COWS COVERED—A Cal Fire DC 10 Air Tanker drops fire retardant next to a herd of livestock grazing on the ridge of a canyon behind Moorpark College on Wednesday. An unpredictable, winddriven brush fire kept Moorpark residents on high alert all week while more than 1,800 firefighters battled to keep the blaze from reaching the northern end of the city.

The fire started in a mulch pile near Guiberson Road south of Fillmore at about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday and quickly moved into the remote canyons nearby, officials said.

Ventura County Fire Department officials said the cause is still under investigation.

As of yesterday, the fire had consumed 16,400 acres and was 40 percent contained.

The blaze, which came within a mile of Moorpark College during the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, threatened several local neighborhoods, but no homes were damaged.

AIR SUPPORT— Helicopters assist crews on the ground fighting the nearly 17,000-acre Guiberson fire on Wednesday north of Moorpark. Authorities say the blaze started in a mulch pile near Guiberson Road south of Fillmore at about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. Moorpark College was closed Wednesday due to the fire threat but reopened yesterday. “The fire has a lot of potential for significant growth; it grew 9,700 acres in less than 24 hours,” said Robert Lewin, incident commander for Cal Fire, at a press briefing in Moorpark on Wednesday.

Eight firefighters have sustained minor injuries battling the blaze, mostly from smoke inhalation. The flames came close to a major natural gas line, oil fields and five power lines that supply large areas of Ventura County and Santa Barbara. Two outbuildings were burned.

“It’s a very dangerous fire. We need to make sure the citizens are paying attention to what’s going on so they can adhere to evacuation orders,” Lewin said at the press conference.

Authorities notified about 2,100 households by using a reverse 911 system, and they went door-to-door in neighborhoods close to the blaze to caution residents. About 1,000 homes were threatened.

With so many homes and structures threatened, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency Tuesday, allowing fire crews to call in additional resources and receive help from state agencies like Cal Fire.

Evacuation centers were established at the Goebel Senior Center in Thousand Oaks and the Ventura County Fairgrounds, which will also take large animals.

All residents who were evacuated in the Moorpark area were allowed to return home.

“If the weather continues to do what we expect it to do, we still expect to have it fully contained by Saturday,” VCFD spokesperson Bill Nash said.

“Since there were not a lot fires burning in California this week we were able to bring in many resources to put out the blaze,” he said.

The fire was also easier to manage because it went through areas that had already been burnt in the 2006 Shekell Fire, Nash said.

Fire suppression costs haven’t been determined yet, Roper said, noting that most firefighting expenses will be reimbursed by state and federal agencies.

He added that the actual cost of such disasters is usually 30 times higher than that of suppression because businesses and residents are also affected.

“It’s a trickle-down effect,” Roper said. For instance, the two rock quarries between Fillmore and Moorpark were shut down earlier this week, so many people lost part of their wages, he said.