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Sandy Fire in Simi Valley prompts evacuation orders and warningsAdded:
in and I found trickling Brook Court.
It's right here. And this is that property, I believe, that we are seeing.
It looks like two structures there.
Unclear if one's a home or a garage or maybe it's two separate homes. We're not sure, but I'm pretty sure that what we saw burning was that home right there.
And you can see it's the last house on the street. And certainly the fire line, as we have seen with Skycow, has been burning all along in this area here essentially. And it started right around I believe in this area. Uh it's called Sandy Avenue or Sandy Court that's over there. But the water dropping helicopters as I had mentioned coming over here from the Bard Lake and then returning for more water. I'll show you the live radar map as well. You can see all of the firefighting resources here like this firefighter firefighting helicopter and this one as well. This one is from uh this one is the Sea King.
Uh that is it's a type of firefighting helicopter about 1,000 gallons each. You can see the lines back and forth as they go towards that reservoir and drop. And you can see they were working very hard to protect this area right here. I believe it's called Atorian Drive. Uh they're trying to save these homes there. And then there's this very large uh shinook that looks like it just filled up its tanks. You can see here it is on its way. I'm sure with Skycal we're going to see a very large water drop. This is going to be a useful tool.
And then of course there are other firefighting helicopters as well.
There's a Ventura County fire helicopter there. Sakorski Blackhawk. A thousand gallons each dropping. These fire crews are going to be instrumental in getting this under control. But right now, they got a long way to go. Shea, still a lot of active flame down there.
>> Absolutely. And you're looking on that street just a moment ago, Trickling Brook, which we've been focused on because that property was burned. It does look like, you know, from that map you showed us, there are several other houses very close to it. Even though it sits right next to the brush, so thankfully there's not a property on the other side. Looks like firefighters did a good job of containing that to that property. It doesn't look like it spread to um any others, but there are evacuation orders of course in effect now for this area. I saw several cars on the street uh that's blocked off by the fire trucks moving around. So, you wonder if people were at work and they're just getting noticed that they need to, you know, get back to their homes, maybe get their pets out of the area or someone else was left at home.
But with as quickly as things move here, Mark, that's the scary part with this.
It it just happens and it spreads so quickly.
>> Yeah. And there's so much fuel to burn on that hillside. Look on the left side of your screen. all of that green and brown there uh on the the southern end of Seami Valley, it it basically has there's just nothing but continuous vegetation out there going all the way down to the Agura Hills area. So, uh or the Oak Park area, I suppose, would be the next community. I mean, that's probably at least 20 or 50 20 to 25 miles uh of just vegetation in those hillsides. Uh but this fire still burning on these very large pockets. You can see on live pictures on the left side of your screen, the sky cow very hot. Unfortunately, Marina talked about those Santa Ana wind conditions >> and uh and there's still basically a lot of fire to be done, but as I mentioned, three teams of uh firefighters from three different agencies now working to get this fire out in a unified command.
Ventura County working handinhand with LA County and LA City to get the job done.
>> Absolutely. And and watching this firefight, you know, you have the water dropping helicopters which of course are trying to stop this from spreading further into the brush. Then you see the battle that firefighters deal with when a property like we saw moments ago completely goes up in flames. And I'm sure they have to change their focus right next to that property. It looked like there were other properties very close by as well as what seemed to be some type of RV or trailer which you can kind of see off in the distance there, but those flames are not as big at all on Trickling Brook um that we're zooming in on right now. So hopefully that's not going to spread to other properties.
>> Yeah. What we are seeing here is an active structure protection, very intense firefight going on on Trickling Brook. You see that jet of water that is coming? It's sort of shooting towards that home. Firefighters are dousing that home with as much water as possible to make sure that the burning remnants of that home on Trickling Brook does not spread to the neighbors property. So, that's going to be an active structure protection firefight there. Looks like at least one or two engines from Ventura County Fire are doing the work down there. And then this is the southern end of the fire burning what appears to be uphill. There really aren't any homes to the south of this. Just a lot of vegetation. Oh, Shea, when I see something like this, it does bring back memories of the Palisades fire. And when there's so much of that vegetation to burn with winds, this could be a long firefight because the only way to access that region is by air. There's really no way that firefighters are likely going to get up there on those very tiny roads here. With a fire that moves that fast, they can't risk having their rigs be caught up there. So, there's going to be an active firefight with those aerial helicopters. Uh, we might even see some fixed wing that'll come in. does take a little bit longer to get on station, but there are certainly aircraft, fixed wing aircraft that uh CalFire can deploy here. We have some C130s, very large aircraft that we can deploy. And of course, things get really bad. We'll get the DCT10 out there, but we don't know.
I don't know have any information yet that that's being prepped to deploy here. Uh but firefighters doing the best they can to keep these homes here. Like on Peter Place, there's a drop right there. I couldn't tell. That may have been an LA County fire chopper. They're trying to get this line under control.
This this certainly is an area of concern as this fire burns it looks like in the direction of homes. So this is going to be a frontline battle right here in the next few minutes.
>> Absolutely. And this shot right here shows exactly what firefighters are dealing with. You see, I think some of the smoke in some of the areas probably where the water drop just fell and then those flames which are just quickly spreading across that brush and as you said there's so much more for it to spread to. This looks like a pretty large area impacted. How big are we talking Mark?
>> Uh we don't have an acreage update yet.
Let me see if I have some information here. Uh the the assignment desk has been working uh to get sort of acorage information. Uh we know LA County Fire now sending three strike teams, hand crews, and heavy equipment to assist uh their colleagues at the Sandy Fire. Um and yeah, so it's got to be at least more than 10 acres, I would say. Oh, now now we're saying 180 acres right there.
Okay, this is information uh from the newsroom. 180 acres. That makes that makes sense. And as we said, unfortunately, it looks like one structure destroyed.
>> Yeah, it also unfortunately, as Marina's been telling us, there is a wind advisory in effect for this area until 3 p.m. So, firefighters trying to battle this fire and of course battling those winds today. Uh, in addition to that, this has all been happening so rapidly.
This fire's grown in just the past 30 minutes um to a large area here in the southern portion of Seami Valley. So, evacuation orders in effect. And as Mark has told us, Ventura County fire, LA city, and LA County doing these water drops um with the helicopters and trying to keep it away from properties. So far, we've seen one structure that was taken over by the flames, but it seems firefighters were able to contain it to that structure or at least the two properties um that were close together.
It doesn't seem that it spread to other structures in the neighborhood, which is of course the goal here as firefighters try to get this fire under control here in Semi Valley.
Yeah, it's still going to be an active firefight and uh you know, we've got strike teams coming from various regions around Southern California to assist. Uh there's been certainly a lot of changes since the Palisades and Eden fires in terms of coordination, command and control to get firefighters in place.
Certainly when you have these hillside fires that are wind driven, they want to do their absolute best to keep this in the vegetation area and not encroach into the Seami Valley area. Uh we know that there are a lot of people affected by this evacuation in the Seami Valley area. Certainly there are people that are going to be departing this area. The evacuation orders that are in effect.
One thing that we want to mention, if you have uh any video that you want to share information, if you're down there in Seami Valley, text us here, uh 818221-222.
That's the text the desk number. We want to hear from you. If you have any information about what you're seeing on the ground down there because there are lots of people, thousands of people under this evacuation order on the southern end of Seami Valley, text us at 8182212222.
You can send us pictures or video or information about what you're seeing down there. We want to hear from you uh as well as this firefight continues there. The Sandy Fire in Semi Valley.
>> Yeah, we absolutely do want to hear from you guys on this. And just a moment ago, when we were zoomed in there to one of those homes, it looked like officers were approaching a home. You wonder if someone was still in the area and they were trying to tell them to leave. But this all happens so quickly.
Unfortunately, you have to imagine so scary for the firefighters trying to battle this fire, but also people in the neighborhood who may just be watching on TV and realize that this is approaching their property or in their neighborhood.
Some of those folks, I'm sure, um, are home learning what's happening and hopefully getting to a safer place.
You're looking at this screen earlier.
This is why we were focused on this trickling brook court because this is where we saw a structure as you see here go up in flames. Um, since it seems like that that property appears to be almost a total loss, but it didn't seem that the fire spread to other properties from there. What we've just been watching is those helicopters continuing to fight that fire line and dump water. I think Mark said that we had four to five water dropping choppers working in this area.
We've seen Ventura County fire, LA city, and LA County fire. And again, this is the Sandy Fire which has triggered evacuation orders and is still actively burning. So far, 180 acres have burned and the fire continues to grow. So, we're going to continue to follow this for you live right here. Stay with KAL channel 9 and we'll continue to follow the Sandy Fire in Steammy Valley.
All right, we are on Kal right now.
Thank you for sticking with us as we continue to monitor the Sandy Fire which is burning in the southern portion of Seami Valley. It's triggered evacuation orders and unfortunately it does come on a day where we're watching a wind advisory in this area until 300 p.m.
There's a massive firefight going on with four to five water dropping choppers in the area. We also see firefighters which were focused on this trickling brook court where we saw one structure burn. And Mark, you were saying the good thing about this is that they're close to this lake where they're doing the water drops from. Yeah, it's called the Wood Ranch Reservoir, also called Bard Lake. It's about four miles from the fire line. It's a man-made lake, about 230 acres. Uh has about 3.6 billion gallons of water. So, no shortage of water here for the water dropping helicopters to fight what's being called the Sandy Fire. This is, if you're just joining us here, uh this is about a 100 acre brush fire exploded in size. only started about an hour and 15 minutes ago on a place called a Sandy Court uh I believe in the southern end of Sandy Avenue in the southern end of Seami Valley. Uh it has since exploded in size as you can see burning all along the southern end of Seami Valley. At least you at least one home, possibly two structures there destroyed in this fire. uh continuous structure protection all along these homes and streets that terminate in culde-sacs on the western side of this fire. Now, if you come out to my screen, uh I can show you on a map where the evacuation zones are on this fire. There's a very large evacuation zone. This is the Ventura County Sheriff's Emergency Services uh website.
And you can see this entire red area.
This is an evacuation order. Now, all this entire area under here, that's all vegetation. It's these homes, thousands of people under an evacuation order, mandatory evacuation order as the fire started about here and has since burned all along this area. Now, the fire continues to burn in multiple directions, but the water dropping exercises here and I should say not exercises, but a water dropping firefight is right in this area. This part of the fire line right here is where firefighters are most concerned.
I'm going to zoom in and this is Trickling Brook Court. this street that you see right here. And this home, this series of homes right there is what we believe has burned. So, there is a continuing problem with fire in this section right along here. That's where we see firefighters, water dropping helicopters coming and doing water drops in this direction. And there are firefighters here and here and here to do structure protection in these areas.
I'm also going to show you on the radar what this looks like. Again, this is the southern end of Seami Valley. the fire starting right about here and has since burned along this fire line. Now, this is Beared Lake that I was talking about, that wood ranch reservoir and we are seeing water dropping helicopters go from here and then back over here to do a continuous cycle to get this cleared up. Now, there's still a lot of work to be done. You can see on the left hand side of your screen, uh firefighters there in the vegetation doing direct hand crew work to try to get these fire lines contained. And you can see it's right there on the western edge of the fire. Skycal is in central Seami looking south. So what you're seeing there is the southern border of Seami Valley. And you can see the fire started on the left side of your screen and has burned to the right. That is of great concern right now as there is uh they're going to come up against basically the 23way.
But there's still lots of homes in the path of this fire, Sheibba. That's why there are these mandatory evacuation orders in southern Seami and now evacuation warnings in western Seami.
>> Absolutely. You see how many homes are possibly threatened by this fire. Uh we started watching it just after 10:00 this morning. It's rapidly grown since then. They're focused again on this trickling brook court where we saw uh that one structure that was up in flames and as you see now basically completely burned to the ground. Just some smoke there. But it doesn't look like they were uh going to let that continue spreading to other homes. So, that is good at least for now. Another big factor today, unfortunately, is the winds. So, let's bring our Marina Jura back in now that it's about 11:34.
Um, the good thing is the winds are not so strong that they're keeping the helicopters out of the sky, but they are playing a major factor here, Marina.
>> Yeah, they're playing a major factor, Sheba, because they're driving obviously uh the fire. And so, that is going to be consistent with these gusty Santa Anas right in that target area.
Unfortunately, we knew that this was going to be a gusty wind day for parts of the valley and as well as our mountain overpasses. And so, we do have a wind advisory in effect until 3 p.m.
for this region. And so, this was going to be really the trouble spot where we were going to see those Santa Ana wind gusts of up to 40 miles hour. And that's exactly what is happening right now. And so, we are going to be looking at winds anywhere from about 30 to 40 miles hour as we progress through the rest of the morning. So about another 30 minutes here through about 300 p.m. and then those winds do die down. So right now Seami Valley, Santa Clarita are really our toughest zones. Anywhere from about 30 to 35 mph wind gusts right now and we are going to be looking at that staying pretty consistent for about the next three and a half hours and then it improves. But for now at least sustained winds are at about 10 to 15 coming out of the northeast. So, it is traveling to the southwest and gusts around 30, but they will intensify here in about another hour. That's really what we're looking at as peak time where we could see gusts of up to 40 around 100 p.m.
And then if we take a look at what's going to happen for the rest of the afternoon, it is going to get much better, especially post 400 p.m. We're going to be looking at things getting a lot lighter. So 15 mileph winds by 6, 3 mph wind gusts by 9. So it's really critical now and then when they peak at about 1:00 this afternoon, that's when we're going to see that peak time. And then starting after 2 to 3 p.m., we'll cut that in half and then it'll get even quieter by the evening. But it's getting to that point, right? And so because the offshore winds did start today, today will be the peak of them, especially for this region. And so we are going to be looking at a pretty solid next few hours of having to deal with these gusty winds. And it's really that entire region up there that we knew was going to be uh the trouble sector. And that is uh proving to be unfortunate for right now because that is where the firefighting efforts efforts are. But anywhere from Seami Valley up into Santa Clarita and up into the Apple Valley.
That's where we are looking at really uh the heaviest of wind gusts that'll stay consistent, peak at 100 p.m. and then get better as we head into that post 400 p.m. hour. So Shiva, we're looking at, you know, at least another 3 hours that we're going to see these gusty winds before the firefighting efforts will get a little relief on the weather side at least.
>> Absolutely. They seem to be in the thick of it right now. All right, Marina, thank you so much. As Marina just said that, we're seeing 30 to 40 mph winds which still have not peaked yet. That should happen around 100 pm. But right now, we're hearing that about 180 acres have burned in this Sandy Fire in Seami Valley. So far, at least one structure has been damaged. And right now, uh, firefighters have not said, fire officials have not said how this fire started. That's really not the focus at this point, though. They want this out.
And as we zoom out, you can see what large area, um, this is taking over in Seami Valley. It started around Sandy Court in Seami Valley. And firefighters of course have been using the choppers to drop water on this. But I thought it was very interesting a couple of moments ago, Mark, when we actually were able to see one of the firefighters standing now with there with the hose directly putting that water onto the brush.
>> Yeah, that's right. They are getting hand crews on scene. Now Skycal is providing a slightly different perspective than just about 5 or 10 minutes ago. Skycal for the most part of the time that we've been on the air has been in the Seami Valley area and and actually above the city in central Seami. Skycal has now transitioned to the southern end of the fire. So we are now looking north into Seami Valley.
That's what you see there near uh at the top of your screen and out to the west.
Uh that's going to be the you know the California Lutheran University area out there. That's going to be uh out towards say Thousand Oaks out out in that area if you continue west. And the the 23 is is on that side of the fire. So what we're seeing here now is the southern flank of this fire as it moves south into the vegetation north of say you know Agora Hills. Agora Hills is about 25 30 miles to the south. But this is the southern end of this fire. These are the homes that Ventura County firefighters are concerned about protecting. They are going to have crews on the ground. If you're in the mandatory evacuation zone, which this is a part of what Skycal is looking at, you can give us a text at the number you see on your screen, 818-221222.
Text us with pictures or information about what you're seeing there on the ground. This is the southwestern side of this fire where uh the firefighters are most concerned. And that looks like the property we were talking about on Trickling Brook. That looks like an entire a complete loss. Two structures there. Unclear if that's two homes or a home and a garage, but Ventura County firefighters still doing the work of structure protection on the home directly next door. They are going to do continuous water on that property to make sure that that fire does not spread. Now, a piece of good news, it does look like with Skycal, I don't really see any active fire line down there. It looks like the fire has sort of moved through that area and is burning to the south more. You can see all the blackened terrain there as that fire has swept through this area, leaving behind just charred earth. But there you see the fire line to the south burning uphill. There's really no homes in that direction, but the fire is continuing to slowly burn to the west.
And there are homes on that side, Sheba, that firefighters are worried about.
>> Yeah, that's what's scary. So many different angles to watch. Again, we've only seen that one property on Trickling Brook actually burn. Um and we do see the fire extending up the brush here which as you said gives it some distance from some of those properties but it's interesting as um Skyal jumps around. We have seen firefighters it seems trying to drench some of those properties to protect them. It seemed that they were focused on some kind of canopy in one of the yards earlier. We also saw it seemed police officers or firefighters approaching a home probably saw some people in the area and were telling them how close the fire was to them. Uh this fire seems to have started burning around 10:00. So, we've been watching it for almost an hour and a half now. It is continuing to rapidly spread in Seami Valley. Right now, we know more than 180 acres burned. One structure, as far as we know, has been damaged and the firefight for firefighters continues as we see winds increase, as Marina's been telling us, until about 1:00 this afternoon. So, not what we want to hear, but we do have Ventura County Fire, LA City, and LA County all working on this mark. And thankfully they do have those choppers.
>> They do. And as a matter of fact, I want to highlight a difference that we are seeing here. Not only do they have choppers, but they have those fixed wings. They have that Grimman S2 that is flying around. That's a fixed wing aircraft that's providing real time intelligence to the fire crews. And I have just seen something on my screen that has happened so fast, so much faster than a year and a half ago now when we had the Palisites and Eden fires. We are now getting real time what's called a fire footprint or the area that's already burned. This usually took several hours. Now it looks like they are able to communicate this in minutes. Take a look. This is an update here. This is the first. Let me uh zoom out and show you. This is Seami Valley right here. This red area is the evacuation order. The blue area the evacuation warning. But now we see in the center a dark gray area of 184 acres. This is already the estimated burn area. So we can get very good information that's from that fixedwing aircraft relates to Sacramento.
