A new fire burning in Ventura County is being called The Auto Fire. It is burning in the Santa Clara Riverbed. Multiple water-dropping aircraft are working this fire, and the good news right now is that fire crews say no homes are currently being threatened.

What started as a small vegetation fire at around 7 o’clock this evening quickly became a 5-acre brush fire and has since doubled to more than 10 to 15 acres in the middle of the Santa Clara Riverbed, between the Buenaventura Golf Course and the River Ridge Golf Club. It was quickly driven by heavy fuel and heavy winds through here, upwards of 30 miles per hour at one point, speeding westward towards Victoria Avenue.

Fire crews, after numerous water drops, were able to stop the forward progress of this fire just about a thousand feet short of Victoria Avenue, which had to be shut down but came really close at one point as it made the run towards the west, where there is a whole bunch of agriculture just beyond Victoria Avenue.

Those heavy, thick flames have now dwindled to a few major hotspots that they are now continuing to douse with several helicopters on the scene. This fire will likely be burning through the night before they can finally contain The Auto Fire here in Ventura, between Ventura and Oxnard.

Firefighters say they have about 100 firefighters out here on the scene, and they have been aggressively fighting this fire for the last four hours or so. At this point, they seem to have contained it to just a few hotspots that have been flaring up periodically over the last half hour or so, and even some of those have calmed down just in the last few minutes as winds have given firefighters a little bit of a break.

One of the things they had working in their favor tonight was that there is a reservoir very close by. Choppers were able to fill up, come over, dump water, and aggressively attack the fire from the air, run back to the reservoir, refill, and repeat over and over again. This was something that firefighters say helped them knock down the worst of this fire very quickly.

One thing that made the firefight difficult here on the ground is this remote location. It is several hundred yards off any major road, and it is rough terrain to get there. The vegetation in the Santa Clara Riverbed is very dense, which also made it difficult for firefighters. Once this fire sparked, it spread quickly, but they’ve been able to contain it and mostly halt that forward progress just shy of Victoria Avenue, where traffic was only briefly interrupted.

Here’s what firefighters had to say about this fight tonight:
“It’s a coordinated effort. Our aviation assets are able to fly in and give precision drops right over the fire, and while they’re doing so, they’re communicating with our ground resources and guiding them in where we can take our engines and hand crews to do the hard work — the other piece of the hard work, which is putting water on the fire.”

The most difficult thing for them tonight will be the winds if they pick up. Firefighters will likely be out here through the night because those hotspots are still flaring up, but at this point, they seem to have mostly contained it. Because of this remote location, there were no structures or homes threatened, which is good news for the people who live in this area.

The City of Angels has turned into hell. It has been nearly a week since wildfires first erupted in Los Angeles County, but the scale of devastation is unlike anything seen before. At least 24 people have died in the Los Angeles fires as two major blazes continue to burn across the sprawling Californian city.

The largest fire, in the Palisades, has now burned through more than 23,000 acres, including the upmarket Pacific Palisades neighborhood. Thousands of firefighters have made some progress, containing about 11% of it.

The Eaton Fire, affecting the northern part of Los Angeles and burning through areas such as Altadena, is the second biggest fire in the area, having burned more than 14,000 acres. It is 27% contained. A majority of the deaths identified so far have been caused by the Eaton Fire.

The HST Fire, located just north of San Fernando, has grown to 799 acres and is almost fully contained. Fires named Kenneth Archer Sunset, Lydia Woodley, and Olivia have all been contained.

The Palisades Fire is moving east, threatening the exclusive neighborhood of Brentwood Bair and the densely populated San Fernando Valley. The expanded evacuation area covers some of Los Angeles’s most important cultural institutions, including the Getty Center. The campus of the University of California at Los Angeles is on high alert and has been advised to prepare for evacuation.

Firefighters are racing against time as fierce Santa Ana winds, which fuel the infernos around Los Angeles, are expected to pick up again this week. The National Weather Service forecast predicts that the dry winds will continue until Wednesday, reaching speeds of up to 96 km/hour.

Detectives are continuing to investigate the possible causes of the devastating wildfires. Experts say it is now easy to rule out one common cause—lightning—since the region was free of stormy weather last week. Nor has there been any official indication that utility lines caused the fires, as the area near the Tamiscal Ridge Trail is free from power lines or transformers.

This leaves people as the source of most wildfires. Fires often break out in the wooded areas on the edges of Los Angeles, many unintentionally caused by homeless people. Such fires almost never grow into destructive blazes due to the lack of high winds. However, last week’s combination of ferocious winds and a parched landscape unfortunately created ideal conditions for the fast-moving fires that have consumed Los Angeles.

Along with the wildfires, a political fight is raging about the city’s preparedness. President-elect Donald Trump has been criticizing California Governor Gavin Newsom, President Joe Biden, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass since the fires broke out. In a series of posts on social media, Trump called the officials in charge of fighting the Los Angeles wildfires “incompetent” and questioned why the blazes were not yet extinguished.

Newsom accused Trump of waging a disinformation campaign and invited the president-elect to come to his state and tour the destruction. The California governor has called for an independent investigation into the loss of water pressure to hydrants and why the Santa Ynez Reservoir was closed for maintenance when the fires first broke out.

Could this level of devastation somehow have been minimized? Unfortunately, what we have been seeing in Los Angeles was a combination of hurricane-force winds, unseasonably dry conditions, and multiple fires breaking out one after another in the same geographic region. All of this made widespread destruction inevitable.

A new fire is burning in Ventura County. They’re calling it “The Auto Fire.” It is burning in the Santa Clara River area. Multiple water-dropping aircraft are working on this fire, and the good news is that fire crews say no homes are currently being threatened.

What started as a small vegetation fire at around 7:00 p.m. quickly became a 5-acre brush fire and has since doubled to more than 10 to 15 acres in the middle of the Santa Clara riverbed, between the Buenaventura Golf Course and the River Ridge Golf Club.

Driven by heavy fuel and winds upwards of 30 miles per hour, it sped westward towards Victoria Avenue. Fire crews, after numerous water drops, were able to stop the forward progress of this fire just about 1,000 feet short of Victoria Avenue, which had to be shut down.

At one point, it came very close as it moved westward toward agricultural areas beyond Victoria Avenue. Now, the heavy flames have dwindled to a few major hotspots that are being doused with several helicopters on scene. With a lot of kindling in the area, this fire will likely burn through the night before it is fully contained.

Ventura County firefighters have approximately 100 personnel on the scene. They have been aggressively fighting this fire for the last four hours. At this point, they seem to have contained it to just a few hotspots that have been flaring up periodically over the last half hour. Even some of those have calmed down in the last few minutes as the winds have eased, giving firefighters a brief reprieve.

One thing that worked in their favor was the proximity of a reservoir. Helicopters were able to repeatedly fill up, dump water, and aggressively attack the fire from the air, which firefighters say helped knock down the worst of the fire quickly.

However, one major challenge was the remote location—several hundred yards off any major road, with rough terrain. The dense vegetation in the Santa Clara riverbed allowed the fire to spread quickly, but crews have mostly halted its forward progress just shy of Victoria Avenue.

Traffic was only briefly interrupted in the area. Firefighters emphasized the coordinated effort between aviation and ground resources, which involved precision water drops and directing crews to tackle the fire on the ground.

The most significant challenge tonight remains the winds. If they pick up, hotspots could flare again. Firefighters will likely be on the scene through the night to ensure containment. The good news is that no structures or homes were threatened during the incident.