Within hours, the Mountain Fire quickly spread across the Santa Susana Mountains and nearby areas, forcing evacuations and demanding firefighters from crews smothered in hot coals.
Even as hundreds of firefighters around the county sprang to action, the wind-driven fire grew in unpredictable and dangerous ways, destroying homes, tearing through orchards and threatening thousands living in Camarillo, Moorpark and Santa Paula.
But officials made an early decision that would pay off: by prioritizing the mission to save lives over protecting property, no one died in an otherwise devastating wildfire. Only minor injuries were reported.
But not everything went without a hitch. About five hours after the fire broke out near Somis around 09:00 on Nov. 6, some firefighters hit a stick in their response efforts.
“We have water problems up here where we have low water pressure,” one of the firefighters was heard saying in the recorded words of the radio stations that day. He asked the command staff to look into the water suppliers and solve the problems.
Then after many hours in the hills surrounding Camarillo, Santa Barbara County Fire Capt. Hugh Montgomery – responding to a Ventura County plea for help – said his engine hit the road after successfully saving about a dozen burning homes.
“We were inside a building fire and we were starting to do well when the pipes stopped,” he said.
That evening at a news conference, Ventura County Fire Captain Trevor Johnson addressed a question about water issues, saying water availability remains a challenge, and dangerous.
A firefighter trains water in a house engulfed in the mountain fire.
(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
“Just getting fire services when the water system fails — everything is dangerous out there,” Johnson said.
Reports of water pressure problems and dry water pipes were broadcast on the evening news that night with pictures of smoking homes in the background.
Details of the extent of the problem were not immediately available, but two water pumps in the Camarillo Mountains – the area most affected by the fire loss – did not work during the fire, stopping or slowing down the process of refilling the water tanks on the hills that generate high-voltage fire-fighting lines, officials confirmed this week. One pump was destroyed by fire and another lost power when Southern California Edison planned a power outage, and it took hours to bring it back online with a generator, according to Calleguas Municipal Water District officials.
However, water and fire authorities maintain that disruptions are expected and planned during a major wildfire, insisting that it is simply a change in firefighting operations. They were still adamant that water is always available from other sources nearby.
On the first day of the Mountain fire, a man sprays water on a home in Camarillo.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
“Has the water run out? Yes,” Ventura County Fire Chief Dustin Gardner said at a public meeting this week. “We had enough water to put out the fire for a long time as well [firefighters] used it, and then where those hydrants – on the west side or on the [Camarillo] Fields – anywhere that’s dry, firefighters get used to it. … We’re used to that. …. The truth is that we have never stopped fighting fire.”
It’s not clear how widespread the water disruption was, if it could have been avoided or if some homes could have been saved by uninterrupted water flow, given the volatile inferno that consumed dry grass and erupted during storm surges. Gardner said all of that will be part of the Mountain Fire review. In total, more than 240 buildings, many of which were primary residences, were confirmed destroyed and another 127 damaged. The nearly 20,000-acre fire was 91% contained Friday.
“If you think about the hundreds of firefighters and the hundreds of trucks we had [Camarillo] The Heights and the Estates, they were each connected to a hydrant at the same time and they had a lot of water flowing and that water was stored in tanks – so those tanks will go down,” Gardner said. “I know there was a lot of damage, but thousands of homes were saved.”
Even with the best of conditions, the wildfire was extremely volatile, making it difficult for firefighters as embers rose two miles ahead of the main fire and strong winds pushed water streams to the sides and stopped some aircraft from landing, according to Ventura County Fire. Deputy Chief Chad Cook.
“Going 80 mph is what causes structural damage to homes,” Cook said. “You add the element of fire to the air, you have a different animal – you have an uncontrollable animal.”
Still, residents in the area continued to ask about water supply issues, especially as the National Weather Service issued critical warnings about fire conditions in the area and Southern California Edison warned of possible shutdowns.
“At some point, somebody didn’t have water and that’s not good in a fire situation for all the obvious reasons – from safety to saving the house,” said Steve Bennett, a member of the state legislature who represents Ventura. “It’s something you don’t want to have when this fire breaks out.”