Sacramento relates it back to the various agencies and you can see where it has burned up. It started right about here. That's on Sandy Avenue. Has burned down in this direction. But you see all of these properties here. This is where firefighters are most concerned. Now those big patches of fire are here, here, and here. So it's burning to the south as well. But firefighters are very concerned about these homes like here, Haley Court, Peter Place, and Rambling Road right there where they have had structure protection that is active now.
Also, uh, Trickling Brook where that home was destroyed. We believe it's right here and you can see the fire line. Uh, it basically came right up to Trickling Brook. So, they have firefighters there on all of these streets. They're heading up here on Hazelton Ridge, on Trickling Brook, on Casual Court. These are all places where firefighters are trying to do structure protection because that is the forefront of the fire as it continues to sort of sweep around in this direction. They want to stop it right there, Sheba.
>> Absolutely. And structure protection of course uh their main focus right now and stopping that fire from continuing to spread as you said through the brush area. It's interesting. We've seen many attempts for them to protect structures.
They've been it seems hosing just some things down. We don't know if we can see from this far away if that was something that flames or smoke had touched. So far, we have only seen that one property on Trickling Brook Court destroyed. It even had a couple of cars and it seemed like RVs nearby it. Um, but it seems that firefighters were able to contain that to that one property um being destroyed. But we continue to see, of course, this neighborhood being taken over by smoke. You think about it this time of the day, most people had already left for work, right? And are learning this probably when they're away from home, Mark, that that their area is under this large evacuation order. And especially, I imagine, for those people next to that home that burned, just a lot of fear right now.
>> Yeah, that's exactly right. Uh I'm sure this brings back some terrible memories of those big fires from from January 2025. But we are seeing some precision water drops. We just saw that giant uh twin engine Chinook helicopter do a bullseye right on the fire line. 3,000 gallons of water came down right on that fire. And here's LA City Fire 5 doing a follow-up drop of a,000 gallons. Uh it really never fails to impress uh how they were able to do these precision water drops to keep these fire lines in check. I also saw someone out there is also dropping FOSC check. I saw a line of FOST check. Haven't seen which aircraft is doing that. A lot of times that's a fixed wing aircraft. I'm searching the radar to see which aircraft is dropping FOS check out there as well. That's going to be a big help for firefighters. Those are those big pink and purplish lines of fire retardant that really work well to keep fire in check. But again, SkyCow zooming in on some of these properties here uh on the western side of this fire where you can see firefighters either are doing structure protection down there or they're going door to door saying, "Hey, you are in a mandatory evacuation zone.
You need to get out now." This is the threat area. The fire line is just a couple of uh you know thousand feet, 2,000 feet away from these homes. So, they want to make sure that everyone is evacuated. They don't want any loss of life here as they try and get into these properties and put water on them and assist uh with getting these people out.
>> Absolutely. And looking at this image here, you see how dangerous of a situation this is. You see some of the flames in the brush not very far from those homes uh where fire trucks are staged on the streets and as you said, you see the firefighters going home to home either hosing some things off to try to protect those structures um put flames out on the one that we saw that had already burned and of course warned some people in the area. This all moves so quickly that that one home that we saw destroyed or structure. We're not exactly sure what it is yet, but it appears to be a home right there on the right side of your screen as you see was in flames earlier and firefighters were zoning in on that trying to stop the fire from spreading to nearby homes and cars, which they seemed to be successful at. If it did spread, it seemed to just spread to that one structure or house um right beside it. But we also keep seeing these water drops, which I'm sure is very encouraging for people in the area.
Yeah, I've actually been able to locate exactly the street that we're looking on. I believe that's the end of something called Peter Place. This is just to the north of Trickling Brook Court uh where there's still active fire down there. You can see firefighters from Ventura County. Uh they're doing that structure protection, but this is not very far. This is just basically on the other side of a ridge from where that home burned on Trickling Brook. So, they want to stop it again here. But the these flames are getting awfully close.
That is a very large home right on the end there. Two stories. what looks like some kind of an outbuilding. You can see firefighters. They can see it coming up, but they put themselves in harm's way there. This is what they do uh you know for work. And so they are also very likely communicating to the aerial assets, hey, we need water right here, right now. And I can see most of the firefighting helicopters have uh diverted course to focus on getting water on that hot spot right there. That small one you see in the center of your screen and over to the left. They want to make sure that this neighborhood gets saved.
>> Yeah, absolutely. It's getting so close to the back of these homes here. And until now, we really had only seen those flames approach that one structure that was destroyed, but it happens so quickly. We were watching that at just about 2 minutes before 11:00 and by 11:13 that entire property was destroyed. Um, so hopefully firefighters get these flames out right here because just across that stretch of what appears to be like a dirt road are homes, Mark, which is scary to see. I see some I can't tell if it's a firefighter or if if it's a resident in the backyard of one of those homes there, but I do see people in several of these homes. Uh which, you know, is always a dangerous situation and we've seen that in many big fires where people stick around to try to protect their properties and it you understand people wanting to save their properties, but it's such a dangerous situation and as we've seen things happen so quickly, properties can be completely consumed in 10 minutes or less. So, this continues to spread and hopefully they'll focus on this hot spot. That culde-sac that we were watching there where the flames are approaching, is that the Peter Place?
>> Yes. What you're seeing, the road that you see right here where these homes are, this is Peter Place. Uh that is it is a culdesac and that's a small hot spot very likely from embers. But, you know, it's great that this these homes here, they have this clearance. This this is what firefighters talk about in terms of brush clearance and getting a defensible space uh outside of your home. And this is exactly what firefighters want to see. That light colored dirt road for what it is essentially is very likely going to be instrumental in saving those homes because you can see that small hot spot there was not burning up to the property because it was halted at that that dirt area. So, the the firefighters encourage everyone who lives in hillside communities, have something like that.
Have something like that on on as many sides of your home as possible. If you can't have dirt like that, it might be like something called I think it's called DG or distressed gravel. I'm not sure that's there.
>> Just clear away the brush uh so that you can get the effect like that. Now, here's what we're seeing. This is such a crucial part of this firefighting effort. This is called Wood Ranch Reservoir or Bard Lake, Bard Lake. Uh it is a 3.6 6 billion gallon reservoir man-made that is providing all of the water for about the five or six water dropping helicopters that are just going in a cycle. It's about 3 and 12 to four miles away from the fire line. So, a real quick turnaround here. They're just going in there for a drink, dipping their snorkels in, and then coming right back. So, these fire fighting helicopters, they've only been on station here for about an hour, maybe hour and 15 as they fight this fire. So, they're going to keep doing this in a cycle here. And this is going to be instrumental in containing this line or at least making sure that this line does not go further into the Seami Valley area. We got a big one coming back here that Koulson area that LA County Fire twin engine shinook is about to do another water drop. They just are coming back from that reservoir and we're probably going to see it here with Skycow because their target is this neighborhood. Now you can see that looks like civilians down there.
>> It does. It looks like residents who are trying to with with a hose um wet the wet the brush in the back of their home.
Look, it is understandable to want to defend your home like this, but this is taking resources away from the fire department. They strongly encourage people to leave. Really, a hose is not going to do much good against fire like that. Uh it's windy out there and you're taking up time from a firefighter who has to come and say, "Hey, you need to get out of here."
>> Right. You see the person who has climbed the fence with the hose pipe >> mark. You know, worst case scenario, you become injured, even smoke inhilation.
Then you need to take a trip in an ambulance which takes an entire fire crew out of commission as they take you to the hospital. So, it's best to get in your car and leave. Look at all of this smoke that's going to be hitting these people. It can't be pleasant right now.
They need to leave this area.
Firefighters have clearly been telling these people to do that. And look at this defensive defensible space though that I'm talking about.
>> This may actually save their home.
>> I see.
>> Not the garden hose. Not the garden hose. And there's that Chanook coming in >> right there. 3,000 g precision water drop. largest water dropping helicopter in the world right here. We've got them flying out of Vanise airport all the time and they're doing their work right there.
>> Yeah, that fire is getting so close to those homes though. We're going to keep that picture up, but we're joined now by Andrew Dow. He's the public information officer with the Venture County Fire Department. Andrew, thank you for being with us.
>> Thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate it.
>> Yeah. No, we appreciate it. You getting the word out to the public. We're watching this. Of course, desperate people in their yards with hose pipes, which is not what we want to see, trying to help with the firefight. Tell us about the conditions, what you're seeing, and what you're hearing right now.
>> Absolutely. So, this is a wind driven fire. Uh we are The latest update I had was approximately 180 acres with 150 firefighters on scene. Now, that was a little while ago, and these fires are very dynamic. So, the fire has likely grown in size, and we continue to bring in additional resources to support us.
As you were just discussing the water dropping helicopters, that is such an important tool in this fight. We have an aggressive firefight going on right now by the men and women of Ventura County Fire and partner agencies from the area.
Our primary objectives right now are to protect life and property to make sure that we facilitate evacuations from impacted areas and to do everything we can in defending structures in the area.
We have a coordinated attack going on between our resources on the ground and as you mentioned the water dropping helicopters um from both Ventura County Fire and partner agencies throughout the area. So a tremendous firefight that is going on right now through our us and our partner agencies. Um I'm really happy that you were able to highlight the work that our firefighters and and agencies LA County, LA city, CalFire are doing to help protect residents and protect properties.
>> Yeah, we're watching it in real time.
What do you have to say to the residents uh who we have on screen just a moment ago who are staying in their yards, it seems, to use their own home hose pipes to try to fight this fire?
>> Great question. We always encourage residents that are in strongly encourage residents that are in evacuation zones to heed those evacuation orders. Um residents can find the latest evacuation orders at emergency.venturacount.gov gov and that and we we strongly encourage residents to to heed those warnings. We have a very robust mutual aid system here in Ventura County and so we have not only resources from Ventura County Fire that are on scene and responding but additional uh engines that are on order from other agencies in surrounding areas. So we get resources very quickly to these types of fires.
It's a it's a testament to the robust mutual aid system, the partnerships we have with fire agencies here in Ventura County. Um, so I I want to make sure we highlight that just to again focus on the work that the men and women are doing responding to this incident.
>> Absolutely. You mentioned of course that protecting property and life is of course what's the focus here right now.
Uh, from what we've watched on TV, we saw one structure burndown in real time.
Do you have any numbers yet on how many structures have been impacted?
>> So, great question. I personally am in route to the incident right now, not yet on scene. So, I have not seen that footage myself. Um, so we will certainly update information as soon as we have it on the numbers of structures that may have been damaged or destroyed by this incident.
>> No, absolutely. And we appreciate you joining us. I know you guys are in the middle of this firefight. We're watching firefighters try to save property and lives as we speak and of course these desperate um people who live in the area who are trying their best to protect the property as the flames are literally feet away now. Andrew, how does this compare to other fires you've seen in this area? A and and also hearing that the winds could still be peaking for another hour and maybe get up to 40 miles per hour. How does that make you feel about this firefight?
>> Well, great question. I mean, there are three things that really drive wildfires. Fuels, the grass and brush that are burning, um the topography, the the shape of the land, and weather. So, weather conditions right now with gusty winds are certainly a concern for firefighters. It's part of why we really encourage residents to build wildfire resilient communities. You mentioned about the or somebody mentioned about defensible space earlier. Having defensible space so that we can get in and adequately protect your property.
Having a plan for what you're going to do, what residents are going to do in the event of a fire so they know where they're going to evacuate. Having an evacuation kit. All of this can be found on Ventura County Fire's website at v at fire.acount.govreetgo.
Our ready setgo program is designed to help residents prepare for wildfire in advance and as you mentioned with with uh with having defensible space. Those kind of preparations are incredibly important.
>> Of course, this is so scary to see. Of course, whenever we see it and especially for people who live in these areas or worried that the fire will spread to them. Um, how can you reassure people as we've seen in some of the other big fires where the winds were too bad for these water dropping helicopters to even function that it's a good thing that you guys have several agencies with several helicopters out today?
>> Well, absolutely. And again, we talk about partnerships and the mutual aid system here in Southern California being so vital to us and to our other partner agencies. So having the ability to have multiple helicopters on scene quickly for our partners at LA County or LA city um is so incredibly important. We also have air attack so uh fixedwing tankers that are uh coordinated dropping uh retardant on this fire and and continue to be on order. So it is a it is a dynamic fire, a dynamic situation. Um but we rely on our partnerships. We rely on the expertise and the training of our firefighters and we rely on our community to to follow our evacuation orders and to be prepared for wildfire.
>> Absolutely. What do you say to residents? Of course, this happened around 10:00. Most people would have already left for work as we see the ones who are home seem to be trying to defend their property from the flames which are just feet away. What are you saying to people who who are watching this and learning that their property is very close to this evacuation order or to the flames?
Well, I would what I would say is that your Ventura County firefighters and our partner agencies, we are working aggressively as you can see on camera the the efforts that our firefighters are taking to assist with evacuations to pro provide structure defense. Um, our firefighters and and are incredibly well trained, are incredibly talented. Um, and they're just a great group of men and women who are dedicated professionals and and we I I know that they are doing everything they possibly can right now to help protect our community.
>> Absolutely. Well, I do appreciate you joining us in real time. I know you said you're headed there. Please update us with any numbers. Um, I know this is very active and we're still learning how many structures have been impacted, but if you have any updates, Andrew Dow with the Ventur County Fire Department, please join us again for an update.
>> Absolutely. Thank you so much for your time. We appreciate you. Thank you. Um, as we just learned from Andrew there with the Ventura County Fire Department, more than 180 acres have burned. This is still a very active fire scene in the Seami Valley. So, as he said, he's still heading there to assess exactly what has happened, but of course, the focus right now is on protecting property and life.
He, as we saw in real time on TV, uh, saw one structure burn, and as far as he's concerned, he's not sure that any other structures have been impacted yet.
But he did say, Mark, that there are 150 firefighters on the scene. We've been seeing the firefighters. We didn't have an official count until now. And of course, several helicopters that are fighting this fire.
>> Yeah, that's exactly right. And I actually have some good news. We got even more firepower ahead of there. In terms of water dropping resources, there are now two Grumman S2 fixedwing turbo tracker FOS check dropping planes that are dropping 1,200 gallons of FOS check each time. They're flying out of Fox field in the Analopee Valley. They just arrived on station. And I saw a line of fox check fox check on the ground and thought who's doing that because we're just getting water from the wood ranch reservoir. That's what the firefighting helicopters have been doing. It looks like it's these fixedwing aircraft.
They're flying all the way to Foxfield and coming back with that load of FOST check. FOST is those big purple uh the big purple lines you see on the ground.
They're exceptionally good at stopping fire in its tracks and containing this fire. So, this aerial firefight does continue here as uh we just heard on the phone that there's three agencies all in unified command, these partner agencies and certainly a very powerful ground game by the Ventura County Fire Department in those streets like a trickling uh Brook Court and also uh Peter Place. Those uh are where we are seeing firefighters there telling uh residents to get out. People live there to get out and they're doing structure protection on these homes. They want to keep this fire in check right on those fire lines and uh they're going to fight this fire on the southern end where you're seeing here on the right side of your screen video from just a short time earlier. These really big flame lengths burning into the vegetation to the south side of Seami Valley. Lots to burn there but thankfully no structures but right now their focus is keeping these homes protected right on the southern end of Seami Valley where unfortunately it looks like we did lose one or two structures there on Trickling Brook. But firefighters are hopeful they can save the other homes there that are right in the mar in the line of this fire.
>> Absolutely, Mark. And we are going to continue to watch this as we approach noon. We're going to bring in our Amy Johnson who is joining us now with this large firefight in southern Seami Valley, which Amy, it's burned about 180 acres now. I know you've been following along with us. We just spoke with Andrew Dow with Ventur County Fire Department.
He says he's headed to the scene to see exactly what damage we have so far.
>> Absolutely. that for those that are just joining us with this breaking news, it is called the Sandy Fire because it did start on uh Sandy Avenue, Sandy Court.
There's been some conflict there with whether it's an avenue or a court, but it did start in that little community and we saw it quickly quickly spread. It started around uh 10:30 this morning and those evacuations started within about 10 minutes because crews quickly saw how fast this fire was moving and a lot of people didn't think it was that uh windy at the time, but uh the winds we certainly could see with this smoke going. Uh I spoke to my son, you know, I live in the area and uh I know that he was in Thousand Oaks and said that he could really smell the smoke already in Thousand Oaks. So, this is certainly a community that uh knows all too well unfortunately about fires and uh this one, you know, now when we hear about them, it really piques everyone's interest to make sure, but we do know that this is a big firefight that there are a lot of uh boots on the ground and also a big airfight happening. Again, I did uh hear Mark mentioning the Shinook uh the largest firefighting uh aircraft that we have dropping some 3,000 gallons of water. Yeah, that's exactly right.
Lots of resources here. Uh, three agencies all working together. We got LA County and LA City, Ventur County Firehawks. They can drop more than a thousand gallons of water. They're all filling up at a place called the Wood Ranch Reservoir. It's about 4 miles away. It's a big reservoir, 230 acres of water over there. So, no water shortage.
So, they're making quick trips back and forth. But, there are mandatory evacuations right now in effect for a large part of Seami Valley. And those are very important for people to pay attention to because firefighters do not want to have to divert resources to rescuing someone possibly having smoke or burn injuries. So I want to show you, if you can come out to my screen, where this fire is burning and where these evacuation zones are. This is very important information. We are also getting information on this map that I want to show you of the fire footprint, which is incredible how fast that we were able to get this information. Okay, so this is the Seami Valley area right here. I'm going to highlight it. This is it. I've changed the color of my pen to yellow since there's so much red on the screen. And you can see this red zone here is the evacuation order and it mostly is important for this area of Seami Valley right here. There's really not too many people that live down here in this area, but all of these neighborhoods are under an evacuation order and this is an evacuation warning on the western end of Seami Valley. Now, as I zoom in, we can already see with this great information from these fixedwing aircraft, intelligence aircrafts, you can see the fire footprint, 180 acres right here. Now, it started earlier about an hour and a half ago, right at the end of Sandy Avenue, which is right around here, and is burned in this direction. Now, the firefight is mostly intense right in this area. What we're looking at here with those water drops all taking place right here. That's Peter Place. When I zoom in, you're going to see this is the home that is in question. There's that defensible space that's right there.
