CAMARILLO (AFP) – Firefighters grappling with a blaze that has destroyed at least 130 homes in California, United States (US) said on Friday they had made progress in their fight as a turn in the weather offered a break.
Hurricane-strength winds this week fuelled an explosion in the Mountain Fire near Camarillo, outside Los Angeles, which grew rapidly to over 8,000 hectares.
Thousands of people in the path of the inferno were forced to flee, some with only minutes to gather possessions and pets as unpredictable flames leapt from home to home.
Robin Wallace told AFP the home she grew up in was destroyed minutes after everyone fled. “We were expecting we’d be able to go back and get some things. But of course, that didn’t work out. It was completely gone by the afternoon. It went very quickly.”
Linda Fefferman said she knew she had to go when she smelled smoke.
“I’m trying to load the car with animals and important papers, my oxygen concentrator, and when it got too smoky for me, I knew I had to get out,” she told a local broadcaster.
A neighbour with a chainsaw helped remove a fallen tree that was blocking her path.
“I went down to the Goodwill parking lot, watched the smoke, you know, probably our own house burning. “Nothing is left. It’s gone,” she said. “It’s all gone.”
Fefferman said she thought 14 or 15 houses on her street had been destroyed by the flames.
The area is home to around 30,000 people, with approximately 10,000 having been told to evacuate. The blaze erupted on Wednesday morning and spread rapidly, fanned by fierce seasonal Santa Ana winds from California’s desert interior.
Gusts up to 130 kilometres per hour pushed smoke and flames sideways, with terrifying footage showing fire engulfing brush, orchards and properties.
Those winds dropped on Friday, with meteorologists saying they did not expect them to return for at least a few days.
That was welcome news for firefighters, some of whom had been on the frontlines for 36 hours straight.
The change in weather meant fire crews were able to make progress in their fight, said Nick Cleary of the Ventura County Fire Department, with 14 per cent of the perimeter of the blaze contained.
“Today on the fire, we had a very successful day,” he told reporters, with a mild onshore breeze bringing some much-needed humidity.