The water pump issue has plagued Bennett since the 2017 Thomas fire, when it took hours for Ventura officials to get the pumps to backup generators so water could start flowing to the firefighting equipment. After receiving few answers about what happened at the time, Bennett sued, but said the information he was later given was insufficient. He doesn’t want that to happen again.
Firefighters protect property on North Loop Drive in Camarillo from the Mountain Fire.
(Jennifer Osborne / For the Times)
“The thing we need to investigate … is to make sure we don’t run out of water too quickly,” Bennett said. “During the red flag [warning]you have to fill all your tanks in advance. … Every place should have a generator that knows what to do when the power goes out.”
It is not clear what preparations each local water supplier took before the Mountain fire, but there were only two problems with the water supply during the fire, according to Daniel Cohen, emergency coordinator for the Municipal Water Corporation of Calleguas, which distributes water from State Water. Project to local suppliers.
Crestview Mutual Water Co. had the pump lose power due to a safety shutdown. Cohen said the power was cut off at 2 p.m. and he didn’t get a generator to restore power until 11 p.m. on the first day of the fire.
Crestview did not respond to questions about additional details about the outage or its preparations, but according to its website, it operates three wells that provide water to 625 customers in the Camarillo area. Its service area includes some of the roads most affected by the fire, including Cerro Crest and Estaban drives, where more than 20 homes were destroyed, according to the county’s first map of damaged and destroyed buildings and one of the water supplier.
Pleasant Valley Mutual Water Co. it had a pumping station that was destroyed by fire. In an anonymous statement after the fire, the company explained that “one of the pumping stations that fill water tanks in the area was destroyed by the Mountain fire, and another station lost power.”
The water company said it installed a portable generator for that second pump, but it was unclear how long that took and did not respond to further questions from The Times.
Firefighters spray water on a burning house in Camarillo on Nov. 6.
(Jennifer Osborne / For the Times)
However, the vice president of its board, Jay Dunlap, said he understands that people are upset but that they may have been misdirected – at least for Pleasant Valley Mutual customers. He said his neighbors must realize that the water companies were all dealing with a “once-in-a-lifetime fire incident” – even though history has shown that the area is in a corridor known for wildfires, with large flames breaking out a few times ago. decades.
“This is a difficult situation, I understand that,” said Dunlap, adding that his heart goes out to all those who have lost their homes. “It’s not that we weren’t prepared. … We can’t stop Mother Nature from turning on the pump.”
Customers in Pleasant Valley live along some of the roads hardest hit by the fire, including West Highland Drive and Santa Cruz Way, where more than a dozen homes were destroyed in each area, according to county and water maps.
Ian Prichard, deputy general manager of the Water District Municipal Water Corporation, said the Pleasant Valley system has no work — or built-in work — so another pump can fill the tanks, albeit slowly, after one pumping station burns out.
Prichard also explained that these hillside water tanks are only designed to support daily public use and a large structure fire – which can take three or four fire trucks. None are designed to fire massive coal in every way that requires hundreds of trucks, he said.
“Even electricity … puts a lot of pressure on that system; you deplete that tank faster than it can be refilled,” Prichard said. “Firefighters know this, they have been fighting urban fires for a long time.”
However, he insisted that in this fire “there was still water and the firefighters knew that and responded appropriately.”
Many fire officials echoed that defense.
“In the higher areas, the water pressure was less because of how much there is [trucks] were put into the system,” said Capt. Scott Safechuck, spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department. “It’s part of the job. …. We are looking at how to get water.”
However, Prichard agreed that it is best practice for water suppliers to fill their water tanks, back up generators on stage and prepare emergency crews during a red flag event or potential fire weather.
But there are no clear requirements to do so.
While the California Public Utility Commission recently required wireless service providers in wildfire areas to ensure backup power for at least 72 hours because of their critical role in emergency response, water providers do not have that mandate. They are only required to have emergency response plans, which include measures for high fire risk and low pressure, considerations that may “include portable generators or other equipment necessary to maintain the operation of the water system,” said Terrie Prosper, a spokeswoman for the commission. in the statement.
Bennett said he understands that there are situations where water disruptions cannot be avoided, but he wants to ensure that all possible measures are taken to minimize the effects.
“We’re all interested in understanding where we’ve had problems and making sure … we don’t know in the future,” Bennett said.
Times staff writers Clara Harter and Nathan Solis contributed to this report.
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