These are the homes that are in question. The fire line has now burned up right here. And we've got water drops that are coming, hitting it here, here, and here. All of these spots are where firefighters are focusing. Now, unfortunately, on the southern flank of this fire, right down here, this is Trickling Brook Court. We saw right here. And unfortunately, these homes look like they are a loss, but there are still some structure protection threats down on this side as this fire continues to burn. Now, the greatest fire activity that we've seen is going in this direction. Now, this is all wilderness down here, so there's not too much to burn except for vegetation, no homes.
But as the fire continues to swing around, they're going to start being concerned about this area over here. So, we have seen firefighters on the ground here, here, and all through here as they try to keep this ground game in effect, protect those structures in that area while doing the water drops over here.
>> It's interesting that that defensible space does seem to be saving those homes because those flames were only a few feet uh away from some homes and it seems to be steadying there. It's also just very sad to see those people in the yard with their host pipe, their desperation of trying to save their property um after of course everything we've seen. Well, we do want to get to our Luzellia Cabayro. Let's see where she is, how close she was able to get to the fire and what she's seeing. Lelia, where are you?
>> We are currently on Rambling Road and we are trying to not get in the way here.
We've seen so many people evacuating their pets, their horses, a lot of trailers up here. uh many people trying to come with trailers unsure if it's to help assist in evacuating some of these horses or it is their own uh horses that they are trying to evacuate. But certainly people are moving swiftly and calmly although I mean just to to to paint the picture it seems like it's sunset here and we are at you know it's it's it's noon so the smoke is heavy.
It's thick. Uh there's almost like an orange glow where we're we are going and you can definitely smell the smoke. It's getting thicker and thicker as we were moving up the hill when we were coming from the freeway vantage point. I mean the plume looked huge but it looked white. Uh moving closer we see a significant amount of hot spots, more engines coming forward and of course we see the endless drops of of water. So at this point it's all hands on deck for people trying to evacuate their animals and certainly we are talking about horses that are getting spooked not only by cars but also by uh sirens and uh so it is a point of contention for these people who are trying to get the horses into the trailers. So, at this point, it seems like people certainly are uh on the ready and the go trying to just leave an area that it is of utmost danger at this point. And of course, as we look to the hillside, it is very hard to see these trees, certainly thick smoke and an orange flow that is blanketing this area. So, the the mood here is not only to get ready, but go go go. And we've seen uh you know patrol units closing down streets for entryway and they're just trying to get anyone and everyone close to doing a great job of doing that. It it isn't chaotic here just yet and we hope it stays that way. Has been effective on the ground.
>> And uh LEA looks like we're having a little trouble with your signal there but you know this is a tight-knit community. uh those that are involved in the you know horse ownership they are very tight and because this fire did start while a lot of people were already off to work neighbors know each other and they they are very connected and they do help each other out oftent times when I've been out there covering fires you know it's neighbors it's friends that go and help move these horses they bring in trailers they help everyone out they are very resourceful and uh really very helpful uh in getting all of the animals out there very aware of who has horses and large animals that need to be moved. And it really is nice to see the community coming together when times like this happen. And you know, Lucelli, I don't know if we've got her again, but she was talking about how the weather was changing and fires do certainly impact the weather. It will turn the blue skies very dark and often it will even create more wind. So, we certainly do see that. I don't know if we have lose Deia now or maybe we should.
>> Yeah, it's pretty windy. Can you guys hear me?
>> Yes.
>> Yeah, we have flags going on flag poles.
It's definitely really windy.
>> Certainly posing a challenge for firefighters, but also just people trying to get out with the visibility starting to reduce more and more, especially as we climb closer to the foothills. And we are going to park it right here. I mean, we're seeing a house that's completely destroyed here. um going to try to talk to some neighbors and as we get closer to the foothills, you know, before we were saying that people were just trying to get out and it didn't seem like there was a sense of panic. Now we start seeing more of that panic. And as you mentioned, it is certainly a tight-knit community and people are trying to help one another, just trying to get out and take whatever it is they can, right? The essentials, maybe some photographs, essential paperwork, food for pets, medications, and then, you know, just just going. And of course, when we talk about a community that has a lot of horses here, we do see a significant amount of trucks hauling these trailers to get the horses in and of course get them out and to safety.
>> Absolutely. And LE, we've seen how quickly this fire moves. That one structure that we did see destroyed or damaged was uh consumed in about 10 minutes from when we started watching it. So, this all happens very quickly.
It adds to that sense of urgency and desperation as people try to get themselves to safety. But we have been talking about those wind factors which Marina has been saying it could take another hour until we reach peak winds.
So we're talking 35 to 40 miles per hour winds. As Luzelia said, she can see the flags flying on the flag post there. And we did speak with Andrew Dow with Ventura County Fire Department who says this is a wind driven fire. So there are lots of concerns that it will continue to spread. It has burned 180 plus acres in the Seami Valley area right now and the evacuation orders of course are still in effect. There are at least 150 firefighters on the ground in this firefight and at least four to five choppers that have been dropping water, which Mark has been laying out for us how close they are to that reservoir, which I'm sure is helping in this firefight, Mark.
>> Yeah, that's exactly right. I'm actually looking at my screen here. It looks like we have uh uh new information. We may have a C130 from Sacramento that is now Yep. He's definitely headed down here.
That is one of the largest aircraft.
CalFire has, I want to say, eight or nine of them now in the uh actual fleet of aircraft that work exclusively to fight fires in California. This C130 uh took off from Sacramento a short time ago. Looks like he made a quick landing at Fox Field in the northern part of Lancaster and now is on his way south.
This is going to be by far the largest aircraft, largest fixedwing aircraft until we get to a DC10. Unclear if we're going to see those here today, but the C130 now heading southbound at about 240 mph with very likely a full load of FOSC check here that is going to start doing some drops uh on the southern end of this fire. This is in addition to the many there's now a a armada of uh aircraft here from both LA County Fire, LA city fire and Ventura County and Cal Fire all working in conjunction as Andrew Dow from Ventura County Fire mentioned in a strong unified command.
This type of unified command structure has been in Southern California for a long time, but it became even more uh powerful after the lessons learned of the Palisades and Eaton fires where they're sharing information a lot quicker. And of course, they're communicating uh about where these fire lines are with the crews on the ground and in the air. Now, what you're seeing here is SkyCow in the center flying over the center of Semi Valley looking south.
And right there, that's Peter Place, that street that we had seen so much activity on. Looks like the majority of the fire here has kind of died down.
There are still some small flame lengths there burning in that what they call light flashy fuel. It's tall grass and low scrub brush that burns very quickly, but the flame lengths don't get intensely high. You can see smoke drifting over this community. And unfortunately, as we had talked about, there were some people in these homes that did not evacuate. They chose to try and fight the fire with small garden hoses in their backyard. Again, not recommended by the fire department. They would much rather have you leave and leave that to the professionals. It looks like those homes are going to be okay. Now, the firefight transitioning over more towards the west. As you can see, that's an LA city fire helicopter.
That's fire five doing the work, picking up that water over in the Bard Lake or the Wood Ranch Reservoir. Uh, you know, 3.6 billion gallons of water there for them to pick up. So, there's no water shortage there. At least five or six firefighting helicopters and multiple fixed wing doing the water drops here.
Looks pretty good on this end, too. But, there's still a big fire that is burning to the south. But there's nothing but vegetation out there for it to burn. She been Amy.
>> Yeah, Mark. And we are getting some uh news about how this fire may have started.
>> Absolutely. We're hearing that there is a source saying that they hit a rock with a tractor on Rudolph Drive and that this is how this fire was started. This is according to police. So, I know we were saying earlier, Mark, it takes a while to figure out the the cause of the fire, but it seems these people called into the police department to report that this is how it all got started, which is very unfortunate because we see how quickly this fire spread starting around about 10:30 and now moving through the Seami Valley with very large evacuation orders.
>> Oh, this that that just uh you know, this has happened something like this happened before. In 2024, there was a fire in Orange County in Trico Canon called the airport fire. And that was unfortunately started accidentally by a work crew that was using a a loader and they were moving boulders and it started a spark. It sparked a fire. So, uh you know, you think that something as innocent as just moving rocks around wouldn't start a fire, but it can be very dangerous in dry conditions >> with a lot of machinery. Uh if you're near vegetation accidentally, you can start spark a fire like that. So, uh, you know, that could that's going to be something that certainly the ARCs investigators are going to look at here as a start. They'll do a very thorough investigation whenever there's a major incident like that. But, yeah, that is that has actually happened before and it happened recently in uh say September of 2024 for the airport fire.
>> And I know we had another one in Semi Valley that started when uh some metal on a car uh actually started another fire. And you know, when you're out there working, you've got this uh you know, piece of property and you've got to do work. This is a day when you're thinking, well, it's not going to be too hot. Uh, we weren't expecting it to be too windy. So, you've got to find the right day to do the work. And unfortunately, it took something very simple as that tracker hitting the rock to really spark this fire. And our meteorologist, Marina Jericho, is here also keeping a very close eye on the weather. And you know, Marina, it didn't seem too windy, but I do know that you all did issue an alert this morning about the wind.
>> That's right. A wind advisory was issued from 7:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. which was the height of our Santa Anas. Of course, when we make that switch to an offshore wind event, Santa Anas are very prevalent and so we knew what our target areas were going to be and that of course is in that bullseye from Seami Valley, Santa Clarita up into Lancaster and Palmdale. So that's where we knew would be uh the big trouble spot where we could see wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour. Right now we're actually seeing wind gusts in Seami Valley of 27.
That's 37 just about 20 minutes ago, now dropped to 27. So, it will fluctuate, but we will continue to see sustained winds potentially up to 40, peaking at about 1 or two before things after 300 p.m. today start to really settle down.
So, really now until 3:00 p.m. are going to be the target time frame for the next 3 hours when we could see those wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour. So right there in Seami Valley, like I said, just 20 minutes ago it was 37 miles per hour those gusts and now they're at 27. So that is good, but that will fluctuate and continue to bump up and down all the way until after 3 until we get 15 mph winds gusts and then we'll be looking at much better wind gusts by after 6:00 p.m. But right now sustained at about 15 to 20 and gusts that are anywhere from 25 to 35 miles hour. And here is another issue is that our relative humidity in this area is at 15%.
That is bone dry. That is so dry. And so that's not helping. So you have the low relative humidity. You have the very strong wind gusts at about 30 to 40 miles hour. And um that's going to be until 3 p.m. today. And just taking a look at the next 24 hours though, you can see it does get so much better tonight and then so much better for the rest of the week. Today is really going to be the toughest time when it comes to winds.
>> All right. And this is the time that matters right now. Marina, thank you for that update on the winds and this wind- driven fire. Do we do want to bring in Seami Valley uh PD Sergeant Rick Morton.
Rick, are you with us?
>> I am.
>> Thank you so much for being with us. We know this is a very active scene, a lot going on. Please tell us the latest right now. We're hearing possible that the cause of this fire was a rock that hit a tractor.
Uh yes, we received a call actually from the person driving the tractor at 10:17 this morning that uh they were driving their tractor and actually hit a rock in the 2600 block of Rudolph which sparked this brush fire.
>> A and as we were talking about with our assignment manager Mark Louu earlier, this is something we've seen before.
Uh unfortunately, yeah, when people are, you know, clearing large pieces of property, um oftentimes they may strike something that is not seen to the naked eye, which can then cause, uh whatever they're clearing to catch on fire.
>> And you know, uh Sergeant, we've been hearing a lot about the evacuations. It did look from our vantage point that people were really heeding the warnings and getting out of the area. Is that accurate?
Yeah, a lot of the residents are are being compliant and assisting us with uh allowing Ventura County Fire to come in and do their job. Um so, everyone has uh been willing to uh for the most part evacuate if they're being in an area that's being evacuated.
>> Yeah, we've been watching this on Skyal for um a little over an hour now. Can you tell us what you've seen or what you've heard from the area? From what we've seen, at least one property has been destroyed.
Yeah, the only information I have thus far is the one structure correct. Um, and as far as our um what our side of the house is doing is that we're just assisting fire with uh road closures, evacuations so that they can tend to this fire and get it out as quickly as possible.
>> And uh Sergeant, I know that we've had a lot of fires in Seami Valley and around the area, but I'm trying to remember the last time that burned in this particular area. Has it been a little while now?
Uh it has been a little I think uh someone stated earlier on your broadcast that we had the last one was up by the Ronald Reagan Library, but it has been uh quite some time since we've had one in this particular area.
>> Is this one particularly concerning to you as you hear about the wind conditions right now which seem to still have not peaked yet for the day?
>> Yeah, with the winds being as active they are they obviously it makes it much more difficult for the F County Fire Department to do their job. So, uh, unfortunately, uh, having a fire during when it's windy makes it much more difficult.
>> Yes. And we are watching as this smoke continues to just billow from the area.
And the and the good thing here is that it seems like it's going straight up and a little less wind right now. Are you anywhere outside that you can tell? Has the wind slowed down a little bit, Sergeant?
>> Um, I don't. The wind has slowed down a little bit. Not much. Um but yeah, we are uh fortunate that the fire is blowing in a southwest direction which eventually is going to get away from most of the structures and go to hillsides um so that there will be uh less risk of any other structures catching on fire.
>> Yeah. Which is what we know people want to see. Um what do you want to say to residents at this point? As we said, we've uh have a reporter near the area which says she sees people heeding the evacuation orders, getting themselves and their pets to safety. At the same time, we've also had some people we saw on camera um which to be fair, they seem to only be a few feet from the flames, but they were in their yard with hose pipes trying to join the firefight.
>> Yeah, we're just asking people to to stay out of the area. Uh don't go to the area if it's not necessary. Um please allow the Ventura County Fire Department to do what they're doing. And for any family members that have been displaced or if someone is evacuated, we are sending everyone to the uh east side of Seami Valley at the Rancho Santa Park where they can meet up with other family members that have may may have been displaced.
>> Yes. And it and it does appear that the roadways are pretty clear for people to make their way out. I'm hearing from some neighbors that have uh texted me that some are still there waiting in the area just in case. Uh but uh your advice to them, go now. at least make sure that you're packed up and ready to go.
>> Correct. Especially if you've been contacted by one of the officers um that that we we do hope that they would listen to those officers and and not wait till the very last minute, but um to do that in a reasonable amount of time.
>> Absolutely. I'm sure you've seen a lot of these. Are you you confident with what you're seeing? Do you feel confident at this point with the firefight you've been watching so far?
>> Well, I'm always confident in our in our Ventura County firefighter partners. Um they do a great job. So, um I know just with the wind conditions, they're they're battling a tough situation, but I have every uh bit of faith that uh they'll take to take care of what they need to take care of.
>> Absolutely. And those neighbors out there, you know, the folks at Seami Valley, they pitch in and help each other, especially when it comes to moving uh the horses and the other large animals. We know that a lot of people had already left home for, you know, they were off to work already when this fire broke out. And uh we know that in the past we've seen a lot of neighbors just really helping neighbors to get those animals out.
>> Yeah, the the fire is near an area we call the Bridal Path neighborhood which has a lot of horses. So you'll see that community anytime there's a a need to get together to help with those horses or get them evacuated. They often times come together and truly help each other out.
>> Yeah. Which is really beautiful to see.
What else can you tell us about this community for people who aren't in it daily? We've seen a lot of it seems like culde-sacs that kind of end and then go into an area with a lot of brush which is I think threatening some of the properties. That's one of the ones that we saw burn. Is there anything else about this community whether it's terrain-wise or lifestyle-wise that presents particular complications for this firefight?
No, >> I think the only the only additional complication is these properties tend to be much larger on the property side than most residential areas. So you do have a lot of brush and debris uh if not maintained properly that could cause issues for a fire. Um but otherwise it's you know it's just a normal residential neighborhood but it has the large horse properties with that large you know parcels >> and a lot of this firefight is happening from up above. Uh we do know that uh there's a lot of aircraft involved and I'm guessing that you've been hearing a lot of that aircraft overhead.
>> Well there there's quite a bit of aircraft. Several different agencies are assisting Ventura County Fire. So, it's nice to see them work together in unison. Uh, and yes, we are definitely seeing a lot of uh aircraft assisting with this fire.
>> Absolutely. Well, we are going to continue to watch it. Is there anything else you'd like to say to the public before we let you go for now?
>> No, we just appreciate everybody's cooperation and uh remind everyone to stay out of the area if you don't need to be there and uh we'll just let the Ventur County Fire uh Department continue to do what they're doing.
>> All right, Rick Morton with Semi Valley PD. Sergeant, thank you so much for joining us this morning.
>> Absolutely. Thank you for having me.
>> We certainly appreciate the insight that we're able to get from law enforcement and of course from the fire department as they continue to battle this fire. So much of that firefight is happening from above. We have those three different agencies all sending in aircraft and we were talking about the largest uh firefighting chopper, the Chinook that uh carries 3,000 gallons of water as well as some fixed wings and other choppers. we're watching right now as one of the spotter panes goes through.
Really aiding in this firefight because this is really a you know big uh terrain area. You can't really get in there with uh you know those trucks. They've got to fight this fire from the air as well.
And of course using those trucks closer to the homes. But we're watching this right now. Calire. It's always just amazing to see the precision uh that these teams use. And we're watching as that retardant is being dropped right now. And it always is a great sight for the people that uh live in the area when they see these drops happening because they, you know, it's almost like the calvary coming in, Shiva, where they know that uh, you know, they're stopping this fire from getting any closer to their homes.
