SPFD: Series of small
fires, accidents
plague stretch of Highway 126

June 10, 2015
Santa Paula News

Santa Paula Fire was among emergency responders from several agencies that had to deal with a series of small fires and traffic accidents that plagued a stretch of Highway 126 starting Friday morning.

The first report of a fire on the westbound side of Highway 126 was received at 9:40 a.m.’ according to SPFD Captain John Harber.

Santa Paula Fire responded with Ventura County Fire Engine Company 26 “and several others, and we were first on scene.”

Upon arrival firefighters found a patch of fire about 100-feet square burning north of the highway’s westbound lanes at the Todd Lane underpass.

It took firefighters about 20 minutes to extinguish the fire that Harber said was confined to the ground and did not reach highly flammable eucalyptus trees that line the highway in some areas.

Harber said when firefighters initially “pulled over on that one we could see another fire about 1.2 miles ahead of us,” a blaze that a Caltrans worker put out with a fire extinguisher, as well as “another small spot fire ahead of that...”

It appears the first fire had started on the edge of the orchard “Right where the fencing is,” said Harber. “We got it knocked down, turned it over to county and left...”

The county is investigating the three small fires: “I know they did call in a fire investigator...having three fires in the same general vicinity,” could have occurred for a variety of reasons that will be determined.

But, he noted, “We didn’t observe any warming fires,” sometimes lit in the early morning by farm laborers arriving at work and the small blazes, “Seemed outside the orchards at the fence line, so who knows the cause.”

Santa Paula Firefighters also responded to several accidents in the same general vicinity over the last several days, one June 5 near Wells Road and Highway 126 that moderately injured a Santa Paula resident who was transported to Ventura County Medical Center and a second incident Saturday evening.

“Fire also responded last night (Saturday, June 6) to eastbound Highway 126 east of Briggs Road,” an incident that involved extricating a female victim from the vehicle “and carrying her up the hillside,” for treatment.

Harber said the number of incidents that occurred along the stretch of Highway 126 since Friday has “been like a vortex going on over there...there’s been a lot of activity!”





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