Linda Elmo waited outside Padre Serra Parish in Camarillo for Ventura County emergency workers to bring her wheelchair and get her into a shelter amid a raging wildfire.
The 75-year-old had watched the wind pick up that morning and listened to the news, but wasn’t told about the wildfire evacuation until firefighters knocked on the door and told her and her husband to “go.” There wasn’t. Go, go! ”
“It just went by so fast,” Elmo said. The fire “started in this ravine near a house in the backyard.”
Dangerously high winds and dry conditions caused wildfires to explode in Moorpark and Camarillo on Wednesday. The fire spread through the hills, forcing residents to evacuate and burning many homes. There were also reports that some people were trapped.
The ministry said strong winds prevented planes dropping moderators from initially assisting in the firefighting efforts. The fire jumped Highway 118 and advanced into Camarillo Heights. As a result, the California Highway Patrol closed the highway between Oxnard and Camarillo.
The fire broke out Wednesday during a Santa Ana wind phenomenon that produced wind gusts of 70 to 80 mph in parts of Los Angeles County, causing power outages, traffic concerns and fire danger warnings.
There were dramatic moments throughout the morning and afternoon.
Video from Key News Network shows Ventura County sheriff’s deputies removing elderly Moorpark residents in wheelchairs from their homes down a steep driveway in orange fog and gusty winds. .
Officers hoisted people who could not fit into patrol cars and quickly evacuated them from the approaching flames.
Elmo said he left half of the medicine he needed at home.
“There is no charge for oxygen,” she added. Elmo uses an Inogen portable oxygen machine. “I’ll handle it,” she said.
She said a friend was trying to get extra medicine for her at the pharmacy, and she hopes the Red Cross will also provide some of the medicine she needs.
Emilia Royce said the day was “kind of a blur”. Her home is on Ridgecrest Lane, near the source of the fire.
The 45-year-old mother of two evacuated around 9:30 a.m. My husband was on a business trip. She said she watched smoke from the wildfires billow into the street.
After receiving the alert on her phone, Lois quickly packed her bags and picked up her children, aged 11 and 14, from school, which was canceled shortly after.
“They know what’s going on and they’re pretty upset,” she said. “But I keep reminding them that we’re alive, we’re here, and we’re safe.”
Karen Chihigoyeneche, 81, and her husband Raymond, 92, were alerted to the fire by a cableman and asked to leave their home. “Our cable man is actually the rescuer here,” she said.
“I don’t know much about telephone work,” said Chihigoinetsche, who did not receive any notifications on his cell phone.
She immediately sprang into action and tried to call all the elders in the neighborhood. She grabbed an emergency bag filled with cash, a change of clothes, and medication.
“Traffic conditions were really bad and it was unbelievable to see so many emergency vehicles trying to weave through the traffic,” Chihigoinetsche said. The three-mile drive from her home to the parish, which normally takes 15 minutes, took an hour. But she didn’t know where to go when she left.
She was driving in one direction and found herself heading in the direction of the wind and fire. “We were stopped and found someone telling us to come.” [to the parish]” she said. “It was an incredible mess.”
As the sun set behind thick smoke just beyond the parish, the Red Cross told evacuees to stay overnight.
Carol Ann Higa thought there might be a crib or that she could push two chairs together.
Higa and her roommate fled their home as they heard the roar of a helicopter overhead. She packed her clothes and ventilator in her bag, and her roommate loaded her oxygen tank into the car. Mr. Higa, 77 years old, suffers from asthma and COPD.
She said when she left her home, the smoke was so thick she could barely see across the street.
“I can’t breathe,” she said. “I felt a shock in my chest and gasped for air.” At the parish, paramedics ushered her to a medical team.
“If the nurses hadn’t helped me, I wouldn’t have survived,” she said.
