The residents of Camarillo Heights knew all too well the dangers of fire.
Their corner of Ventura County was battered by powerful Santa Ana winds every fall, and those gusts stoked fires that came close but never swept into their hillside community.
That is until Wednesday, when the Mountain fire made a direct hit, burning numerous homes and sent resident fleeing for safety.
With the danger passed, people returned to survey the devastation. But instead of defeat, there was a spirit of resiliency and defiance as neighbors helped neighbors and many talked of rebuilding as quickly as possible.
On Friday afternoon, 85-year-old Carol Cressy visited what remained of her home. Neighbors stopped to check in on her as she walked around the rubble and twisted metal that made up her home of 50 years.
“The Bible says don’t put your faith in material possessions,” Cressy said. “Don’t I believe it.”
Cressy volunteered with the local Democratic Party to register voters and stayed up late on Tuesday night to watch the election results. On Wednesday morning, as the Mountain fire raced to her neighborhood, she received an automated phone call to evacuate.
Satellite imagery showcases the Mountain fire’s fury as homes are reduced to rubble and a vast plume of smoke stretches into the atmosphere.
“By that time, the color outside my windows was bright red,” she said. “The flames were already there.”
She jumped out of bed in her nightgown, chased after her 10-year-old border collie, Henry Valentine, and ran to her car in a pair of sandals. She didn’t have time to grab much else.
As a former educator who traveled overseas for 25 years, Cressy amassed a collection of goods, furniture and keepsakes from Germany, Japan and other parts of the world.
“All of my goodies gone. A firefighter told me that it will all hit me in a few days on what happened,” Cressy said.
Friends donated clothes and other necessities to get her back on her feet. She was able to refill her prescriptions at her pharmacy, and someone offered her a new wardrobe and other goods. She’s staying with a friend, but stopped by her home on Friday as a friend’s grandson searched among the ash for any of her keepsakes that might have survived the fire.
In just a few terrifying hours, the Mountain Fire became the most destructive blaze in Southern California in years. The conditions were ripe for disaster, and neighborhoods had few defenses. Here is what happened.
As Cressy drove up the street, Daryl Gross stopped to talk with her neighbor whom she didn’t quite know on a first-name basis.
“I’m Cressy,” she said. “All my home is gone up in smoke and ash.”
“Oh, I hope they find something for you,” said Gross, whose home was damaged.
Drinking water quality in Camarillo was unaffected; but Gross’ water company, Pleasant Valley Mutual Water Company, notified customers that there is possible fire-related contamination and the water is unsafe to drink.
Gross planned to meet with a contractor for home repairs and had little to no water pressure on Friday.
“There are so many things that I’m thinking about, but then I look out at my neighbors,” she said. “I can’t think that way. I have a house. I’m so fortunate. Again, I have to remind myself I have a house.”
The stunning toll of the Mountain fire became clear Thursday: Officials said 132 homes were lost and 88 damaged, making one of the most destructive fires in the region in several years.
Even after all the destruction, Cressy smiled brightly and joked with her neighbors who stopped by. She offered to put another neighbor in touch with the person who donated her clothes and added that she had to pick up her dog from the groomers.
The neighbor beamed, “You’re amazing. Simply amazing.”
Cressy walked around her lot, unsure if she wanted to rebuild somewhere else or move into a senior community once she receives her insurance money. Her hearing aids burned in the fire, but she wondered if maybe they survived.
“That’s where my shower used to be,” she told Phillip Federis, 36, her friend’s grandson who took the day off from work to sift through the ashes. He found a handful of coins she received while she taught in Japan.
A crew of Ventura County firefighters stopped by to check in on Cressy and offered to help search through the rubble with their tools.
“Oh, that’s the sweetest thing,” she said. “People really are coming together and have been so kind. This fire is something else, because I’m getting to meet all my neighbors.”
City officials were not surprised by the spirit on display Friday.
“We’ve got a very strong and a very resilient community here,” Camarillo Mayor Tony Trembley said. “We will get through this, and we will support each other.”
Trembley expressed his gratitude to the state and local emergency agencies that stepped in to help, along with the fire agencies from outside Ventura County that made the trek to Camarillo. He also mourned for the residents who lost everything.
“Our hearts are broken for our neighbors and residents who lost their homes and who are otherwise affected by the fire,” he said.
City officials are working to put together a town hall in the coming days to determine next steps for repopulating the evacuated neighborhoods.
Residents should have a to-go bag in the event of an emergency and not just a wildfire, Trembley said. Homeowners should also consider a defensive perimeter around their properties to present fire from spreading easily to a home.
“Sadly, this is a reminder that we all need to be prepared,” he added.
Fire officials said Camarillo Heights got incredibly unlucky. Forecasts show their area would get the most punishing winds, and when a fire started in a nearby rural area, it made a direct run at the community. Intense gusts ground air support, and officials focused on evacuating residents. There were no deaths reported and few injuries.
One fire expert told The Times there was a cruel randomness to what homes burned. Kyle Ferris, fire behavior analyst with the Mountain Fire Incident Command Team, said embers traveled up to a mile ahead of the fire and would get into certain homes and fly by others.
In the end, more than 130 homes were destroyed and more than 80 damaged, according to officials.
On Friday morning, a pair of sheriff’s deputies scrambled up a hillside in Camarillo Heights after residents noticed smoke billowing out of dense brush. They used a water hose from a nearby home to spray down the brush.
The hillside around Robert Dickran’s home in Camarillo Heights was dotted with burnt cacti and charred brush, showing just how close the fire came to his home.
At first, the fire seemed far away on Wednesday. He felt he had plenty of time to prepare, but then his son arrived and told him to to leave. That’s when the 60 mph winds whipped through the hillside neighborhood and the fire appeared on a nearby ridgeline.
Dickran, 77, grabbed the essentials from his home — his wife’s computer, some important documents and placed them into his truck. Then he remembered his family photo albums.
Running back to his truck with the box, he was met by a wall of smoke and found that he couldn’t breathe. Firefighters had arrived; but without fire hydrants around his property, they were left with his garden hose. He was told an aircraft dropped water or fire retardant on the hillside.
He left his home and was told that the neighborhood was wiped out. He didn’t know how to process the information, but when he went back, he found his home standing.
“Does prayer stop things?” he asked. He doesn’t know why the wind would send the fire to one house and not another. He doesn’t have a good answer.
“Well, I feel guilty that my home survived it and other people’s homes didn’t,” he said.
He plans to trim the vegetation around his home and install a new water line that can bring in more water to his property. He doesn’t want to be unprepared again.
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