LOS ANGELES _ A large brush fire erupted in Simi Valley early Wednesday and was quickly burning toward neighborhoods, triggering mandatory evacuations amid strong Santa Ana winds.
The Easy fire, which started near the 118 Freeway and Madera Road shortly after 6 a.m., has chewed through 1,300 acres of dry, dense brush and is threatening 6,500 homes, Ventura County Fire Capt. Steve Kaufmann said.
Portions of Simi Valley, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks are under mandatory evacuation orders. The evacuation area is bounded by the 118 Freeway to the north, Olsen Road/Madera Road to the south, Madera Road to the east and Highway 23 to the west. The area bordered by Highway 23, Moorpark Road, Read Road and East Olsen Road and a third area bordered by Santa Rosa Road, Andalusia Drive, Moorpark Road and Andalusia Drive are also under mandatory evacuation orders.
It is not clear how the fire started.
The blaze is burning near the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Thick smoke choked the hillside where the 125,000-square-foot complex _ a repository of records and artifacts from the Reagan administration _ is perched amid dense brush. Flames burned on all sides, but the library has not sustained damage, officials said.
Helicopters repeatedly dropped loads of water behind the library in 60-mph winds, turning the flames into smoke on a ridge 300 feet below. Amid wind gusts strong enough to knock a person off balance, two super-scooper planes dipped down behind the library before unleashing such a volume of water it created its own rainbow.
Video from the scene showed wind-whipped flames rapidly consuming a large swath of hillside in the area as residents fled from their homes.
As the fire swept down the ridge toward Roosevelt Court, an off-duty LAPD officer wearing a raid jacket began yelling, alerting residents that the fire was coming down the hill. Tensions immediately heightened as the flames became visible to homeowners.
Rory Kaplan has lived on Roosevelt since the homes were built there in 2001.
"I got the reverse 911 about 6:30 a.m.," he said. "I pulled the cars out into the driveway, put the passports and bank documents in one and my musical instruments in the other car. I am ready to go."
Simi police began directing everyone via loudspeaker to leave the neighborhood behind the Reagan Library. Kaplan joined the exodus.
"One thing is sure, they aren't going to let Reagan's Library burn _ and that protects us," he said.
All Simi Valley public schools were closed because of the fire, and a shelter has been set up at the Thousand Oaks Community Center at 2525 N. Moorpark Road.
Kris Mae, 69, was one of the first people to arrive at the community center Wednesday morning. Mae, an early riser, had been watching television on mute and listening to the radio when she heard the announcer say there was a fire near the Reagan Library _ about four miles from her house. Outside, she saw a beige-and-red-hued plume of smoke.
"I'm right in the path," she said. "That's why I left my house, because it was so close."
But she was prepared. She had packed her car with several suitcases, boxes of important files and a fire safe about a month ago when the first major fires of the season started.
"It's too hard to pack and unpack over and over," she said. "I'm a very nervous person when I get shaken."
Chandler Collins, 23, was jolted awake early Wednesday by the sound of his grandmother banging on his door. They had to evacuate.
It was still dark outside, but he could see flames licking uphill near their home, located on the same road as the Reagan library. He threw together some clothing, pet supplies for his cat, Shadow, and his chinchilla, Rocket, plus his Halloween costume, in case he couldn't make it back home before his dress-up day at work Thursday.
"I've never done this before, but it's probably going to happen more often," he said of the evacuations.
Another wildfire broke out Wednesday in the Riverside County town of Nuevo shortly after 7 a.m. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said multiple structures have been burned and authorities have called for more fire engines to battle it.
The new fires come amid dangerous weather conditions and the threat of more power blackouts as utility companies attempt to reduce wildfire risk.
In the area of the Easy fire, gusts of about 30 mph from the northeast were reported nearby around 8 a.m., National Weather Service meteorologist Lisa Phillips said.
"We are expecting the winds to strengthen," Phillips said.
Later in the day, the weather service forecast sustained winds of 20-30 mph and gusts of up to 50 mph. They're expected to ease slightly around 4 p.m., with sustained winds 15-25 mph and gusts up to 45 mph.
Relative humidity levels are expected to fall to as low as 4% _ critically dry, parching rain-starved vegetation and making it even more prone to ignition.
Forecasters say the gusty winds will be the strongest to hit the region in recent memory and triggered urgent preparations for more potential fires and evacuations. The winds are expected to continue through Thursday.
"The magnitude of the wind gusts really are going to be a concern," said Daniel Swain, climate scientist with UCLA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. "The actual winds that people experience really will be quite extreme in a lot of places, really everywhere except for the wind-sheltered parts of downtown L.A. and central L.A."
The forecast of extreme Santa Ana winds prompted Southern California Edison to say it could shut off power to more than 340,000 customers in Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
To the north, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said it could shut off power to well over 1 million people in its latest bid to reduce wildfire risk.
The blackout would cover more than two dozen Northern California counties and would come just days after a much larger power shut-off that left more than 2 million people in the dark over the weekend.
Fire danger from power lines was underscored Tuesday when L.A. officials said a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power line hit by a tree branch sparked the Getty fire.
