CAMARILLO, Calif. — Stanley Jensen worked with firefighters to pry open a safe that had melted into the rubble of his family’s home.
While Mr. Jensen used a window screen to sift through the safe’s ashes for diamonds and stones, his wife, Dawn D’Amato, turned black, searching for evidence of the couple’s life before the wildfires. He was wandering around the base.
“Grammy, I made this for you,” cried granddaughter Violet, pointing into the ashes. D’Amato picked up a clay butterfly sculpture with the 11-year-old’s name engraved on it.
Beverly Hills firefighter Missy Follett retrieved a wall safe from the rubble of Jensen’s home and handed it to Stanley Jensen.
(Al-Saib/For the Times)
Meanwhile, D’Amato’s longtime friend Pamela O’Kane, who lives in Thousand Oaks, looked around the scene in disbelief. Other houses, less than a few hundred feet away, stood largely intact.
“How can you stop it? There are sparks flying everywhere, so how? …” O’Kane said. “Random — that’s the word I’m looking for. …It’s really random.
That’s the question on many people’s minds in Las Pozas Estates and Camarillo Heights right now. These two wealthy communities are located in the foothills of the Santa Susana Mountains, dangerously close to an ecosystem dominated by flammable brush.
Several seemingly randomly scattered houses were reduced to rubble, leaving only a lifeless moonscape. Other homes, in some cases adjacent, were largely unaffected and some still had lush lawns.
A house was destroyed by a wildfire in Camarillo.
(Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times)
But as urban and suburban sprawl continues to push communities into more fire-prone environments, and climate change continues to make fires worse, scientists and fire experts are wondering if housing will survive. There’s a lot of debate over what control homeowners actually have, or whether it just comes down to chance. .
Neighbors recently gathered on the street for the first time since a fire destroyed their home. Neighbors told stories of the nightmarish day as firefighters patrolled the area looking for hot spots and helping grieving residents.
The night before the fire exploded, some people woke up to the eerie howl of Santa Ana winds. The next morning, winds kicked up dust from nearby farms and orchards, obscuring the region’s panoramic views of Camarillo and the Pacific Ocean.
The wind was so strong that Ken and Pamela McQuaid, who live a few houses down from Jensen, watched the wind come and go through their large windows.
By mid-morning, news had reached the neighborhood that a fire had broken out about 11 miles away. Many people who have had several close calls with wildfires in the past knew instantly that this could be catastrophic.
A wildfire is burning in the foothills of Santa Paula near State Route 126.
(Myung Jeong-cheon/Los Angeles Times)
Contrary to popular belief, the most destructive force in most Southern California wildfires is not the flames, but the embers. As a fire burns through flammable brush and vegetation, the heat pushes the remaining embers upward. Strong winds can carry it for miles.
When they land, there is a danger that new ignitions will start and quickly burn down houses.
“The vast majority of homes burned in wildfires are already burnt by the time the fire reaches a town,” says wildfire scientist and director and chief ecologist of the John Muir Project. Chad Hanson says.
Within minutes, this worst-case scenario became reality at Las Pozas Estates.
The McQuaids watched in horror as flames shot up the ravine and into their backyard.
The canyons that line the winding roads of Las Pozas Estates and Camarillo Heights are especially dangerous, said Kyle Ferris, a fire behavior analyst with the Mountain Incident Command Team.
When embers ignite vegetation near the bottom, the flames quickly spread to both sides, and the rising heat dries out the vegetation in front, effectively creating a path for the fire to run through.
The sun sets over a burning house in Camarillo during a wildfire.
(Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times)
The McQuaids rushed to the garage, but when Ken McQuaid opened the garage door, thick black smoke billowed out and hot embers seared his skin. He quickly pulled down the garage door as his wife, Pamela, started driving.
Ken McQuaid rushed out the front door, got into his work truck, and followed his wife.
Another neighbor drove directly through Jensen’s property to escape the hell, but the only escape route was already blocked off.
Camarillo is located within the chaparral ecosystem. This ecosystem is dominated by fire-loving dry bushes that burn periodically as a natural part of the ecosystem’s life cycle.
But whether communities like Las Pozas Estates and Camarillo Heights can really fight fires in such environments remains a hotly debated topic among scientists.
