Home › News › Other News
Ojai safe from Zaca fire, officials say
Download this story as a podcast!
STORY TOOLS 
More from Other NewsFire officials are confident the Zaca fire no longer poses a direct threat to Ojai.
The fire had reached within 17 miles of the town on Monday.
Firefighters kept the massive blaze from heading east and south through round-the-clock hard work, using bulldozers and hand crews to remove brush and other flammable material from the fire's path, said Capt. Barry Parker, a spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department.
This morning, officials disbanded a command center set up at the Ventura County Fairgrounds. It was established earlier this week to coordinate efforts should the fire have gone toward Ojai.
Though much progress has been made along the fire's eastern and southern flanks, Ventura County residents should expect to see a lot of smoke over the coming weeks, Parker said.
The fire's northern flank is still a problem and is expected to generate huge plumes of smoke at least through the beginning of September, he said.
Officials hope to have the fire fully contained by Sept. 7. But they caution that could change should there be hotter weather and more winds in the days to come.
As of 8:30 a.m. today, the fire had burned 222,907 acres, making it the second largest fire in modern California history. The state's biggest wildfire was the 2003 Cedar fire near San Diego, which burned more than 273,000 acres, destroyed 4,847 structures and killed 15 people.
The Zaca fire, which started July 4 near the city of Buellton in Santa Barbara County, has destroyed one building. No deaths have been reported, although 39 people have been injured by it.
The fire was 79 percent contained as of this morning, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, noted a bill under consideration that would provide disaster-relief assistance to Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
If passed, AB 62 will provide state reimbursements of local property tax losses from properties damaged by the fire, leading to lower property-tax assessments. This bill also allows the those with damaged homes to continue to receive the homeowner's property tax exemption while their homes are being repaired or rebuilt, even if they cannot live in the house.
AB 62 also allows taxpayers to deduct excess disaster losses not compensated for by insurance, for up to five years on income tax returns.
AB 62 is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee next week.
"Local governments should not be penalized when a natural disaster strikes," Nava said.
Posted by andrea05 on August 22, 2007 at 3:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
it sure was about time hopefully the fire will be off pretty soooooooon!!!!!!!!11
Posted by ca4ever on August 22, 2007 at 3:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I never doubted their skills. Great job Ventura County and all other counties involved
Posted by nancy.ferrell.j2yq on August 22, 2007 at 3:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Why should we pass AB-62 when it was reported that no buildings where burned. Is the State going to get a whole bunch of monie if this is passed?
Posted by ThinkingForMySelf on August 23, 2007 at 5:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Pconvery99: Do you hike through the chaparral. I have many times. The Ojai Valley experienced a big fire in 1985-The Wheeler Fire. It benefited The Ojai Valley immensely. 22 years later, you can still see the mountain's demarcations, ridges and protruding rocks clearer than the day before the burn. Wild life is a plenty though it was not before the fire. Had the Zaca Fire made it to the Valley, the fire fighters would have had a much better and safer chance of stopping the fire due to the lessoning of the Built-Up-Fuel, 22 years ago.
Your comments are refuted by the facts, by my own personal experience in the Valley and other places I've been before and after fires.
The logic alone in what I say is obvious and sound. To put in the most simplest of terms, It's much easier to blow out a single Match than to blow out a Whole Box of Matches.
Fire is good for our forests and our chaparral. The forests that our ancestors found were much healthier than what we find today, due to artificial suppression tactics. These tactics prevent natures ultimate cure for disease in our forest, prevent the clearing of overgrowth that pushes animal life out.
One need not go far to prove this for themselves. But I recommend those interested, go to the forest around and near the Tahoe Basin and see for your self the progress the Bark Beetle has made through decades of free smorgasbord of trees, leaving them by the hundreds of thousands, dead, because of artificial suppression tactics snuffing any fire, regardless if it is natural or man caused. Had these fires been allowed to burn in that forest, the Bark Beetle would be no more.
It doesn't get any simpler than that to understand Fires are good for our forests and chaparral.
(Requires free registration.)
Article discussions on this site are to support community debates of issues related to our stories and editorials.
Discussions should not stray from the subject of the story or editorial.
We do not allow the following:
We reserve the right to delete threads and/or ban users for these or other reasons we deem necessary.
Opinions are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.