmore from the Day Fire. But strong winds can cause "spotting," where embers are blown as much as a mile in front of the fire and can move the blaze past fire lines, officials said.

The last time the winds shifted, the fire on the Ventura-Los Angeles county line doubled in size in 24 hours. The fire that began on Labor Day in the Los Padres National Forest and has burned 112,257 acres, or 175 square miles. It was 39 percent contained.

Firefighters were able to take advantage of cool weather and overcast skies on Friday, covering hillsides with retardant and tearing through Chaparral with bulldozers while the blaze stayed mostly still.

Northeast winds were expected to begin hitting Southern California on Friday night. The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning of critical fire conditions through Sunday for mountains and valleys.

The high winds would ground nearly three dozen water-dropping helicopters and planes assigned to the fire and could send it racing southwest through dense chaparral toward foothill communities, fire officials said.

Ojai and other towns a few miles from the fire remained under a low-level evacuation alert, with residents warned to be ready to move livestock and important belongings at any time.

The fire had rained ash on towns about 10 miles away. The dense smoke prompted officials to issue a health advisory for Ventura County through Monday because of unhealthy air.

Joe Barthelemy, who lost his home in a 1985 wildfire, left his rebuilt house when Santa Anas came last weekend and might have to do so again.

"If it's coming and the winds are coming, there is no sense in hanging around," Barthelemy said.

About 2,800 firefighters were battling the blaze. Crews had made little progress in extinguishing it because steep ridges and canyons made it hard to put crews close to the flames. Fire officials have said it could burn for another two weeks, at a firefighting cost of about $1 million a day.

However, the fire's advance slowed this week because of cooler, calm weather. Crews used that respite to prepare for a wind shift.

"They've been flying nonstop the last three days, painting the hills with retardant," said Larry Comerford of the Forest Service.

They wrapped some isolated buildings in fire-resistant material and used bulldozers to carve backup firebreaks as a defense if the fire erupted and jumped closer lines.

"They feel that they should have a pretty good stand on it," Comerford said.