>> Yeah, I think they're reassured that they see this this firefight. Mark, I'd like to bring you back in because we've now learned that it was in the 2600 block of Rudolph Drive that apparently this uh rock was hit by a tractor and this is what started the fire. Then we were talking about Sandy Court and where we saw on Trickling Brook that house burned down. Can you put in perspective for us the direction then that the fire is moving?
>> I am glad you said that. That is what I've been doing for about the last 10 minutes, putting all of this data together. There's lots of of good news here in terms of the aerial firefighting front. That C130 has now just two hours ago it was on the ground in Sacramento and that fire CalFire crew got into that C130 started the generators and made a beline directly down to Southern California landed at Foxfield picked up some FOSC check and now it is already here fighting the fire. It did a major drop on the eastern flank of the fire.
There is a little bit of fire activity over there. And I can also talk about where that um spokesperson for the CB Valley Police Department talked about how this all started on Rudolph Court.
That is not far from Sandy Avenue where the fire was initially reported. But sometimes exactly where the fire is initially reported may not be exactly where it started because when they reported, that's just where the 911 call started coming in. So come out to my screen and I'm going to show you on a new 3D map that has just been put together by CalFire. We're going to zoom in here. The red areas, of course, is the evacuation mandatory evacuation area for Seami Valley. There's an evacuation warning on the west. And what we're seeing here is when I zoom in and show you the 3D look at how this looks just like this. What we are seeing here, this bright red area, that's the satellite heat signature. So, this is where there is active heat blooms coming up from the fire. Now, of course, this area is not burning, but some of the wind is pushing some of the heat into that area. This orange area right here, this is the fire footprint as last reported by uh the aerial tactical reconnaissance aircraft from Cowire. Now, uh Sandy Fire was started right about there. That's the end of Sandy Avenue, but the 2600 block of Rudolph is right there. So, it does sort of match up to where the fire had been burning. And you can see this obviously is basically the start zone.
This is about the 2600 block of Rudolph.
This is where the 911 call started coming in also the fire. So you can see it burned in this direction. Now looking with Skycow, most of the firefighting that we have seen here have been in the areas uh near Trickling Brook, Peter Place. That's all down in these areas.
And there are firefighters on this line that are doing a lot of work to protect right there. Now the firefighting aerial drops from the C130 actually happened on this side. There is some fire movement in this direction. It's not as intense, but there are some really strong lines of FOS check that are going on on the eastern side of the fire. So, you can see this multifront fire as it continues to burn. Fire concern this way, fire concern this way. They want to stop it here and here. But there is also a major movement in that direction as well. The fire not as concerning because if I zoom out, you can see there's really not a lot here to burn. As I look to the south, if we keep going and zooming out here, you're going to get all the way down here. This is at least 2530 mi away to the Oak Park area. That that's probably several hours before they need to worry about that. So they're hoping to stop this fire as it continues right here in these fronts and Seami Valley.
And that's where the tactical fight is happening. Lots of water coming from these aircraft as if I going to switch over to the radar view here of the same thing. You can see all of the aircraft here. And as I had mentioned earlier, they're doing the drops picking up right there. That's a place called Wood Ranch Reservoir. About 230 acre man-made lake.
All of these aircraft going right over here to the fire zone doing their drops here and here and then coming back.
Those that are doing uh FOS check drops very likely. Let's see if I can find the C130 on here. It is this guy already right there on his way back out. You can see he is probably heading over maybe into Foxfield which is right about here.
That's where some other aircraft are landing. They have to go all the way up there and then come all the way back.
But you can see the this C130. Take a look at his flight path. Look at that.
Came all the way up from Sacramento came down to assist us with this firefight today right down there in less than two hours. Already working with Unified Command with these three agencies, local agencies, LA County, LA City, Ventura County, now the state agency, CalFire assisting to try and get this fire under control.
>> It really is amazing to see all of the aircraft that is out there right now, Mark. I mean, when we look at your screen and we see all of those planes, all the different aircraft, >> it's remarkable.
>> Yeah. We got these groupings here, you can see some of these are media airships, some of these are fixed wing, but these big ones that you see right here. This one, for instance, if I look uh this is a Cing uh S61. This one, I believe, uh flying. Let's see. Where did he come? He came from it looks like uh that's Camaro airport over there. That's a Ventura County fire chopper. Here's that really big twin engine Chinook came out of Vanise airport for LA County.
Then we've got these small ones. Here's from LA County. There's a Firehawk.
There's a Ventura County Blackhawk as well. It's just like a line. You can see how they're going in a line right here back and forth. Four miles one way then the other to get water on this fire that continues to burn right here in this area. And I'm afraid it might continue to go south as there's a lot of vegetation and no way to get hand crews there. There's these tiny fire roads and with this wind and the way the fire is burning, I don't think firefighters are going to want to get up on those fire roads. They're going to make this fully an aerial attack on the south.
>> Yeah, and they are definitely doing that. Marky, thank you so much for breaking that down. This is a wind driven fire, so we do want to bring in meteorologist Alex Bon to talk about the winds. U Marina was saying earlier, Alex, that they could peak around 1:00, so we still really haven't seen the worst of them. How are they looking now?
>> Yes, so we've got kind of the good news and the bad news. we do have an end in sight as far as the wind is concerned, but over the next few hours, that's when we're looking at uh some of these stronger winds to kind of filter through this area. So, uh you know, wind has been an issue this weekend. We've had, you know, wind advisories, high wind warnings. We even had a red flag warning. That's no longer the case, but we are still dealing with elevated to near critical fire weather conditions because it's not just about the wind, but it's also very dry. When we start to see the relative humidity values in the teens and single digits right now about 15% in Seami Valley and we've got those gusty winds, it's just a recipe for fire growth and that is what we are seeing right now. So currently we're looking at wind gusts between 20 to 30 35 miles hour sustained winds about 15 to 20 miles hour. what's been happening. So this weekend we had that push of onshore flow. So more of the seab breeze and now our winds have shifted to an offshore pattern and then again this really helps dry everything out. The temperatures start to rise and that is also what we tend to see. Again it's a Santano wind pattern when we see those winds coming out of the northeast. So and that's a big uh driver of fire weather conditions. We talk about it all the time here in Southern California. So, uh, we are under a wind advisory across these Santa Susanna mountains. I'm going to actually just go back and show you where this wind advisory is. So, uh, it's through Santa Clarita, of course, in our mountain communities, but right where this fire is burning in Seami Valley, and it again across the Santa Susanna Mountains, this is where we've got that wind advisory, and that's with us until 3:00. So, we will see the winds start to relax somewhat as we go kind of into this evening and as the sun sets.
Uh but when we see these uh offshore wind events, we tend to see them peak in the later morning and the early uh afternoon hours. And we're right in that time period. So what I want to show you now is the wind speed and the direction over the next about 24 hours the next day. You can see through about 1 2 3 4:00 winds will still be quite strong between 15 20 to even 30 miles hour. And then as we go into this evening, later tonight, winds will relax. But it's really concerning when we see those stronger winds and we have those critical fire weather conditions because like we see right now, you you know, you got one spark and then it drives something like this. So, of course, we will continue to, you know, monitor the winds as we move through the next few hours. But really, I hope this is a good breakdown just to show you kind of what's going to be happening as we head through the next few hours. The good news is again winds will relax as we head into uh later this afternoon and early this evening.
>> Yeah, Alex, uh looking at that chart there, I wish we could fast forward to when the winds drop more, but of course right now we're still seeing some high winds. So, thank you for understand helping us understand how the winds are impacting the fire right now.
>> Yeah, thank you, Alex. We're going to check back in with you in just a little bit, but our Lustellia Caboto is out there on the scene. We spoke to you a little earlier, Lucellia, and we were talking about uh all the evacuations underway and the horses that were being moved. I heard from a friend that lives in that area over off Rambling who said that uh they saw some uh county vehicles coming in, some Ventura County vehicles coming in to help. And you're right there at that house that was destroyed.
Yeah, you know, it has been a roller coaster of emotions from at the base of the foothills, seeing people coming together, trying to calm one another down to as we climb closer and closer to the hillside, we see this. This home is completely destroyed. We've talked to a couple of neighbors on this road here on Rambling and they tell us that uh this family has lived here for decades. So, it really is devastating to see how this fire has not only engulfed this home, but is inching closer to homes where neighbors tell us they too have lived here for several decades. You can see several cars a total loss. Firefighters here working on the ground. You can see here firsthand uh where they are just dowsing uh this property line as much as they can so that that fire does not continue spreading downward. They also tell us that these winds are posing quite a bit of a challenge for them as they continue to try to stop these flames from spreading. Understandably so. I mean, even driving up the hillside, we could not only hear the wind, but visible signs, you know, trees swaying, leaves swaying, flags blowing in the wind. So, again, right now, neighbors are just really coming together. They tell us it is an equestrian neighborhood. Many people have horses and so they have made several calls. A lot of people we have confirmed are coming who don't live on these streets but live down below or nearby and they are bringing in trailers to go ahead and get these horses out. At this time again people who live on the street say hey you know we've gotten some pretty close calls. We are no strangers to fire and fire danger in this area. though they say it has never gotten quite this close and it is just devastating to see these flames here on their street. Fire fighters are telling us that not only are they doing everything they can but they are urging people to heed these warnings because of this wind. They anticipate that it may only get worse and they can't really tell when the direction of these flames are going to go and that's the danger here. They want people to understand that while they may seem like they are not in danger's way now, they very well could be within a matter of minutes. And we've seen how explosive this fire has gotten within even the first hour. Uh time will only tell how much it will grow. But the firefight up in the air is strong, too. We've seen several shinooks dropping uh lots of water trying to make these flames try to have some sort of a path where they can be controlled.
But again, the wind is proving to be the biggest challenge right now at this hour. And people continue coming as they hear the news of the fire approaching their neighborhoods just trying to get important paperwork. We've we talked to a gentleman who said, "Hey, you know what? I am ready to go. Ron over here.
If uh once uh Suzanne pans over two or three houses down, you'll be able to see him. But he tells us, "Hey, you know what? I am ready to go in a moment's notice. But I do not want to risk losing my home." So, he's actually going to hold out and not leave until he feels his home is secure. And you can see him over there with his hose. He's dowsing his plants, dowsing his roof. He said he turned off a couple of hot spots in his backyard. And you know, you see neighbors there supporting him and trying to help him out in any way they can. And this seems to be the theme here of this community here. One person helping another any way they can, whether that's bringing some water, helping him with the hose, or even removing animals. And in this case, we've seen so many horses being loaded on trailers and neighbors helping neighbors. That's what this is all about, especially in this uh time of emergency. So, as of now, we are going to try to talk to other neighbors and see if we can also help as well, uh, to see if we can make some calls to to get some people with trailers in to help remove horses. But, as you can see, firefighters are doing the very best that they can given the circumstances.
And I don't know if if if you're able to tell the reduced visibility, but from the hillsides coming our way, definitely lots of smoke and reduced visibility. uh coming our way and certainly it will likely only get worse the lower you get as those winds bring in all of that smoke. So uh check in with us in a little bit as we work to get you the very latest on evacuation orders and how people are feeling in these neighborhoods and of course we will try to help out in any way we can as well.
Going to go ahead and send things back to you.
>> Yeah, Lost Deli, it's interesting watching the winds just behind you whipping that tree. You had also shown us uh the flag on that fire truck earlier, but we're taking a wider view now of this fire which has been spreading since about 10:30 this morning and I think our Marklue has some new video.
>> Uh yeah, trying to get that video turned around for you, but it looks like Skycow was able to actually find the ignition point. It is right between uh what is essentially Rudolph Drive, which was 2600 block of Rudolph, where that police spokesperson said someone had drive was driving a tractor may have ignited uh the fire by moving some boulders causing a spark. And then also Sandy Avenue. It just appears to be right behind a home on Sandy Avenue with Sky Cowboy. were able to see uh some of uh that there was red uh tape, crime tape around an area, which is normal for an arson investigation to highlight a specific area and then a larger area of yellow crime tape. Now, what we're looking at here, Skycow, this uh is the western end of the fire. I see the Montgomery Fire Road right there that you see in Casual Court. That's on the southwestern end of this fire. And uh it's still burning pretty intensely now as it continues to move in sort of the southwesterly direction. We can see a lot of dark colored smoke here. And again, these are fire roads in this area. Not a great place for hand crews to be. So this is going to be an aerial assault right now.
And we can see that continuing with all of these aircraft that are going over into the Wood Ranch Reservoir and then heading back. I count 1 2 3 4 5 six uh aerial fighting aircraft. The fixed wings currently are at their airports right now. They're either getting some more fuel. They're very likely getting more FOSC check in order to come back down. I think they're going to Foxfield and Lancaster. So that's about a 20 minute round trip to get these aircrafts. They go about 200 250 mph to head back down into this area here. But you're seeing like a much larger picture. Now this on the right side of your screen is what I was looking for.
That was the investigator there kneeling down next to Sandy Avenue. And you can see a hand crew now going through this area to try and make sure that these fire lines on the eastern end of the fire where this fire essentially started. It burned in a westerly direction. So the east end is the old part of the fire. These hand crews are heading in that area. But right here, this very likely is the ignition point.
If you look closely, you can see what looks like some red crime tape down there. And this is halfway between Sandy Avenue and the 2600 block of Rudolph.
Right there, you can see that red tape.
and a ladder it looks like against the cinder block wall and an investigator leaning down. This is at sort of the start point of the fire that we saw. It burned in a southerntherly direction from there. So, investigators are going to be looking in that area. The fire really not in this area anymore. Live pictures you can see on the left hand side of your screen. This very likely is a school in the area. I'm trying to get a good look as to what school that could possibly be. I believe that might be Hillside Middle School. I'm going to try and get a look here and see and match it up to uh where Yes, that is that's Hillside Middle School. Uh very likely in within the evacuation zone. That's definitely within the evacuation zone and uh near the ignition point of this fire. So, there are certainly parents there picking up those middle schoolers.
And this this is uh Skycal is on the south end looking to the north. So, this is all the southern flank here. And you can see the smoke how it continues to burn in a westerly direction. That's where firefighters are concerned.
They're on the western end of the fire cuz that's where the fire is being pushed. Now here, just a lot of vegetation on this flank of the fire.
And you can see that very tiny fire road up there. Certainly not a place anyone wants to be. And it's already jumped that small fire road. But really no structures on this flank of the fire.
There are structures on the western end, but they're all obscured by smoke right now. That's why Skycow really can't see it. But we're going to probably see some FOS check lines here because they don't want this fire to continue on the southern flank. It's got a long way to go before it gets to Agura Hills, but they would like to stop it now before the sun goes down.
>> Yes, definitely. And we do know that fires, they race up hillsides. It's just the way science works there with those fires uh racing up the hillside. But I want to piggy back again, Mark, on what you were talking about about the uh starting point of this fire. And we do want to mention for people that are just joining us that someone reached out to police saying that they were working in the area on a tractor and hit a rock that accidentally started the fire. And so that red tape that was around that area was based on what this person has said. This is uh you know very rare that we hear so quickly how a fire started.
But uh very good that someone did come forward and uh you know certainly told authorities and I'm sure immediately called 911 to get you know crews out there as quickly as possible.
>> I know and owned up to that accident and unfortunately it just shows how the smallest thing can blow into something this large. Unfortunately it happened when there was a wind advisory for this area where we were watching winds in the 30 mph range at some point. They're still very close to there um at this point, which we spoke with Andrew Dow with the Ventura County Fire Department in the last hour. He says this is a wind- driven fire. That's what's pushed this fire to take over more than 180 acres in the Seami Valley area. There's more than 150 to 200 firefighters on the scene battling this. But as Mark Lou has pointed out, there's issues in this area with getting hand crews to the area. So, this is really an aerial fight. And they have several different kind of choppers.
one I think you even said they brought in from Sacramento, Mark, to fight this fire.
>> Well, yeah. I mean, that's a C130. This is a very, very large aircraft. I believe I'm trying to research my memory banks, but I believe they're former Coast Guard C130s that the Department of Defense uh during the Biden administration had sent them from the Coast Guard to Calire in order for us to use them. So, they have been repurposed to be permanent firefighting aircraft for the state of California. Certainly, they can depart California to fight other wildfires, but they're ours. and one of them flew down from Sacramento just about 2 hours ago to start doing these huge lines of FOS check on the eastern end of the fire that's going to absolutely contain that fire on the eastern end. And uh looking here with Skycal uh that's this is that school that was under an evacuation order. This is Hillside Junior High School. You can see right there there was a line of parents there that were there to pick up their kids. Now the good news is it looks like the fire has burned beyond here. So, I don't think that this school is really in any danger anymore. I mean, you never can tell until the fire is completely out. But the good news is this fire has moved to the southwest away from the school, which is also probably why firefighters are comfortable with parents coming. Now is a great time to get your student and get out of there. Look at the palm trees.
That's what firefighters are dealing with. Wind like that is so uh it's so detrimental to the firefighting efforts.
And I'm sure that not only does it blow the fire uh increasingly into more intense flames, it's uncomfortable for everybody down there. I mean, it's very, very dry. The firefighters have to deal with sand and embers burning the fire crews. It's a bumpy, bumpy ride up there. If you've got to not only deal with the wind from the Santa Anas, but these fire systems, these fires, they create their own updrafts.
>> It's extremely turbulent. Uh we've I've talked to the crew in Skycow. They've said it's a really bumpy ride and they're flying at 1,500 2,000 ft away from the fire. There are these brave men and women in these three fire departments, Ventura, LA city, and LA County that are basically diving at this fire with their aircraft. So, they're, you know, very professional. They're trained to do this, but they make these bullseye water drops. They're picking up that water from the Wood Ranch Reservoir about four miles away. Uh, but also they can do things like protect this school, which is actually probably going to be just fine, this hillside middle school here. And you can see these probably very relieved parents picking up their middle schoolers. It's going to be probably a half day for them today as this school is under the evacuation uh order and there's evacuation warnings on the west side of Seami Valley. Those could turn into orders which is why we always say if you are in an area that's an evacuation warning, get ready to leave now. When that zone turns red, you need to get out. Don't stay. Uh don't make it harder for firefighters. Be easy on the firefighters. get out before they need to tell you to get out because these are the flames that are are being dealt with now on the southern flank of the fire. Look at all that smoke heading over that community. I mean, if you live in that community, you got to know the smoke is basically blotting out the sun.
