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The staggering wave of fires Southern California is experiencing could do more damage across the region than the destructive firestorms of four years ago, Ventura County Fire Chief Bob Roper told the county Board of Supervisors today.
Roper said this wave of fires is more intense than the big fires of 2003, and in cost — as far as money, property damage and loss of life — the toll will probably exceed the 2003 fires by 300 percent, or threefold, he said.
"In Southern California, what you're going to see is some whole communities wiped out when the smoke clears," Roper said.
Ventura County has not suffered the worst of the current fires. Roper said that in the past three days there have been 17 brushfires that started in the county, and every one of them — except the Nightsky Fire in the Santa Rosa Valley — were put out quickly before they could really spread.
The Nightsky Fire began Sunday and was contained on Monday.
County Agriculture Commissioner Earl McPhail told the supervisors, "We haven't heard of any (crop) damage from the fire but we have sustained a tremendous amount of damage from the wind. What didn't freeze in January is now on the ground," he said, referring in particular to tree crops such as citrus and avocados.
The board voted unanimously Tuesday to declare a state of emergency, a necessary step for certain types of relief assistance.
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