Some fire researchers recommend simple steps to remove flammable plants from yards, roofs, and gutters, and to completely eliminate gaps where embers can enter, such as dog doors, vents, and open windows. By taking these measures, it is possible to virtually make a house fireproof.
Firefighters are spraying water over a hot spot in the eaves of a home on Old Coach Drive in Camarillo.
(Myung Jeong-cheon/Los Angeles Times)
“It’s not 100% effective, but it’s pretty close,” Hanson said. However, to be effective, there must be no weaknesses in the defense.
“As far as I know, there’s always an explanation.” [for a house burning down] “If people look carefully enough,” he said. “I don’t know of any exceptions.”
But some say there is no way to guarantee safety, especially in extremely dry and windy conditions.
In cases like wildfires, “when a fire is going this fast and the amount of embers it releases is flying all over the place and the size of the embers changes, it’s really random,” said Ferris, the fire analyst. Ta.
Alexandra Shipherd, one of the first researchers to study the effectiveness of home hardening and defensible space in real-world wildfires in the early 2010s, said it’s somewhere in the middle.
It’s not “pure chance” that a house burns down, and it’s not entirely determined by what home hardening measures are taken, she says. “Anything you do to your home, especially if you close the ventilation screen, close the roof eaves, or double-glaze the windows, can significantly increase the chance that your home will survive a fire, but many people Contrary to what you may want to say, this is not a guarantee.”
A 2019 study by Cypherd quantified how well hardening measures actually protect homes from fire by analyzing more than 40,000 structures that faced wildfires from 2013 to 2018. tried to become This period also included the devastating Camp and Woolsey fires.
Results varied widely by region, but in Southern California, homes protected by fire departments had a 19% lower chance of fire, and 31% lower chance of fire when civilians also helped protect them. Using multiple window panes reduced the risk of a house burning down by 26%.
Other measures did little to save the homes. At best, cutting down nearby flammable plants beyond 15 feet around your home would reduce your risk by 3%.
The most destructive element in many wildfires is wind-driven embers. Strong winds can carry them for miles, and once they make landfall, they can start new spot fires that can quickly consume homes.
(Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Another independent study found that fortifying a home and removing flammable bushes from nearby spaces cut the chance of destruction in half, reducing the probability from 40% to 20%.
In the Camarillo area, there are limited resources dedicated to home hardening, defensible space management education, and home-based counseling visits. Currently, the Ventura Area Fire Safety Council has most of the responsibilities.
“For better or worse, we are the biggest player in the county,” said Stephen Watson, the council’s executive director.
With only eight employees, most residents have not been reached yet.
Nevertheless, the McQuaids had done their homework.
As urban sprawl makes areas more vulnerable to fire, scientists and fire experts are debating how homeowners can control whether their homes survive.
(Myung Jeong-cheon/Los Angeles Times)
“They want you to go back 100 feet from your home. … We’ve cleared everything,” Ken McQuaid said.
“We were always thinking about fire,” he said. “When you look at these people, you say, ‘Why are they living in the bush?’” Well, you know, it was all dirt. Everything has been cleared. ”
But when the McQuaids sped away, their rearview mirror showed flames ranging from 6 to 25 feet high, directly over the area they had evacuated — and McQuaid already knew his home was doomed. I was sure it was there.
“I saw it as I was backing up,” McQuaid said. “We thought it was over” as embers were flying everywhere and hitting the house.
Shipherd worries that the perception that hardening homes is pointless may deter residents from taking important steps to prepare their homes. On the other hand, the belief that housing hardening is a silver bullet may motivate cities and residents to continue building in areas prone to dangerous wildfires.
“Assuming that all home modifications are effective creates a false sense of security,” she says. “Other research I’ve done has found that the most important factor explaining why buildings are destroyed by fire is the location of the home.”
D’Amato and the McWays say they plan to rebuild.
Pamela McQuaid, a real estate agent for 30 years, has sold many of her homes to neighbors in Las Pozas Estates, including the one that is now reduced to ashes. One couple had just moved in three weeks ago.
Their voices and sense of community are too strong to overcome.
Stanley Jensen helps firefighters find valuables among the rubble of Jensen’s home.
(Al-Saib/For the Times)
“My wife found this house, and that’s why we bought it,” Ken McQuaid said, gesturing at the view of Camarillo. “We really enjoy this community.”
However, there is no guarantee that fires like wildfires will not occur again.
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