Wind-driven brush fire forces evacuation of drug treatment center in Ventura

April 28, 2016 4:52 PM PT

Firefighters on Thursday were tackling a wind-driven brush fire charging uphill toward a drug rehabilitation facility north of Ventura.

The blaze started small at three acres near Highway 33 after 2 p.m., but quickly grew to 40 acres as winds fanned the flames across the area and threatened to topple multiple power lines, fire Capt. Mike Lindbery said.

The fire moved rapidly toward Teen Challenge, a drug addiction treatment center in the grassy, dusty foothills of Ventura. The center treats and houses multiple residents, Lindbery said. Workers were evacuated as flames approached the facility.

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By 4:30 p.m., winds had swifted and were blowing away from the fire at Casitas Vista Road, he said.

“Things are looking much better,” Lindbery said.

But fire officials were monitoring the direction of the fire as it approached a series of underground natural gas lines. Firefighters were working with Southern California Edison, Southern California Gas Co. and property owners.

Three engines and several firefighters were dispatched to protect the treatment facility from the fast-approaching flames, Lindbery said.

“I could hear it moving toward us,” he said in a video that he posted on Twitter. “I could really hear that brush starting to crackle.”

Strong westerly winds pushed the blaze toward dry brush and trees, Lindbery said. Wind gusts reached up to 30 mph Thursday afternoon in the Ventura County mountains, according to the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

The lack of winter rains has only worsened the already-parched conditions in the area, he said.

“We are not close to summer yet, but the fuels are so dry,” he said. “... It’s just so easy for that vegetation to take off and start burning.”