It's time to leave anyway. But there's an LA city fire helicopter way out of LA City coming to help uh you know, their their their partner agencies here uh to try and get this Sandy fire under control. Now, more than 180 acres.
>> Yeah. And we are showing here at the bottom of the screen that we've got 200 plus firefighters on the scene. I just heard from someone who lives in the area on Ramling Road who said that they saw a fire truck from Echo Park. So, they are coming in. We've had Ventura County, LA County, and LA City. And we're hearing about an Echo Park fire truck that is there in uh you know, in the firefight on Ramling Road and uh so many firefighters coming in to really try to knock this fire out as quickly as possible.
>> Absolutely. All hands on deck. Well, we do have a crew in Semi Valley, of course, who just spoke with some neighbors in the area. Take a listen.
>> Need to evacuate all of our belongings and our dogs. So, I just came home from work to grab everything.
>> I was watching this flame right here cuz it's wrapping around now, but the wind is blowing to the right. I'll probably stay another hour and just um take off.
>> As soon as we got here, the firefighters were already here doing their magic, doing what they do. Um fortunately for us here in the neighborhood here, the wind is going away. So that that's taken away some of the uh the craziness and the fear. Uh but it's still, you know, they're airdropping and uh still waiting to see. We haven't had to evacuate yet, but got the things together just in case. And we've dealt with a lot of brush fires out here, but this one is too close to home.
>> Absolutely. It is really good to hear people though monitoring things, prepared to leave, Amy. But we have heard some complications that this kicked off at around 10:30 this morning.
A lot of people had already gone to work, so you see them going back in, as we said, a big horse community to grab their horses, to grab their pets, um, and try to get out. You We've also seen several people pick up the hose and stay at their property, saying that they want to try to protect it themselves.
>> Yeah. So often people do try to fight the fire themselves and stay in the area, you know, thinking that they can help firefighters. Um, certainly not something that is advised, but something that we see each and every time we have a fire. uh people just staying behind and trying to do what they can to help in this firefight uh wherever it may be at the time. But we have been watching so many different crews. Uh most of this firefight being uh from the air here with so many different agencies and that C130 up there as well as the Shinook, the largest uh firefighting uh helicopter carrying some 3,000 gallons of water. And uh you know, fortunately there is a water source nearby. So, a lot of those helicopters are able to make it there and back quickly, but the larger like the C130 that's out there uh is uh making the track uh getting fuel, getting more water. But, uh certainly it is good to see these water drops happening. I mean, there just the calvary coming in and uh we're seeing more smoke, less flames at this time, which is certainly a good thing. Uh you know, to see that the fight is working.
>> Absolutely. And we've been watching this fight for for almost 2 hours now. Um it's interesting to see in that time how much it has spread. It's covered more than 180 acres now in this area. And you know, uh Mark, we were watching this at around 11:00 when we saw that one structure, the only one so far that's been confirmed to have been destroyed completely go up in flames. It only took about 10 minutes for that to burn down.
But it is interesting to watch how rapidly this flows and what direction the fire chooses to go next. Yeah, I've been watching this, gathering data here from the desk, listening to multiple uh scanner feeds and also radar. And there is some good news. I have some tactical data to show you on the map of where this fire is burning. And it looks like it is burning essentially in the right direction away from homes. If you come out to my screen, I'm going to show you the CalFire map. This is what we've been looking at all morning. Now, the red area here, this is the evacuation order zone. The yellow area, the evacuation warning zone on the western end of Seami Valley. Now, this is the initial footprint of the fire. It has grown a lot larger than this. This is the Sandy Fire. Started right about here where it says Ro Sandy. Now, the firefight was most intense right here in this corridor. And I'll zoom in a little bit and show you where firefighters are now a little bit more relieved that the fire activity has died down. There were hand crews here, here, here, and here. And unfortunately, they did lose that home right about there. That was on Trickling Brook. But the fire started over in this area, burned in this direction. They were a little concerned it was going to go down here. These were those phos check lines where that C130 was doing the work. But as I zoom out, I'm going to show you with Skycal essentially now the most of the fire activity. Let me see if I can get my uh get it zoomed in correctly here. Most of the fire activity we are now seeing in this area and it is burning down this way. So we are seeing fire activity that is sort of stopped. It's not really going this way anymore. Thank goodness there are some fire lines here. There's structure protection going on here and here in terms of I should say uh hand crews working in the area to evacuate people, but most of the bulk of the fire activity is now continuing in this direction. Now, if I zoom out, you're going to see here there's not a lot to burn out here. There's basically just vegetation all through here and lots and lots of time to get FOS check lines in place if they need to. So, the good news is they were afraid that this fire would continue to march in this direction. And it looks like they're getting a good handle on it there. It continues to kind of go here in this direction away from the evacuation zones here and here. Now, the only thing is there's really no way for firefighters to get into this area.
All of the hand crews are working here, here, here, and here for this flank, as it should be, cuz that's where the populated areas are. Down here, I have not yet heard if there are going to be any structure protection or hand crews in this area yet. It's still got a long way to burn before it gets there. And there are these um there are still water dropping helicopters coming into the Bard Reservoir, also called the Wood Ranch Reservoir. They're still doing water drops over here, but we may see them start to do this kind of action, too, to hit the southern flank. Make sure it doesn't go any further south.
>> Yeah, and we're watching uh from one of those monitors there, we can see that hose there getting into the little crevice there where you've got some flames, but uh you know, we often talk about how fires love to race up the hillside and that is uh down below those homes. So, it will be, you know, a little bit of a tougher fight as the flames just want to creep up that hillside.
>> Absolutely. We saw this earlier where the flames were about the same distance from a home. Uh, but there was that dirt road in between which really seemed to save those homes. We're not seeing the same structure here. It kind of just goes straight from the hillside up to the back of those homes which is of course concerning. And again, since we've been watching this firefight, we've really only seen one structure destroyed. That's the one that our LEA Cabaya was in front of and watching neighbors try to stop it from spreading to their home. But we have spoken with several law enforcement officials this morning. Um, Sergeant Rick Morton with Seami Valley PD says they're really focused on the road closures and the evacuation orders in that area and so far it seemed that most people in this area are familiar with the fires um and they know what to do when this happens.
So, he seemed to be pleased with that.
We spoke with Andrew Dow with Ventura County Fire Department. Um, and you know, he was talking about that defensible space, how important it is in a firefight like this, the differences that we can see there. But of course, his focus was on life and property.
>> That's right. And you know, as we watch this fire in Semi Valley, we are also following breaking news in San Diego where police are responding to an active shooter at the Islamic Center. You can see the large police presence. Uh no word on potential victims, but neighbors in the area are being advised to shelter in their homes and some schools in the area are currently on lockdown. Our Michelle Gileie is on the way to the scene and we'll keep you updated on this situation throughout the afternoon here on CBSLA and CBSLA.com.
Of course, uh you know, we're we're keeping an eye on all of the breaking news. Yeah, we're watching this Sandy fire which we've been watching since about 10:30 in Seami Valley and now this active shooter situation in San Diego.
As you mentioned, we do have crews um headed to both of these scenes which we'll get you updated on shortly. But this is is just amazing to watch how the fire grows so quickly. This is a wind driven fire and there is a wind advisory in the area. But you're right, we're not seeing as many flames as we saw Amy when we checked into this fire at the start of our 11:00 show. Really now we're seeing more smoke. Exactly. And you can see little patches here and there of the flames. And of course, we all unfortunately have seen what just a little patch of flames and that gets going and you've got this wind and all of a sudden a spark is flown. Some embers are flown and there it is right there. We're zooming in a little closer.
So, there is still plenty of active flame out there, but uh certainly not as much as we were seeing Sheba uh you know, an hour or so ago. So, that is the the bright side. But certainly, you know, these firefighters cannot let down their guard. They are certainly uh fighting this uh fire on the ground and from the air using all the resources and we do know that those resources are from Ventura County, LA County, LA city and uh you know that is the best part is that they are really working in tandem to try to knock this fire out.
>> Absolutely. And we've also seen them of course focus that firefight on where they can protect structures which for the most part they've been able to do so far. But again, this is a wind- driven fire, so we're continuing to monitor the wind and wind speed. Let's get back over to our meteorologist, Alex Biston. We had Lucellia Cabayro out there live earlier, and you can see the trees and the flags just whipping in the wind, Alex.
>> Yes, and you know what? We're talking about these, uh, gusty offshore winds.
Last night, uh, when we were here and of course this weekend, we were talking about the high fire danger for our inland valleys. And of course, this is what pops up today. So again, this is wind driven and I want to show you this graphic that we didn't show you previously. So this is a newer graphic.
This is the wind futurecast. I have zoomed it into Seami Valley. So right now we are looking at winds gusting between about 30 to 40 mph. In fact, the Santa Susanna Mountains right where Semi Valley is are under a wind advisory through 3:00 this afternoon. What I'm going to do is I'm going to scrub through this and you can see the time stamp. Uh it's going to continue to move as we go into around 2:30 3:00. So this is right when the wind advisory expires.
It's still going to be gusty in some spots with wind gust as strong as about 15 to 20 miles hour. But you'll notice as we go into about this evening, the winds will die down pretty significantly. So, here's about dinner time tonight, 7:00. We'll see winds about uh 10 m an hour and then winds will really continue to subside as we head into later tonight and into the overnight hours. So, here's a snapshot by about 8:45 9:00. And again, the winds will calm down significantly, but right now is when we're generally seeing this, you know, peak. And what's happened is we saw onshore winds this weekend that brought in the humidity, the marine layer, and now winds have shifted to an offshore pattern. And again, that is what is driving the drier conditions, the warmer temperatures, and of course, the wind too. And Seami Valley where this fire is burning. I mean, this is generally considered a wind hot spot. We see that from Santa Clarita filtering into Seami Valley and then all the way down to the Ventura County coastline.
So, we kind of zoom you in right now.
We're looking at wind gusts as strong as about 30 to 35 miles hour. But really, that's just enough to continue to drive this fire along. And it's not just the wind, but we talked about the relative humidity. When we start to see these values in the teens and even single digits, that's when we start to see, you know, these issues, these bone dry conditions, it's really these two things combined. And we throw in the heat, too, a little bit warmer. And that is what creates the erratic fire behavior. And what we typically see in Southern California, unfortunately, again, that wind advisory that's with with us until 3:00. And you can see just above Semi Valley, the Santa Susanna Mountains included in this wind advisory. So again, we're seeing, you know, the fire growth, but we do have an end in sight as far as the winds are concerned. Now, as we go through the next few days, it's still going to be relatively dry for our inland valleys. It's going to be on the warmer side, too, but we will have less wind, and that is good news. So, next 24 hours, Seami Valley again through around 4 5:00, we've got those winds anywhere from about 20 to 30 mph.
And then once we get into about dinner time, this evening, those winds will start to subside as we go into tomorrow morning. Again, we'll have another little push of offshore winds. Um hoping that they can get a handle on on this and what's going to be happening as we head through the next few hours. But for now, these are the conditions that mother nature has decided to bring us that we're working with. Uh unfortunately, we're no stranger to to these conditions here in Southern California, the Santa Ana winds. Uh we tend to see this activity when we do have uh the low relative humidity, the dry conditions, and of course those stronger winds. So Sheibba and Amy will continue to kind of kind of monitor uh the current conditions, the wind, the humidity, the temperatures, of course, uh fire weather, something that we know a lot about here, unfortunately, in Southern California. So again, we'll continue to monitor the latest as it comes in.
>> All right, Alex, thank you. And we were just showing our viewers there on the left side of the screen where we believe this fire originated. We do know that in talking to Seami Valley police, someone did call in saying that around 10:30 this morning, they were working out there with a tractor, that tractor hit a rock and sparked this fire that has now grown into 184 plus acres. It is now known as the Sandy Fire because it did mostly uh begin there uh on Sandy, but that person was working on the tractor off Rudolph Drive, which is just adjacent there to Sandy. So, we are watching as uh we still see so uh many patches of flames there. So much smoke billowing from this fire. This is one of those fires because of the area. While they do have plenty on the ground, we are seeing a large part of this firefight happening from above. Uh Mark, you've been talking about the different aircraft out there.
We've got fixed wings, helicopters, and in fact, the Chinook, that is the largest firefighting chopper there is.
>> Yeah, and I was just looking on the radar. Uh that guy, he's out of fuel. I mean, he has been here. He burned an entire tank of fuel fighting this fire.
Uh that Koulson Aviation uh CH47 Shnook on its way back to Vanise Airport. It's going to get some gas and it will be right back. But there are still at least five or six other firefighting aircraft here from three different agencies. I should say helicopters from several different agencies. LA County Fire, LA City Fire, and Ventur County Fire. And then we got Calire with the fixed wings.
That C130 is currently filling up those giant fuel tanks uh in Fox Field.
There's that Chinook I was you were just talking about, Amy. 3,000 gallons per drop. Bullseye drops, by the way, by this very, very experienced crew. They were able to extinguish these smaller fire lines with one drop at a time. And then these are the uh Sorski Firehawks.
They're Blackhawk helicopters repurposed to do firefighting. They carry more than 1,000 gallons of water as well. They're all going over to pick up this water at a place called the Wood Ranch Reservoir about 4 miles to the east. It's full of water. It's about 231 acres of water right there. This is that video you can see. And again, these aerial assaults are really helping to control this fire as it approaches these neighborhoods.
And the good news is is as we've seen with Skycal, a lot of these neighborhoods, the fire flame links have died way down. There's a lot of charred and black and earth down there. But the firefighters, they are in these culde-sacs that go into these foothills right there in the southern end of Seami Valley. They're doing structure protection. We unfortunately did lose one or two structures. Not sure if that's two homes or two uh buildings on one piece of property, but they look like they're a total loss. But no other reports of structures being damaged yet because of this very aggressive aerial attack in these 30 to 40 mph Santa Ana winds. As Alex was mentioning, a real bumpy ride for those uh air crews and of course real windy on the ground for these Ventura County hand crews, including three strike teams from LA City Fire. You had mentioned someone had spotted an Echo Park fire truck from LA city fire uh down there in the Seami Valley area. That's what these allied agencies do. They cooperate when there's major emergencies like this. 56 at least 56 LA city firefighters are on station.
We haven't gotten word yet from LA County Fire, but we know they have aerial assets here assisting. As a matter of fact, that might be one of them right there. I can't tell if that's yellow and white. It's LA County Fire.
Blue and yellow is Ventura County Fire, but what you're seeing here on the right side of your screen, these are flames from a little bit earlier while they were approaching homes. On the left hand side of your screen screen, Skycal now, let me get a look and see. Skycal is on the southeast side of the fire looking to the west. And this is that southern flank as I had mentioned on the map before it's burning southerntherly. Uh but there are see that right there that's foss lines. That's from the fixedwing aircraft like those S2 Grumman Sky uh uh turbo uh planes that have been uh dropping FOST check and of course the big guy the C130 down from Sacramento assisting in this firefight as well.
Amy, >> yeah, dropping that FOS check so that that fire will not cross that line there. The that's where it will hopefully stop the fire and it looks like a lot of this fire has been put out. But they make sure that they really try to circle the fire so that they can keep it in this area so that it doesn't continue on and get any closer to any other homes. But it looks like they've really done a great job of uh dropping that retardant there. We have seen these flames racing up that hillside. Uh you know, we always talk about it racing up the hillside, going slower on the way down. Just the science of fire. And uh this is uh you know reaching that top of this actual hillside before it will then begin going down. But certainly a lot of brush in this area mark uh this area has not burned for quite some time. We've had a lot of fires in the Seami Valley Moore Park area. But in this particular area they have not seen a fire uh of really I'm trying to think the last one I remember in that area and it has been a while. Uh but we've really heard about so much cooperation from the people in the area. Uh the community with so many horses, neighbors really helping out neighbors to get to those horses. A lot of people were off to work when this fire started around 10:30 this morning.
So neighbors began helping each other and getting their horses and other large animals out of the area. We also heard about some county vehicles that had come in to also help get these horses out of the area. So neighbors really working together. It really is a tight-knit community with all of these horse owners. Uh unfortunately, they've seen fires before. They know how important it is to help each other, to get the animals out. But again, we continue to show you uh earlier video on the right side. This is that one uh structure that Mark was talking about that was destroyed in the fire. On the left side of your screen, that is the live look and you can still see uh that trail of flames there, Mark. So, you know, by no means is this fire out.
>> Yeah, you're exactly right, Amy. I mean, the the the fire, there are a lot of resources here, but the firefighters on the ground and in the air, they are working together in a unified command.
These firefighters, they've they train and practice for this. There is uh really a good radio communication protocol for the you know you've got firefighting helicopters from three different agencies all on the same frequency now communicating doing these drops in order and they're all operating very close to one another. Now, I cannot remember a single time in the last 20 years that we've had an incident where there have been any accidents with firefighting helicopters despite the fact that they are dropping water one after another and they're in very close proximity, obscured by smoke. So, these firefighters, they know what they're doing. Now, I'm going to I've got got some more tactical data I want to show you and uh I can bring up on my map and show you what's going on here with this firefight and where the fire lines are.
Give you a better idea of what you're looking at. If we can bring up my map, I'll show you. Okay, so here's the Seami Valley area. This is the live radar image. Uh here's Seami Valley here near the top of your screen. Now, the fire was burning here before. That's where it started. I'm going to zoom right in. The fire line. This is uh right here is Sandy Avenue and right about there was Rudolph Court. You know that they were talking that that police officer was talking about how uh there was a call from a someone running a tractor. This is the Rudolph Court area, but we believe the fire was right here. The tractor may have been operating right there in that area because we saw firefighters right here with red crime tape in that area and two investigators kneeling down and looking at a fire uh burned charred remains of of of vegetation out there. The fire then burned in this direction down here like this and we lost a home right about there. That's where Trickling Brook was and there was a lot of heavy structure protection going on in these areas here.
