As Santa Ana winds gusted, a small fire ignited in the Santa Paula area Oct. 15 and Southern California Edison shutoff power for thousands countywide.
The forecast had called for strong Santa Anas and critical fire conditions. A red flag warning
was issued for most local areas for Oct. 15-17. The winds were expected to peak in Ventura and Los Angeles counties on Friday, with gusts reaching up to 70 mph in spots.Shortly after 1 p.m., firefighters responded to reports of a fire in the 600 block of Cornell Road in the Santa Paula area. The blaze was burning in an area south of Highway 126 near Peck Road.
Because of the fire, authorities issued an evacuation warning for a nearby area, south of the highway, west of Palm Avenue and east of Todd Lane.
An evacuation warning generally means the threat is not yet imminent.
A shelter-in-place order was issued west of that area, including Todd Road Jail.
Edison shuts off power for thousands
Edison had shut off power for more than 23,000 local customers and an additional 16,000 in neighboring Los Angeles and Kern counties, as of early Thursday afternoon – part of the utility company's preventative outages, called Public Safety Power Shutoffs.
The utility company shut off power in circuits in and around Simi Valley, Moorpark, Thousand Oaks, Camarillo and PIru. The company also continued to monitor dozens of other local circuits throughout the county that included more than 100,000 customers.
The shutoffs are designed to de-energize electrical circuits to prevent problems from debris and trees blowing into power lines. If an outage happens, the power likely won’t go on as soon as the wind dies down. Lines could be damaged or branches could be on them, according to Edison. Crews have to patrol an area before restoring power and fix any issues, officials said.
Forecast calls for Santa Anas to continue
The red flag warning was expected to remain in effect through 8 p.m. Saturday. In addition to gusty Santa Ana winds, temperatures were expected to climb well above normal and humidity levels drop, possibly into single digits.
The combination of the gusty winds and low humidity can mean wildfires start easier and spread faster.
The Ventura County Sheriff's Office of Emergency Services posted a list on vcemergency.com of resource centers in areas from Oxnard to Piru that include access to water, snacks and charging banks to plug-in devices.
More information about potential power outages is available at sce.com/psps. For a map of areas being monitored or outages, visit sce.com/outage-center/check-outage-status.
Visit vcemergency.com for information about the Santa Ana winds. To sign up for emergency alerts, go to readyventuracounty.org/vc-alert/.
Cheri Carlson covers the environment for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at cheri.carlson@vcstar.com.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Crews respond to Cornell Fire; thousands without power amid Santa Anas
