April 28--Firefighters were tackling a wind-driven brush fire charging uphill Thursday toward a drug rehabilitation facility north of Ventura.
The blaze started small at three acres near Highway 33 after 2 p.m., but quickly grew to 40 acres as winds fanned across the area and threatened to topple multiple power lines, fire Capt. Mike Lindbery said.
Flames moved rapidly toward Teen Challenge, a drug addiction treatment center in the grassy, dusty foothills of Ventura. The center treats and houses multiple residents, Lindbery said. Workers were evacuated as flames approached the facility.
By 4:30 p.m., winds had swifted and were blowing away from the fire at Casitas Vista Road, he said.
"Things are looking much better," Lindbery said.
But fire officials were monitoring the direction of the fire as it approached a series of underground natural gas lines. Firefighters were working with Southern California Edison, Southern California Gas Company and property owners.
Three engines and several firefighters were protecting the facility from the fast-approaching flames, he said.
"I could hear it moving toward us," Lindbery said in a video that he posted on Twitter. "I could really hear that brush starting to crackle."
A Los Angeles-area helicopter was assisting Ventura firefighters and making water drops over the fire.
Swift-moving, westerly winds pushed the blaze toward dry brush and trees, Lindbery said. Wind gusts reached up to 30 mph Thursday afternoon in the Ventura County mountains, according to the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
The lack of winter rains only worsened the already-parched conditions in the area, he said.
"We are not close to summer yet, but the fuels are so dry," he said. "Our fuels are very dry and with those dry fuels we are going to probably have a fire season with ignitions that we had last year. It's just so easy for that vegetation to take off and start burning."
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