Now, the good news is the bulk of the fire is now out in this area. We don't have to worry about that. Firefighting helicopters are now focusing on this area of the fire. There's a flank that's burning here. So, they're concerned about all the homes right around here, but again, the fire is burning in a southerntherly direction and in this direction as well. So, we're seeing some firefighters in these neighborhoods as well. Now, let me take a look at some of the aerial assaults going on here. You can see these fire crews. They're just moving in this area. And this particular fire helicopter, you can see this jet ranger. This one's doing, I think, surveillance. This is not a water dropping helicopter. But this one is looking at the fire activity in this area. That is what we were seeing with Skycal. That area right there. And of course, these firefighting helicopters, they're picking up water from this, which is the Wood Ranch Reservoir, and coming right over here. It's about 4 miles away. Now, taking a look, I was keeping an eye up here.
Where is that C130? Still on the ground right there. He is still refueling. Oh, no. That's an S2. Where is the C130? I was looking for him. I don't see where he is. Uh somewhere around here, but uh he may be still on the ground, but you can see there's a whole lot of aircraft that are still flying around in this area. Mostly water dropping helicopters.
And that uh there's that S2 S61C King.
It looks like it went back to its home base, Camaro Airport. probably now with a full tank of fuel as they continue to fight this fire. But I think Amy, we're going to see this fire progress in a southerntherly direction because there's really no way to get hand crews in that area. There's just no roads. It's just dirt roads up there.
>> Exactly. And there are fewer homes, which is also the bright side. But this has certainly been one of those fires where they've really had to tackle this one from the air. And fortunately, they have so many resources available. Um, which is good. You know, I remember years ago when they would wait and they would, you know, start it with uh, you know, so many crews headed to a fire, then they would add more and add more.
And these days, uh, they just hit those fires as hard as they can, as quickly as they can. They don't wait. The goal really to knock out the fire as quickly as possible. And we are watching as they are really hitting this fire with so many different agencies, so many different resources. And, uh, it is working. They are slowing this down and unfortunately there is one home that has been destroyed but uh you know they were dealing with really high winds uh 30 to 40 mph winds and uh it's certainly dry out there. I think uh Alex said 15% humidity so uh certainly a tough fight that they've had. Now our crew in Seami Valley this morning spoke with some impacted neighbors in the area. Let's listen into what they had to say.
>> To evacuate all of our belongings and our dogs, so I just came home from work to grab everything.
>> I was watching this flame right here cuz it's wrapping around now, but the wind is blowing to the right. I'll probably stay another hour and just um take off.
>> As soon as we got here, the firefighters were already here doing their magic, doing what they do. Um fortunately for us here in the neighborhood here, the wind is going away. So that that's taken away some of the uh the craziness and the fear. Uh but it's still, you know, they're airdropping and uh still waiting to see. We haven't had to evacuate yet, but got the things together just in case. And we've dealt with a lot of brush fires out here, but this one is too close to home.
>> Well, these uh neighbors certainly have the right idea. You know, Mark, I hate to say that I have been evacuated a couple times over the last few years.
And you know, when you wait until that fire gets too close, you really do go in panic mode and it's almost impossible to think clearly about what you need to grab. So, you know, if you got time, you know, the fire is close, you want to grab what you can, then have it ready so you don't get in that uh, you know, panic mode. And you know, someone told me years ago, if you only have just seconds, grab the dirty lo the dirty clothes hamper because then you at least have some clothes that your family wears. Uh, grab that. Get out of the house. Of course. You know, you know, we often hear about people saying, "Oh, I just left with the clothes on my back."
At least if you grab that, you have some things that you can wear after grabbing those important documents. Of course.
Uh, you know, but you don't want to do it when you're panicked. You want to have some time to pack appropriately.
>> Yeah, that's exactly right. that anybody that lives in a hillside community needs to be aware of the two most important things and that's the defensible space and being ready to leave in an evacuation at a moment's notice. Now, I just want to talk real quickly about what we're seeing here with Skycal.
This, we believe, is the ignition point of the Sandy Fire. That is Sandy Avenue right there on the lefth hand side of your screen. And this area you can see is roped off. See that red uh crime tape? That is usually used to denote the ignition point or at least the suspected source of the fire. You can see there are rocks down there. We do know that spokesperson from Seami Valley PD said that the person using the tractor was dealing with rocks or boulders and that's what sparked this fire. There's also what looks like a ladder. I'm not sure if that's being used by investigators or not, but there's a ladder on the side of that cinder block wall. We don't see a tractor down there, but this very likely is where the ignition point or at least investigators believe the ignition point of the fire is. We saw some people down there, investigators taking photos and uh there's some gear down there as well.
And this also matches with chronologically where we saw the fire begin. It was right here in this area.
You can see this point where it converges in in this point. That is where the fire came and it spread right from there. There's phos check lines down there on that side of the fire. But look at all the damage that this fire did. Now Skycow sweeping over to where there was some destruction of some homes. That right there, I believe, was where there was a very intense firefight. That's called Peter Place. We saw people in the backyards of their homes, not evacuating, trying to fight the fire with garden hoses. Thankfully, all of those homes, they survived. And then over here, this is where Trickling Brook Court ends in a culde-sac. And unfortunately, we have the total destruction of two structures here on this property. We're not sure if those are two different homes or a home and another uh type of like an ADU or or a garage, but you can see the remains there, that brick chimney. Uh that's all that's left from this property, including what looks like a car that was destroyed. The home on the left side of your screen, firefighters from Ventura County Fire put water on that home for the better part of an hour trying to protect it. It looks like they were able to save that structure. does look like it's singing there uh on the side o of that property, but thankfully whoever lives there, they're going to be able to go home to that home again after doing some repairs. And then you can see this fire burned all the way around and it looks like it burned around some power lines you can see there. Not clear if that destroyed the power capacity on those power lines there, but yeah, Amy, you can see this is a total lost structure burned all the way down to the ground. Multiple cars back there. Looks like there might be some classic ones back there as well uh that did not survive this fire. Uh no reports of any injuries here. Uh that's good news.
Hopefully the person that lived in that home either got out, they weren't home at time. It is in the middle of the day.
If that person works, they're probably at their job. And you can see the FOS check lines here on the southern end being dropped by those fixedwing S2s.
And maybe that C130 that we saw did a drop down there as well. They're going to come back and do some more work after they fill up. But yeah, right there, that's the ignition point of the fire between Sandy and uh Rudolph Court, I believe, is right in the upper right hand portion of your screen. That's Rudolph Court. Uh that's where that's where the person who reported they they reported their location as being right there. It's halfway between Sandy and Rudolph.
>> Terrible accident. Unfortunately, that happened and sparked this fire. Now, Arlus Deia Cabto is there. She was in front of the home that uh was destroyed.
Uh I think we can go back to Lucia now.
Can you hear me?
>> Yeah, I can hear you. Can you hear me?
>> Yeah, we can hear you fine. I'm glad to see that you have something uh to cover your mouth. I know that smoke can get really tough when you're out there trying to talk to us and the uh wind is blowing that smoke right in your face.
Uh when we spoke to you last, I mean, things were really whipping up there. It looks like you've got a little bit of calm right now, but we know that's probably very temporary.
Yeah, we have a little bit of a break right now. I mean, we can see the sun, which is a plus. Before we could only see that orange glow, but still, you know, you have uh a sense of panic now here in the community as they realize exactly what is going on. And here, Suzanne, you can see I believe that's Ron there holding his dog. He told us that he was prepped and ready to go in case uh you know, the fire inch closer to his home. He is the same man that if you were sticking uh around with us uh maybe 20 30 minutes ago, you saw him watering his front lawn. He said he actually put out several hot spots in his home because his home happens to be right next door to the uh one that burned. So, he is a house away from the home that burned. And you can see this is a total loss. Several cars went up in flames. Obviously, the structure completely gone. And in talking to people here in this area, they say, "Hey, you know what? Thankfully, a lot of people on this block know each other." So, a mass text went out saying, "Hey, we see flames or we smell smoke.
Let's all investigate." So, one thing led to another. And it was kind of a remarkable chain reaction from what we were hearing is neighbor helping neighbor. Hey, what do you need? What can I do? What animals can I bring out?
And here is an example of a neighbor helping neighbor. So, we've seen this time and time again throughout the last several hours here in this neighborhood where people are just going from one house to the other, seeing what it is they can do to include bringing in trailers, taking out horses. This is an equestrian community and uh the neighbors we talked to say, "Hey, we double down. We know that we live in a place where people are going to help one another." We spoke to a lady that lives a couple of doors down who said that she doesn't have a horse trailer, but when she was texting her group text saying, "Hey, I need to get my horse house first and foremost before getting any of my things out of my home." A neighbor said, "Hey, I have a trailer for you." And helped her get her horse out. Right now, the biggest nightmare for many on this block is having their home reduced to nothing, which we see over here. The good news is the firefighters on the ground are doing everything they can.
They have hoses tapped into uh fire hydrants to continue dowsing areas where they believe have the potential to continue to raise some hot spots and cause trouble for the neighborhood. As of now, they tell us this fight is aerial mostly. Uh and the biggest challenge is the wind. I mean, being here for a handful of hours or several hours here, I can tell you firsthand that that wind might be calm one second, the next, totally unpredictable, totally different. And just to give you an idea of how that wind is going right now. If Suzanne comes and faces the home that is burning or even any other trees, you can see that those trees are moving a little bit. Those leaves are moving and that kind of fluctuates minute by minute and certainly hour by hour. But at this time, neighbors are checking in on one another. Most of them have evacuated, have heated those warnings. uh really telling us the main reason that they're doing so is because this is so unpredictable. A lot of them saying, "Hey, you know, we know we signed up to live in fire territory. So, we were mentally prepared, but they do admit to us that it is still fundamentally scary when they see flames inching closer to their homes." And then, you know, when you sign that paper saying, "Hey, you live in a fire zone." Now, this is a reality. So that has spooked a lot of people here and and a lot of them just grateful to have firefighters here doing the firefight and doing everything they can to help save their homes. And many here on this street particularly say, "Hey, you know what? We owe the structural integrity and the safety of our home uh that to the firefighters that are doing the firefight here and just keeping everything as controlled as possible. Uh so at this point again, firefighters are just urging people to heed those warnings. If you are in an evacuation area, make sure you make that distinction. Are you in an evacuation order area, evacuation warning area, and just be ready to go in a moment's notice. I'm going to go ahead and send things back to you as we work to learn more information on the status of this fire.
>> All right, Lelia, thank you so much. And joining us now by phone from the Ventura County Fire Department is Andy Vans Skyver, uh, public information officer.
Thank you so much for joining us. Can you hear me?
>> Yes, I can. How are you doing today?
>> I'm doing well. Let us know how this firefight is going for you all out there.
>> Well, we are in year round fire season and we're transitioning into uh peak fire season. And so we have a goodsized fire here burning south of Seami Valley.
Our estimate is currently at 500 acres and we continue to attack the fire both from the air and the ground.
>> You know, I have to uh put you a little bit on the spot here, Annie. We we understand that the fire started because someone was working with a tractor and that tractor may have hit a rock and then sparked this fire and and we don't know exactly what this person was doing, but I have to imagine that a lot of people in these rural areas are going to be using machinery to clear uh you know their property so that you know they are ready for what we typically think of fire season even though we know it's year round but you know they're trying to keep a nice defensible space and sometimes are using heavy equipment like this. What advice do you have to people so that they do not accidentally start a fire like this?
>> Yeah. So, our best recommendation is to do it when it's cool. Typically more in the morning where we have a little bit of higher humidity. Um, and if we feel any breeze at all, it's you should really reconsider uh doing the weed abatement or working with any type of heavy equipment um in the uh off the off the main roads and into the shrubs into the brush.
>> And this fire because of the terrain that it is mostly in uh has been a big uh air battle, but you still have plenty of boots on the ground and from so many different agencies that have come to help in the firefight.
Yes, we're currently estimating probably 200 to 250 because we haven't really coalesed all of the individuals. We know that there's about 150 200 firefighters from Ventura County here. There's also a group from LA County and LA city as we start pulling together. We really rely on our mutual aid partners when a large incident occurs. So, we have neighboring jurisdictions, helicopters, we have their bulldozers, we have their hand crews and their engine companies. and we really appreciate their support. Um, and we always provide support when people ask. So, this mutual aid in California is the best in the nation. We can just give a phone call and we get five engines or 10 engines, whatever we need in route right away.
>> And, you know, these are the days when now when a fire breaks out like this, you all hit that fire with all the resources that you can. There's no waiting around to see if you need someone. Everyone's called in right away. Correct.
That is correct. We now basically have technology on all of our engines that allows us to see where our mutual aid partners are in real time. So as a mutual aid partner arrives at our fire, they can tie in with operations, have an active map and see exactly where the fight is and where we need them to go.
And the helicopters have shared frequencies. Everything is laid out ahead of time so we know exactly what to do. And we know that there is uh you know 20 30 even up to 40 mph winds. Uh we're probably at the high point and things are going to start to uh diminish. But I know in Seami Valley a lot of times you kind of get what we call those sundowner winds whereas the sun starts to go down the winds start to pick up. Is this something that you all are concerned about?
>> Um well sort of. Our projections with the National Weather Service has the winds dying down in a little bit. Um sand downer winds just to point is more of a Santa Barbara County. It's a very different wind. Um right now we have an easterly push, not a red flag condition, but we have winds coming from the east.
We usually always have a reverse of the winds as the sun settles, but nothing like the what Santa Barbara experiences with their winds in the evening >> and as different >> Sorry, keep going. The sun s sun downers are a very specific wind to a very specific region and they do blow strong.
We just are going to experience most likely a change in direction of the wind from down canyon to up canyon as the sun sets and transitions through our night weather pattern >> and we are watching and you know in the last hour or so we have seen a lot less flames out there and more smoke but this firefight is far from over. Correct.
>> Uh yes with far from over. We have a variety of resources inbound. We're still monitoring the evacuations to ensure that everyone's life and property are protected and saved. We have numerous engines out there providing structured defense to the homes and the properties. And we are working, like I said, from the air and from the ground to ensure that we can suppress this fire as quickly and efficiently as possible.
>> And there have been no reports of any injuries that you've heard of, either from your firefighters or from civilians.
I am looking at our our our like our thread of information and I have not seen uh any injuries. That doesn't mean they haven't occurred or a civilian self transported but at this point in time I see no injuries reported >> which is the best news. Now, we did also see uh neighbors out there with their own water hoses, you know, trying to help in this firefight, and we so often say, you know, they shouldn't do that, but we it seems like we always see it happening during a firefight. Uh what's your advice to those people?
>> Um my advice to them is that is very cool that they want to do that, but at the end of the day, it's not very effective. Um because those people if they're in that area, they should be evacuating because when we are trying to get into those neighborhoods and people that did not evacuate in time are now calling 911 for assistance in evacuating, we have to take our firefighters that are defending structures and now focus on life safety because we're always going to prioritize life safety. And so if people don't properly evacuate and heed our evacuations, warnings, and orders, that puts us in a little bit of trouble. And a lot of times I I hear people say, "Oh, we're just going to shelter in place."
Uh, still your advice is that they they need to go if they can.
>> Correct. They need to go. If there is a medical emergency that they need to shelter in place, they need to tell us because I've seen on the thread that somebody needed oxygen, somebody needed a wheelchair, and we moved a fire engine and a crew over to address that and to help that person and that those individuals. So, uh, staying in shelter in place into a brush fire is probably going to in a bad incident going to respond another engine taking us away from defending structures to go to life safety mode.
>> Okay. And we were able to see that fos check uh doing that uh nice line on the southern end of the fire. Uh once we start seeing that uh a lot of people start to breathe a sigh of relief that that will keep the fire from jumping that line.
>> Exactly. The the you're exactly right that fire retardant or fos check is put down ahead of the fire to build a a barrier between burned and unburned and where the fire is is headed. And so that fos check just slows the fire down. It doesn't necessarily put it out, but it slows it down. hopefully gives our our hand crews, our bulldozers and our engine companies and our helicopter pilots and the ability to go in and knock down the hot spots. But yes, fuzz check on the ground is a good thing.
>> And we are seeing uh a lot of that aircraft getting water from uh that little uh I believe it's a man-made lake there. Uh that's certainly going to help this fight that the water is so close by.
>> That is correct. So, we're utilizing Bard Lake and that is very effective resource that we can put more than one helicopter into that water source and uh suck water out into the tank.
>> Well, you all are doing an amazing job and we certainly appreciate you taking time to speak with us today about the firefight that is underway right now and uh hopefully we'll be checking back in with you a little bit later. Thanks again uh Andy for your time.
>> Yep. Last last comment though is for the community to please monitor emergency.ount.gov.
That's where the most information will be available. And I just saw a little note come up on my screen. I'm going to give you an acreage update.
>> 720 >> 720 acres. Is that from Century Aircraft?
>> That's correct.
>> Okay. And that's from Century Aircraft.
That means we just flew an aircraft over the fire and they measured it at 720 acres. Still 0% containment.
>> Wow. 720. When we began talking to you, it was at 500. So, uh certainly getting a better uh look at this uh fire and now 720 acres with 0% containment, which uh you know, that's a big fire that you all are still dealing with.
>> Yep. And we have resources in route and we're doing what we do best. All right.
>> All right. Thank you so much again for your time. We do appreciate the update, the latest information. Awesome. Thank you so much. Be safe out there. Bye.
>> Thank you. You as well. All right. As we watch this fire in Seami Valley, we also have an update on that breaking news in San Diego where there's been a shooting at an Islamic center. Police just confirmed that one person has died, but they have not said if that person was a victim or the gunman. Officers say the scene is quote active but contained adding the threat quote has been neutralized. So you can see the large police presence right now. Uh the Islamic Center is the largest mosque in San Diego County. Governor Gavin Newsome's office says the governor has been briefed on the situation. Neighbors in the area are being advised to shelter in their homes and some schools are on lockdown. Arm Michelle Jely is on the way to the scene and she's going to keep us updated on the situation throughout this afternoon right here on CBSLA and CBSLa.com.
