Police and fire vehicles could be seen surrounding the library compound in the morning, and helicopters flew low overhead, dropping water and fire retardant on the flames. Heavy winds gusting to more than 60 mph made it difficult to walk at times, and tumbled over museum signs that had been weighted with sandbags.
The blaze, named the Easy fire, began just after 6 a.m., which Mark Lorenzen, chief of the Ventura County Fire Department, said was “about the worst time it could happen” because of the strong winds and dry vegetation that was “ripe and ready to carry fire.”
Between 8 and 10 a.m., the fire tripled in size to cover 1,300 acres, putting more than 26,000 residents in evacuation zones, most of which are mandatory, according to Sheriff Bill Ayub. The fire was threatening about 7,000 homes in parts of the Simi Valley and Moorpark communities in the southern part of Ventura County, but no injuries have been reported.
Eric Tennessen, a chief with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, said deputies were knocking on doors and escorting people to safety. The evacuation area consists mainly of ranches, farms and a golf course, and is not densely populated, Tennessen said.
Video from local news outlets showed smoke billowing from several distinct parts of the fire along hilltops, with the flames fanned by the wind as the sun rose. Later in the morning, flames could be seen approaching suburban neighborhoods nearby, and the Fire Department said that as many as 6,500 houses were threatened by the blaze.
“The fire outflanked us very rapidly today,” Chad Cook, an assistant fire chief, said at a news conference. He said that the department had relied on its planning and the aid of nearby districts to beat back the flames, but that the area was not yet free of risk.
“I would say the next couple days could prove very busy for all fire resources in Southern California,” Cook said.
The fire moved quickly toward the presidential library, which houses memorabilia including a former Air Force One aircraft, officials said, but firefighters were able to keep the flames away from the library complex.
Along with the plane, which flew seven presidents, the complex holds papers from Reagan’s eight years as governor of California and eight years as president; the graves of Reagan and his wife, Nancy Reagan, are also on the grounds.
A few staff members and security employees were on the property Wednesday to monitor the fire, according to Melissa Giller, a spokeswoman for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, who noted that the library building had many features to protect the historic items inside.
The library was the second important civic institution in Southern California to find itself imperiled by fire this week. The Getty Center in West Los Angeles, filled with priceless artworks, came under threat before firefighters fought back the flames.
Strong winds could drive ‘extreme fire behavior’ in Southern California.
California faced the worst kind of weather for wildfires Wednesday — strong, gusty winds and very low humidity. Officials feared that the gusts could blow embers more than a mile away, complicating their efforts to contain new or existing fires.
In the southern part of the state, the brush fire near the presidential library was not the only concern. In Jurupa Valley, a city in Riverside County, a small fire that began near Highway 60 mid-morning had consumed 100 acres and had no containment by early afternoon. The cause of the blaze, called the Hill fire, was under investigation. An elementary school and two mobile home parks came under mandatory evacuation, while Highway 60 was closed in both directions in the area, according to Cal Fire, the state firefighting agency.
In the Los Angeles area, a 745-acre fire known as the Getty fire has prompted the evacuation of more than 7,000 homes. Firefighters made progress overnight on the fire, which was 27% contained Wednesday morning. Santa Ana wind gusts topped 70 mph in elevated areas near Los Angeles.
“When you have a fire form in these conditions, it can spread very quickly,” said Lisa Phillips, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Los Angeles office. The combination of dry and windy weather, perfect for fires to ignite and grow, led the weather agency to issue an “extreme red flag warning” for much of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties.
In Northern California, firefighters made inroads battling the Kincade fire, which has consumed much of the area around Santa Rosa over the past few days as it has swelled to become the largest active wildfire in the state. The 76,000-acre fire is now 30% contained, up from 15% Tuesday, and forecasters were cautiously optimistic that the winds in the area had died down and would not strengthen again for at least a few days.
At a morning briefing at the Sonoma County fairgrounds, where hundreds of firefighters packed into an event hall, officials thanked the crews for their work. “Really good progress,” said Charlie Blankenheim, a division chief working with Cal Fire.
Danger remains, however. Many houses tucked into the woods are still at risk, and saving those will be a priority over the next few days, officials said. Already, the fire has destroyed 206 structures, including 94 homes.
Electricity has been shut off for more than a million people.
The threat posed by the winds had led Pacific Gas and Electric, California’s largest utility, to cut off power to nearly 1 million customers in 30 counties in Northern California in recent days. On Wednesday, about 365,000 customers — roughly 900,000 people when accounting for shared addresses — still had no power.
In the south, San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison reported preventively shutting off power Wednesday to a total of about 200,000 people. A new state web portal includes links to updates on fire status, evacuation zones, power outages, shelters and housing, road conditions and other information related to the fires, compiled by state agencies like Cal Fire and Caltrans and by utility companies.
As fires rage, schools cancel classes and events.
With many school districts closed in Sonoma County and surrounding counties, parents have been left trying to entertain their children amid power outages and evacuations.
Parker Palizi, 9, did not mind getting a few days off from school, but the thought of staying home in Novato without working electronics was less than appealing. “There’s no fun stuff we can do,” he said. Still, Parker was more concerned about his pet bearded dragon, Spike, whom he was bringing in a glass tank to a hotel room in Carmel-by-the-Sea, where electricity beckoned.
“He needs the heat lamp to stay alive,” Parker said.
The Palizis, who live in Marin County, were supposed to be on a 7 a.m. flight from Los Angeles on Monday so Delilah could perform as an elephant in her second-grade play. “She was so excited,” said her mother, Brooke Palizi, who works for a nonprofit organization.
But Delilah’s star turn will have to wait. The Novato Unified School District canceled school Monday, and then Tuesday and Wednesday, the Palizis learned late Monday afternoon. By then they were driving a rental car the 7 1/2 hours home.
The Windsor High School girls volleyball team had been slated to play in the playoffs Wednesday, until a mandatory evacuation order came for the entire town of 28,000 on Saturday morning, giving residents 6 hours to flee. With all the district’s schools closed this week, the town on lockdown and the team scattered, coach Rich Schwarz said he and the athletic director made the difficult decision to forfeit the game.
The players responded to his group text announcing the decision with sad-face emojis and messages of support, said Schwarz, who is in his final year coaching the team.
“How do we play when we don’t have practice and don’t know where the girls are? said Schwarz, who is staying with his sister in the town of Rohnert Park. “We can’t tell parents to break into the town to get their uniforms. At what point does an extracurricular activity become way too much? We need to let families worry about whether their house is still standing.”
This article originally appeared in
.