Ventura County Fire Crews have point of pride in saving something precious

It was only 12 hours later when the Ventura County firefighters returned to Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Sylmar.

“The homes are, what, 3 feet high now?” Dave Stevens of Station 46 in Simi Valley said of the scene they found when they returned for search-and-rescue efforts Saturday afternoon.

The five-engine strike team from Ventura County was called out at 12:30 a.m. Saturday to assist in fighting the Sayre fire. Joining the multi-agency firefighting effort, they were assigned to a road called Sycamore, at the very back of the 200-acre gated mobile home park, where the picturesque park rose toward the hills of Angeles National Forest.

Cary Rake, an engineer from Station 43 in Simi Valley, said, “It never occurred to me when we went in there. …”

Stevens finished his sentence, “… that the whole thing would burn down.”

The firefighters were broken into three-person groups, each trying to keep about five homes protected by dousing them with water.

Rake spotted a woman coming out of one of the houses. He didn’t have time to say anything to her. He grabbed her and put her in a firetruck. Later, another emergency vehicle took her away.

But the Santa Ana winds kept whipping up the ferocious blaze, spreading it faster than firefighters could fight it. It was blowing embers onto and under the mobile homes, forcing teams to make quick decisions about which homes to focus on based on which ones they thought they could save.

The firefighters — all of whom work at stations in Simi Valley or Thousand Oaks — stayed on Sycamore, continuing to hose down the houses.

Then they ran out of water. The teams were ordered to flee for their own safety.

Before they left the mobile home park, Jim Waldron, an engineer from Station 45 in Simi Valley, said the firefighters grabbed boxes and went into the homes, filling them with anything they thought might have sentimental value to the owners.

“When we left, we drove through flames to get out of the complex,” Stevens said.

Here is a short clip taken by from the cell phone of Ventura County Fire Department firefighter Jeff Pike, who works at station 45 in Simi Valley.

Written by Ventura County Star / Read Entire Article

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