But we want to also stay much in tune here with this fire. It is called the Sandy Fire. It started burning around 10:30 this morning and we just got that update that it is now up to 720 acres with 0% containment. We did learn that someone that was operating a tractor called into the Seami Valley Police Department saying that their tractor hit a rock and that is what sparked the fire. Now, this was right over at Rudolph Drive and Sandy Avenue. We have seen red crime tape around this area as uh they mark and investigate where this fire did originate. Again, that is why the fire has been called the Sandy Fire because it was right there off Sandy Avenue and Rudolph Drive. Our Lelia Cababayto is back live with us now.
Ludelia, you have been right over by where the home was destroyed. Let's talk about the conditions there around you.
>> Well, you know, on and off we have a lot of smoke, thick, dark, uh difficult to breathe, and then things calm down a little bit. Right now, that wind is starting to pick up. So naturally, we have uh more debris flying, more ashes, uh more smoke coming our way. And the the home that you were talking about is just tucked into the corner of the culde-sac of this street. We're told by neighbors that the family who lived there has been here for decades and it is absolutely devastating to see that home gone. Neighbors that we have talked to have ranged from being packed and ready to go uh but still on standby, on high alert and hosing their homes down.
Uh one of the homes is the one you're seeing here where they have hosed down the roof, they've hosed down the lawn, and they are trying their best to prevent uh any embers or uh any hot spots from flaring into their yard.
We've also talked to people who have evacuated uh their pets to include horses. Uh community members coming together to bring in trailers to help those who don't have any uh so that those animals can be out of harm's way should the fire spread. We want to uh introduce you to one neighbor who tells us that he moved into this neighborhood about 4 years ago, knowing that this was a high fire risk area, but telling us that it pales in comparison to actually living it today. And he said that he was ready and and once he got the order to go, he grabbed his family, grabbed his pets, and headed on out of his neighborhood. Take a listen to what he had to say.
My wife just said that one of the neighbors contacted her on our neighborhood text string that we have and that there was a fire coming and to get out. A lot of people have been here, god, since the houses were built in ' 88 and um so they know this stuff better than us. We've been here 4 years. But, uh, yeah, I was getting ready to go out to to work and ended up getting the cats together and the dogs together and and, uh, getting my wife out first, but it never, you know, just a lot of smoke. We didn't really have, uh, as it turns out now, our house wasn't really in any, you know, kind of danger thing, but you never know. When we moved here four years ago, you know, we knew it was a fire area, so we put everything that we wanted in bins and and marked those ones that we wanted to take with us. So, I was able to throw those in my truck.
>> And so, that's the way they prepared when they moved in four years ago is basically being of the mindset, we know we are in a fire zone. Why not be ready today? Let's not wait until something happens. Let's act now so that when something happens, we can just go ahead up brood ourselves, grab the bins that we labeled and leave. And just to give you an idea of that wind, I mean, earlier when we started this hit, it was very windy. That wind is starting to pick up once again. I don't know if you can hear it, but you can probably certainly see those trees, the leaves, and behind us here, if Suzanne pans over here by this fire engine, you can see this flag over here going in the wind here. And this has been the theme of the last couple of hours where the wind kind of calms down, picks back up and redirects uh potentially its direction. And of course, it redirects the direction of where the flames are going uh and what the firefighters have to do to restrategize to try to dow those flames that are of course being fueled by that dry brush. So, at this time, we see very little neighbors on the street. Many have since left, but you do have a few of them who are taking it upon themselves to keep dowsing their homes, keep the sprinklers on to uh, you know, prevent their homes from catching fire.
And ultimately, they say, "Hey, if conditions become too dangerous, we will leave." But at this time, it seems like firefighters are just looking at hot spots that are isolated to the home that is a complete loss here at the end of the culdeac. and they are doing their best to contain the hotspots to this area. Uh and of course uh dowsing neighboring homes to ensure that that fire doesn't continue spreading to other homes. I think uh one message that I want to leave you guys with is we have seen uh just the resilience of this community of this neighborhood coming together in a time of need in in a time of emergency. We can really see how this community is showing up for one another.
We've witnessed it and at a time where you know people can you know really be overtaken by panic they are choosing to act and help one another and in doing so many horses are out to safety and of course firefighters risking their life to keep this community uh safe and keep these homes structurally sound. So, uh, big shout out to our firefighters and also to community members that we see coming up this street and just checking in on any neighbors that they see to see how they can help.
>> Going to go ahead and send things back to you because we got to get moving to give firefighters a way to >> Okay, thank you so much.
>> All right, Lucia, thank you for your update. And we do want to check back in with our Mark Lou on the desk. Oh, nope.
Are you telling me to someone else? All right, let's instead toss to our Joy Benedict who is also on the scene uh with uh another look at the fire perhaps from a different street. Joy, I'm not sure where you're at.
>> Yeah, that's right. We are here in Seami Valley. We're actually in front of fire station 44. Um this is where they have the makeshift uh I guess command center, so to speak. And I'm joined now by PIO Andrew Dodd. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you.
>> What can you tell me? Where are you guys in this firefight right now? an aggressive firefight happening right now. We have firefighters working from the ground and from the air in a coordinated effort to attack this fire.
This fire started around 10:00 this morning and immediately we recognized that with the weather conditions we had, this was had the potential to become a large fire. We put out the call for support from our partner agencies as as this fire continued to escalate. So, we have firefighters from around Southern California that are here and are continue to be in route. We're at about 500 acres. We have approximately 200 firefighters that are on scene and uh working to provide structure protection and structure defense as well as direct engagement on the fire line.
>> And unfortunately, we all saw the the video a couple of hours ago when we did see at least one structure burn. Do we have any idea how many structures have burned so far in this fire?
>> So, a great question. We are trying to work to confirm reports about the numbers and and extent of damage to structures. It's really important that we get that information right. I don't have it in total number uh that we have right now, but we are working to try to identify any homes that were damaged by this fire.
>> And I know we have four particular areas that are under mandatory evacuation and two more that are under warnings. What do you have to say to people who live in those communities? Should they still be concerned?
>> Anytime there's an evacuation order or people should heed that? What I would like to make sure that residents of this area know is how wellcoordinated this firefighting effort is. You can hear a helicopter going over above me right now. Just an example of the resources that we bring to bear. Throughout Southern California, we have firefighters that are incredibly well trained, incredibly professional, and we rely on them to make the decisions that make these firefights. So, um the response to these firefights, um we have men and women that are actively engaged in structure defense. We have aviation assets coordinated attack from the air and from the ground. So just it's been a tremendous firefighting effort by the men and women of our agency and our partner agencies here.
>> And just as like you know a layman, a viewer, a watcher, somebody who's watching at home or even seen out here, it does appear from the outside that the flames seem to have died down. But I know that can be false hope.
>> Well, as I say, we are constantly monitoring this situation, checking to see where we have opportunity to go in and attack the fire. We we look for those strategic opportunities to engage the fire where we can from the air from the ground. So, um while I don't have an up tothe-m minutee update about the exact condition of every bit of the fire line, I can tell you that we are working incredibly hard to bring this fire under control.
>> Is it is it fair to say you have more of a handle on it than you did maybe a couple of hours ago?
>> Well, we continue to bring in resources that we need to fight this fire without getting c without getting overly cautious. we like overly um uh confident. We want to make sure that we are aggressively fighting this fire. So, having so many resources so quickly is a really big part of what allows us to bring these fire uh fires under control.
I just had news provided to me that our updated acreage is at approximately 720.
So, we are continuing to see this fire grow, but we are working hard to keep it in its current containment lines.
>> How are we on your aerial attack? Have you gotten uh you mentioned a lot of help from other outside agencies? How many planes do you have up there right now?
>> I know that we have a number of fixed wing aircraft as well as a number of of helicopters. We have partnership agreements with say LA County, LA City, and we coordinate with South, so the regional ordering center. Every aircraft we request we made was met. We had aircraft from partner agencies on route to us within just literally a few minutes of this fire starting. So those partnerships, those pre-plans that we have, that's what allows agencies throughout Southern California to respond so quickly to these fires. And these helicopters make a huge difference. Yes, it's it's men and women on the ground and from the air that are fighting this fire, but having the ability to drop up to a,000 gallons of water per drop and a quick turnaround time from the lake nearby has been instrumental in knocking this fire down.
>> So what are the challenges? I mean, it's easy to see the wind, right? We can see the wind right now. I know that doesn't make it easy for to to contain the flames. What else are the challenges that we're seeing today as to how this exploded to 700 acres in what feels like a very quick time?
>> Oh, great question. So, fire is driven by three main things. The fuel, which is the brush and grass that burns, the topography, so as it runs up hills and and kind of creeps down hills, but mostly the weather. So having drier conditions, the weather that you've seen that helps push this fire, that's one of our biggest challenges is what the weather does to push this fire, what the winds do to push this fire so quickly.
Anytime we have a wind-driven fire, our firefighters are going to make aggressive efforts to protect life and property. And that's what we saw in the beginning of this fire. firefighters going in protecting homes, assisting with evacuations, at the same time coordinating efforts to bring additional resources in to help support this fire.
>> And we did see a lot of people with their own hoses, you know, as we do in these times, you know, spraying down their roofs, spraying down their fences, and we even saw a couple of men who went outside their back gate and started spraying down the grass, you know, behind it, maybe to get a little bit more defensible space. I I know that's not something that you recommend, but obviously people are are are trying to protect what's theirs. What advice do you have to homeowners?
>> Well, I can tell you that we don't just live work in this community, we live here, too. So, our firefighters live in and around Semi Valley. So, I can certainly identify and appreciate a homeowners and their desire to protect their property. We really value our relationship with our community and I think that's such an important part of wildfire resilience. So having a plan ahead of time, knowing when and where you're going to evacuate to, providing defensible space, all of those are so critical in wildfire resilience. And when people evacuate, it gives us the opportunity to get our firefighters in there and focus on providing structured defense rather than maybe having to go in and support evacuations at a later time if fire conditions change. So that's really why we encourage residents to evacuate whenever they can. But as somebody who lives here, owns home here, who have other members of our department that live here, it affects us personally. So, we really appreciate the desire to protect those properties.
>> And and one more question. I I know it's a little early to talk about cause, but we had a lot of neighbors talking about a backhoe or maybe some sort of work that was going on. Have you guys heard anything officially about what may have caused this? So, one of the things that we do with any fire, we dispatch investigators with our initial response so they can get to a fire quickly to get the information about where did it start, how did it start and and and gather that information. That process it takes time and so we don't have any information right now about that. Um, but I know that our investigators have been here since the start of this fire looking at that exact question.
>> All right. Is there anything else that you want us to know or anything you want our viewers to know who may be watching at home? just that the firefighters that are here are doing a tremendous job at protecting lives and protecting property. And for residents that are in the area and may be impacted by this, we encourage them to visit um emergency.vententuratcount.gov where they can find out updates about all of the evacuation notifications that are out there.
>> All right, thank you so much for joining us here. Um as we continue to cover this particular fire, Amy, as we heard, new information on um how far it spread, would you say 700 acres? 720 acres.
That's the latest update.
>> 720 acres now for the Sandy Fire.
Obviously, um not sure if that's recent growth or just a recent chance to take a look at that growth and see just how big it actually is as again we're not seeing a lot of flames here from this particular location in Semi Valley, but we know that they are going on as we can see them from up in the air um with that smoke. But I I'll send it back to you guys. Yes, Joy, we did hear a little earlier that they were just able to uh fly over the fire and get the latest numbers, which you said is right. 720 acres, 0% containment. Thank you for that update and all of that information.
We want to now go to our Lustellia Cabioto. She is back live with us in the neighborhood. Stand by.
>> Uh Lucellia, we know when we spoke to you last, you were being told you needed to move and watch out for those uh fire hoses there on the street. uh tell us what's happening there with you now.
>> So yeah, we've since moved not too far from where we were before, so I can definitely see the home that's burned down in the culdesac, but we moved here just to show you, give you a firsthand look at how uh quickly things can change. So behind me, as Suzanne moves in, you'll see uh smoke coming from a hill. Not even two minutes ago, that was a huge uh flame or a wall of flames. It started as a hot spot. It has since been dowsed with water. So, as Joy was, you know, here's a water drop now. So, as Joy was mentioning, you know, things can change quickly and of course, firefighters are trying to tackle these hot spots as quickly as possible.
Granted that it is helpful to have that water source uh close by and we have witnessed firsthand how quickly they are moving. So as soon as we moved over to let the firefighters do what they had to do, we noticed this hot spot and within not even a handful of minutes, it seems like they have dowsed it with water, drowned it, and now they are moving on to the next area. So, you know, we're just keeping our eyes on the hills to keep you all informed first and foremost, keep our community members safe and give them the most updated information. But again, this is us witnessing the firefight firsthand uh from an aerial perspective. They are doing everything they can to dow these flames and try to mitigate uh the spread of this fire. And they are doing that on the ground here as well. And we'll show you that too. So, uh, there was a fire spot, a hot spot that, uh, was coming up close to the chimney of the home. And because we are talking about cars here, uh, firefighters are keeping a close eye on this property again because they don't want this fire to spread. And we just talked to a neighbor who came back to his home to check on it. He and his wife left very quickly as soon as they saw smoke. They did not want to take the chance. As soon as the evacuation uh order went out, they left. They came back and they said, "Oh my gosh, Lucellia, you know, we thought our home was going to be gone." And they said, you know, we we see that every home but one on this street is gone. And and that's devastating to them, but they are thankful for the firefighters who are battling these flames and trying to keep this community as safe as they can. And a lot of neighbors here are just gathering to uh see this loss of the home and kind of reflect on how fortunate they feel uh and and what they can do to help their neighbors once they come back. Of course uh and and realize that their home is gone. So a lot of moving parts here. It is devastating see the loss of a home. Uh but but people here are thankful to know that they have a community that is resilient, a community that is looking out for one another and that continues asking, hey, what is it that we can do to help? And we are seeing that and we are witnessing that. And I can't tell you that in a time of emergency and at a time where so many things are uncertain, it is such a warm feeling to be able to say that one thing that is certain here is that the community is very strong, very resilient, and is doing the best they can to help their neighbors out. gonna go ahead and send things back to you.
>> All right, Lelia, thank you. Uh again, we are updating you. This fire has burned 720 acres with 0% containment. We were hearing from the Ventura County Fire Department that you know what really fuels the fire is, you know, the topography and the weather. And we do know that it has been dry and there has been a lot of wind. We want to go to our meteorologist, Alex Biston. uh she can discuss more about the conditions that are out there right now. Alex, you were talking a little earlier about the wind and I think we're now hitting where it's supposed to be dropping off a little bit.
>> You know what, Amy, we are going to look at the wind subsiding. Really more around later, dinnertime. So, right as the sun is setting right now is when we are seeing those uh stronger offshore conditions. Now, I want to kind of paint you a picture about what we've been seeing the last few days. So, we've seen the onshore flow, that's the seab breeze that brought in the marine layer clouds, the cooler temperatures, and now we see that shift in wind direction from an onshore direction to an offshore direction. And typically, we see the winds coming out of the northeast, the east, and that is the Santa Ana wind pattern. So, that is exactly what we're seeing right now. And when we have these offshore winds, it creates the dry conditions as well. Dries everything out. Those two things combined. And sometimes we bring in the heat too that is explosive for fire weather behavior.
Unfortunately, we've been monitoring the last few hours the winds where this fire is burning. And I want to zoom you in and show you right now. So these are just a few spots around where this fire is burning. See valley Santa Susanna Nolles. And we're generally seeing the wind gusts right now about 20 miles per hour. So wind sustained are about 10 to 15. Uh we have seen the stronger gusts.
I'm looking at a fire weather snooper.
That is one of the tools that we have here to look at the fire weather conditions. And we are seeing a gust, let's see, a last about hour uh wind gust about 23 miles hour. But one thing I also want to mention too is the updated relative humidity. Right now it's about 10%. So, when we start to see these relative humidity values about 10% or even in the single digits, that's when we're talking about the bone dry conditions, the red flag conditions. And you might hear us talk about in the weather department, the red flag warning. We actually had one issued this weekend for the Analopee Valley. Uh that's when we see the, you know, those elevated to near critical fire weather conditions. So, I want to let you know too, this area right now is not not under a red flag warning, but that doesn't mean that we won't see some spots flirting with red flag conditions.
So, again, when we see the red flag conditions, if we talk about relative humidity values in the single digits, the teens, and of course, these stronger uh offshore winds, again, that's what we're contending with right now. Uh the area that this fire is burning, uh we have the wind advisory that's with us till 3:00. So Amy asked a really important question like when will the winds start to die down and it's really after we get into that time period. So after 3:00 that's when we are looking at those winds beginning to die down. What I'm going to bring in now is our futurecast and this is going to paint a little bit of a better picture. So, let's scrub through to about five o'clock this evening. And you can see we're still looking at some areas of gusty winds in the Seami Valley area uh right along the freeway. Uh the 27 and the 178. We're looking at uh those stronger winds about 20 miles per hour.
I'm going to continue as we go, excuse me, the 118 freeway. That's right, uh through Seami Valley.
Then we go into about 7 o'clock this evening and you'll see those winds really continue to subside to about 10 miles per hour. So here's dinner time tonight and then we're going to scrub through around 8:00 this evening. Winds are much calmer. So the good news is we do have some relief in storm. Also now going to bring up our humidity value so you can really get kind of a better idea. Uh the further inland you go the lower the humidity value is. So you can just see how bone dry it is in Lancaster, Palmdale, Victorville. I'm going to zoom in now to uh Seami Valley.
And again, we have just a few sites here and it just paints a picture and shows you that those humidity values about 13 14%. So it's dry out there. And again, unfortunately, we know all too well what the Santa Ana winds do, what they are capable of doing. And unfortunately, we had the ripe conditions and just takes a spark to drive something like this. So, we will continue to monitor, of course, the weather conditions as we move through the next few hours. The important uh conditions and the good news is we do have some relief in store, Amy, as we go into this evening.
>> All right, Alex, thank you for that. We do want to continue to look at this fire. We do know that uh there's a news conference coming up. We do want to bring you the latest information on what's happening in San Diego. Well, we are going to go to that news conference right now. We told you a little earlier about a shooting there. Let's listen in.
Okay, we are still working on getting that signal there. Uh but we do know that there was at least one person that we were hearing earlier that uh was killed in this situation. Uh and again, we are going to send it to >> the families that are in this moment being notified of what has happened to their loved ones.
We have three confirmed adults that are deceased at the Islamic Center.
There is a lot of preliminary information that we're going to try to highlight and cover, but understand it's going to take us some time to get accurate information out to everyone.
Here's what we know so far.
At about 11:43, we received a call of an active shooter at the Islamic Center issues with the audio there. Again, uh we are trying to get you more information about a shooting that happened in San Diego at an Islamic center. We just heard that uh three people are actually deceased after this shooting uh that began at 11:43. Again, this is an Islam Islamic center in San Diego.
Um I'm checking to see if we're going to get the audio.
Okay, we're still working. officers were also responding to that call for service.
At the same time, there was a landscaper that was doing his work that was shot at and fortunately was not hit.
That was at about the 7100 block of Serno, which is just a couple blocks from here.
Moments later at the 3,800 block of Hatton, officers were called to that location where they found a vehicle in the middle of the street with who we believe to be the shooters in this incident, both deceased.
the circumstances that led up to this and the details of what happened and exactly which time it happened will come out in the days ahead.
I can tell you this is in 28 years this is the most dynamic and impressive response that I have ever seen in policing.
We have every single police officer available throughout our county that dropped what they're doing and did exactly what they're trained to do. Run towards gunfire.
I could not be more proud and I cannot express the gratitude, the willingness to step into harm's way in a moment like this.
And I tell you what got me.
Watching the kids come running out.
Just thankful to be alive.
I want to bring up Mark Remley from the FBI.
uh because of the Islamic Center location, uh we are considering this a hate crime until it's not. And at this point, we're going to work closely with the FBI uh to make sure that we are matching all the resources that we need for this investigation. So, Mark, thank you, Chief.
>> Good afternoon. My name is Mark Reley.
I'm the special agent in charge of the FBI San Diego field office.
Today, the FBI responded to assist our local law enforcement partners at the Islamic Center of San Diego. This was based on reports of an active shooter.
As the chief said, what we know at this time is that there are three deceased adult males and those are the presumed victims at this time. On behalf of the FBI, we extend our sincerest condolences to the family and friends of the victims of this tragic incident.
There were two subjects, both teenagers, and both are confirmed deceased.
I want to thank our local law enforcement partners for their quick response that undoubtedly saved the additional loss of life.
The FBI is meticulously assessing the situation and is prepared to employ every resource we have to uncover the facts of this incident. No community should have to grow through such a tragic incident, but we will work tirelessly until we learn the truth. We have on scene a number of special agents, task force officers, our evidence response personnel, victim specialists, and many more. As we work through this investigation, we ask for your patience to determine any motive and facts associated with the shooting.
The FBI continues to ask for the public's help in providing any information that could help us resolve this investigation, and we remind the public that any detail, no matter how small, could be useful. The FBI has set up a digital media tip line for information regarding this shooting. We ask that the public submit their tips to fi.gov or call 1800 call FBI with any information you may have. Thank you.
One more piece of information that uh I failed to put out. There is a reun reunification uh center set up at 4125 Haway uh where parents can be reunified with their kids. Uh and any other loved ones that might be uh related to the Islamic Center. Uh that is the location where you can be reunified.
Uh next I want to bring up uh the mayor of San Diego uh Mayor Todd Gloria.
Thank you, Chief. Um, I want to be here to reemphasize what our police chief said. Uh, the threat currently, uh, has been, uh, addressed.
Uh, children are safe. Uh, and that is a good thing. Obviously, we've had the loss of life here at the Islamic Center of San Diego. And to our local Muslim community, uh, my prayers are with you.
I want to assure our Muslim community that we will do everything it takes to make sure that you can feel safe in this city. Uh and no resource will be spared in making sure that our religious institutions and and locations are protected in this sensitive time. I want to express my appreciation to the San Dieans who respond to our calls uh to uh clear the area to allow law enforcement to do their jobs. I ask you to continue to do that until you hear otherwise. As chief said, uh, students can be picked up, uh, at the church just down the street here. We have that information already sent out. And lastly, I would just say at this time, and we obviously we'll have more comments, uh, later today. Uh, but at this moment, I want to simply express my immense gratitude and that of all 1.4 million San Dieans for the incredible law enforcement response uh, that we saw here today. As chief mentioned, a response within 4 minutes.
Uh, this is what we train for. This is what we budget for. This is what we ask of our public safety professionals and they absolutely deliver in the way that we asked them to do so. I appreciate our San Diego Police Department, our San Diego Fire Rescue Department, our chief of the uh fire department is here as well. uh as well as our local, state, and federal partners, many of whom have been in touch with me directly, recognizing the gravity of this situation and why uh it is so uh um such a tragic situation for which uh there'll be a lot more work to be done in the days, weeks, and months ahead. Um again, my condolences to the victims and their families. Uh to our uh Muslim community, uh one of our great leaders is here, Iman Taha, uh who is directly impacted. Uh this is a time for uh making sure that we do everything it is necessary uh to investigate and fully address the incident that was here today, but to reassert as I always will that hate has no place in the city of San Diego and when it happens and crime of any nature occurs, we will hold you accountable. Again, appreciation to our public safety professionals. I'll turn it back to our chief.
I'll open it up to a questions here in just a second. Uh I want you to keep in mind we're giving you what we have and what we know at this point and there's only so many limit there's there's a limitation of what we can go into at this point until we can confirm information. So with that we we'll open up to a couple questions.
>> Yeah. So let thank you for asking that.
How many how many total deceased? So we have are two suspects that are deceased.
Uh we have three victims at the Islamic Center. All three are adults uh for a total of five people that are deceased uh related to this incident.
>> I wanted to confirm the countywide that went out.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. So, we are actively investigating that right now uh to figure out and piece together exactly what led uh to this moment. Uh and as we get that information confirmed and verified, uh we'll be back out here providing more details moving forward. chief.
>> Uh so the suspects at this point appear to have uh died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Uh there were no uh officers involved in uh firing their their their weapons. Um but that is still very preliminary at this point. Uh but that's what we believe.
two males.
>> You have ages.
>> Uh at this point, uh we believe them to be 17 and 19's identity was put out in the airport.
>> So again, we are actively investigating the things that led up to this. Uh obviously these things don't typically just happen uh on a on a whim. Uh and the the information that we knew preceding it uh is what we're actively looking into and once we get that information uh verified and assembled uh we will provide it.
>> Yes, ma'am.
Yeah. So the the Islamic Center does have uh security. Uh one of the deceased is a security guard that that works there. Um and I I think played a a a a pivotal role in in assisting uh from this being much worse.
Yes. Yeah, the Islamic Center does have cameras and there are there is footage.
There's going to be a tremendous amount of uh information uh and details uh that we're going to try to sort and put this this puzzle back together again.
>> Not confirmed.
>> No, we don't.
>> We know there was a lot of other religious institutions.
Is that something you put out or was that selfosed?
>> Uh Shannon, you know, I I don't necessarily know uh you know which locations were put on on uh you know, a lockdown. There's other neighboring schools in the area. Uh it's standard protocol. Uh when when information like this comes out with an active shooter, we try our best to get that information out and and and either shelter in place or evacuate from the area if it's if it's uh ideally safe to do so. Um, so that would not be outside of protocol for that to happen.
>> Just one more question. Yes.
>> So, our initial uh officers that got on scene uh did not engage with the suspects in the parking lot. Uh they began to make entry into the Islamic Center. They observed three deceased bodies outside of uh the center uh which uh you know obviously forced them to engage in in an active shooter response immediately deploy inside of the Islamic center and start working from room to room. Uh they did have to breach doors uh to get into all of the different rooms. Um extremely chaotic. Uh there was somewhere between 50 to 100 police officers inside of that facility. Uh all of you that responded here could see uh how many officers and deputies from around the county that were surrounding the outside of the facility. We also have the scene a couple blocks away uh where we had active gunfire uh coming in uh uh on a landscaper that was just out there doing his job. Thankfully, he's okay. Was not hit. Uh uh he was not he was not injured. Um uh but we're we got a lot of work to do to try to figure out what what led up to this um and exactly what actions took place. But I can tell you with 100% certainty the heroic actions of the responding officers and deputies uh is is is beyond words.
uh to know that this many of our public uh servants are willing to leave their loved ones behind, drop what they're doing, and run towards gunfire without asking any questions. Um is remarkable.
>> You mentioned one of the victims is a security guard. Can you tell us anything about these two other?
>> Not yet. Uh we're obviously making notifications as we speak to family and loved ones and so I I want to respect that. So we will be back. We will be back with more information a little bit later today. Thank you guys.
>> Like to say anything?
>> All right. You have been listening to a news conference in San Diego about a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, which is one of the largest uh mosque in San Diego County. What we have learned is that there were three deceased people outside of the Islamic Center when police arrived. They were all adult males. We also learned that another person was shot at nearby but was not hit. We also learned that the two suspects which we learned are 17 and 19 years old were found with self-inflicted gunshot wounds inside a vehicle in the middle of the street. So what we have learned is that five people have died in regards to the shooting. Of course we have our own Michelle Jely that is on her way there. She will bring us the latest again at the Islamic Center of San Diego, which is about 9 miles north of downtown San Diego. Now, of course, our other big news today is the Sandy Fire that continues to burn in Seami Valley. Mark Lou is at the breaking news desk with an update for us, Mark.
>> Yeah, that's exactly right. More than 700 acres now burned on this fire. It's been burning for the better part of about two and a half, almost three hours here. It's called the Sandy Fire uh because it started near Sandy Avenue.
Ventura County Fire responded uh you know to the report about 10:16 this morning of the report of someone who was driving a tractor near the area of Sandy and Rudolph. Uh that person self-reported that they may have triggered this fire while they were moving some boulders with the tractor.
It sparked a fire that later burned to the south and west. What you're looking at here is uh Skycal pictures live. They are south of Seami. They're actually to the southeast of Seami looking to the west and you can see that very large burn scar there. There was a fierce firefight over about the last two and a half hours to protect the homes that you see in the center of your screen.
Unfortunately, one home uh two buildings on the end of a trickling Brook court was destroyed by this fire. And I've got some tactical data that I want to show you that actually paints a pretty good picture of where this fire is going.
This is from CalFire. The red areas here, the mandatory evacuation areas right here for the southern part of Seami on the west end. These are the evacuation warnings. But I'm going to zoom in now. This orange area, that's the fire footprint from quite some time ago. That's when the fire was about 100 150 acres. It is now more than 700 acres. And for a long time, the firefight was right here in this section. There was a deep trouble in these areas right about here, here, and here. structure protection and also along here as firefighters worked to keep homes from burning along this flank. The good news is they largely were able to do that. The only home right there that burned at the end of Trickling Brook. Now with Sky Sky the live pictures what we are seeing here is that this fire has burned in a southerntherly direction and it is now though that that what you saw on the lefth hand side of your screen is a fire line that stretches right about here that continues to burn to the south. Now there are some really good fos check lines here and here. Hopefully that's going to stop the fire. There may be some foss in this area, but SkyCal just hasn't been able to get in there because of wind and smoke is actually blocking uh our ability to see in there. But I'm going to zoom in here and show you. It was right about here that the fire started. This is Rudolph Court. This is uh Sandy Avenue right here. And we believe that the fire investigators are right about there. They're looking at the ignition point of the fire. And as you can see, it burned in this direction and then continued to burn until there was about 700 acres. Now, I'm going to show you the aerial firefight right here on my map. Lots of aircraft. They are fighting this fire dropping water in this area here. They're filling up at Bard Lake going over there. That's about 3 4 miles away. It's a man-made reservoir. But one of the things that I was looking for was there was a C130 that was flying around down here.
CalFire C130 dropping. This is their flight path. And you can see they went up here back to land at Fox Field. And then I noticed they're making a second trip down here. What's going on right here? Well, Amy, another fire. This one is called the Burrow Fire. This is a time lapse of about the last hour here.
It's about 30 to 40 acres burning about 20 m to the north of Glendora in the hillside. Now, CalFire has decided they need that C130 here to do a couple of FOS check drops on this fire. It is looking good. Being able to have 3,000 gallons of phos check dropped right there is a very important thing and they may get this fire out. Now, the other problem is this isn't the only other fire. There's another fire burning right about in this area as well. You can see some helicopters here in this area. This guy, let's see that one is Yeah, this is an LA County fire helicopter and I've got video of that as well. I can show you. Let me clear the screen. This one is called the Isaac fire and it's burning out there on a flat area in Lancaster to the west of the 14. This one though, as you can see, in just about the last 20 minutes or so, has burned itself out. That's really good news. So hopefully the Isaac fire and the Burrow fire burning in both Glendora and Lancaster respectively. Not going to cause any more problems and siphon off any resources from the uh still burning Cam Valley fire, the Sandy Fire here.
And you can see there's still a lot of helicopters going back and forth from Bard Lake over to the fire line, which is right about here. They want to keep it from spreading any further to the south, but they've got about 20 or 30 miles of vegetation right here before it gets down into the areas of say Oak Park uh or or uh you know, Thousand Oaks, which is down in this area. They want to stop this fire in the wilderness area in this area uh so that it does not burn any more homes. They're doing a pretty good job on it. It's going to be a long firefight. Three different agencies, Amy, all working together in unified command. Ventura County, LA County Fire, LA City Fire, and of course, a fourth now. Cow Fire having two other fires on their hands in Lancaster and Glendora in order to fight. They're getting a handle on it. Amy, >> wow, Mark, you know, uh, three fires, three different agencies and Calire and dealing now, we are learning with three fires. Uh, fortunately, the other two seem to be, uh, in control. We are still dealing with the Sandy Fire that has burned 720 acres. A lot of the issues here, the wind, we've got dry conditions and we are dealing with the wind. Let's check in with our meteorologist, Alex Viston. She's got the latest on the conditions. Alex >> and Amy, the wind is the primary factor as we have been talking. Uh it's the combination of the wind and the very dry conditions. And I've been kind of talking a little bit about what has been happening over the last few days and the changes in the atmosphere. So for those that are just tuning in, I want to kind of paint the picture for you because over the weekend we had onshore winds, the seabbze, that's the winds going from the ocean to the uh inland spots. That of course brought the clouds and it brought the cooler temperatures. And uh now as we see the wind shift to an offshore direction that dries everything out and of course you know it just we need one spark right and then we've got the wind we've got the dry conditions and that really helps fire spread and that is what we are seeing this afternoon. So I want to get you up to speed on some of the stronger wind gusts that we are seeing. We're continuing to monitor. A few stations near where this fire is burning. Uh there's the few that you see on your screen right here. And then there are some that I'm looking on my uh weather computer here. And uh over the last hour, we've seen a stronger gust of about 24 miles per hour. And here you can see on the map that um I am showing you about 20 miles per hour. So generally our gusts are between 20 to 25 miles hour. But now relative humidity has dropped into the single digits. And we tend to see this though as we go into the afternoon. And when we're specifically talking about the Santa Ana winds, the northeasterly wind pattern, uh we start to see those winds ramp up in the late morning by around 10 11:00 this morning. And this is kind of when we started to report this fire is the early afternoon. And then those winds ramp up through the later morning, the early afternoon, and then tend to subside as we head into the early evening hours. So about four or five o'clock this evening. And that's kind of the pattern that we're seeing as we go into later this afternoon. We've been talking a little bit more about the 3:00 timeline of when the wind advisory is going to expire. Now, the wind advisory that's issued by the National Weather Service. So the Santa Susanna Mountains really close to where this fire is burning. That is the area that's under this wind advisory. So it's not all of Seami Valley, but there are areas around it that are technically under the wind advisory. So we will see these winds uh gusting as we head into uh this afternoon through this afternoon and into early this evening. Now now what I want to show you is uh the wind futurecast. I'm going to pull this up for you. And what I want to do, I want you to point your attention to the time stamp on the the top and we're going to continue to kind of scrub through and you will see as we go into about 4:30.
So here's 4:30. So we're still seeing some isolated gusts uh as strong as about 30 miles per hour. This is right along the 118 freeway right uh through Seami Valley into Moore Park. And then we go into about dinner time tonight.
And I was kind of mentioning that this is when the winds will start to relax.
As you can see by around 7:00 still have some wind gusts about 10 to 15 and then later this evening those winds really start to drop off. So that is the good news for the firefighters to kind of get a handle on what's happening. But you know unfortunately this isn't surprising right because we when we have these red flag conditions you again you just need a spark. And earlier in the weekend we did have a red flag warning for areas like the Analope Valley. We saw, I think, one to two fires pop up in that area over the weekend. So, uh, unfortunately, when we see these conditions, uh, all it takes is one spark to really get things going. Uh, I also want to pull up our relative humidity map here as it load. Just give me a second here as our uh, weather computer generates the uh, relative humidity values. And I want to show you just these are a few stations around where the fire is burning. And again, you can see about 13%. So that's what our weather computer is picking up. Again, I'm also watching a station uh that you can't see, and it's showing the relative humidity values about 8%. So to give you a little bit of perspective, when we talk about a red flag warning in effect, I don't have one in effect right now for this area, but when we start to see the humidity values in the single digits and we see these gusty winds, we have what is uh issued as a red flag warning. high fire danger. So, these areas flirting with critical fire weather conditions. So, again, not surprising that we're seeing this activity, Amy, but we'll continue to monitor the wind and the dry conditions through this evening.
>> All right, Alex. Well, we are certainly going to stay on top of the Sandy Fire that has burned more than uh 720 acres in Seami Valley. We will also stay on top of the latest on the shooting at the Islamic Center in San Diego. Three men shot and killed at the center. The two suspects believed to be 17 and 19 years old allegedly died at self-inflicted gunshot wounds. We will have all of the information for you coming up on CBS LA at 4:00. We now send you back to regular programming.
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