Ever since Tim Cohen bought 6,000 acres in the shadow of the massive dam that holds back Lake Piru, the dam breaking has been the least of his worries.

"In seven years, I've had the '05 floods, the '06 fire and the '07 freeze," he said of his farm, Rancho Temescal, which fills much of Piru Canyon. "And now the '07 fire."

Though the Ranch fire had been mainly tickling his property lines over the past few days, it reared its ugly head Tuesday afternoon when winds picked up and fanned flames into a 35-foot-high horseshoe-shaped inferno that ringed his ranch.

After a few tense moments of high flames coming close to his property, firefighters and Cohen's workers kept the fire at bay.

Most people in Piru and Fillmore were spared the effects of the fire Tuesday beyond the heavy smoke that clogged the sky. The fire loomed in the hills above the towns during the afternoon, coming about a mile from Piru and about two miles from Fillmore, but not making any dramatic advances toward either locale, said Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Nick Cleary.

Piru could be out of harm's way by tonight if the weather cooperates, Cleary said.

By Tuesday night, 1,264 firefighters were on the scene after coming from around the state to help out.

The 47,240-acre Ranch blaze began moving west into the Sespe wilderness area Tuesday evening, where the brush is thick after years without fire, he said.

"It's a concern because that fuel hasn't burned in any recorded time," Cleary said.

Homes, property destroyed

Plans were being drawn up to get bulldozers there this morning to re-create fire lines that were made during last year's Day fire, he said. As of Tuesday evening, the Ranch fire was a mile from Fillmore and only 10 percent contained. It had destroyed three homes, four outbuildings and 14 boats, though only one home, an abandoned trailer, was in Ventura County.

With the fire burning around Lake Piru, Cohen spent the past few days getting ready for what seemed inevitable.

To ready his ranch, he filled his water tanks with 2 million gallons of water, laid fire hose around the property and kept sprinklers trained on the grassy fields where his prize horses with names like Suances and High Demand gallop.

"You can't stop an earthquake, and a flood is a flood, but with a fire you can do something to stop it," he said, as the fire climbed through the hills above his ranch.

He was confident the blaze would stay on the far side of Piru Canyon Road, where firefighters had protected a building filled with agricultural chemicals. He was hopeful it wouldn't jump the road, where an ornate barn houses some of his 85 thoroughbred horses and other buildings house ranch hands.

Then the wind changed directions. And strengthened, too.

"That's not where I want it," he said as he eyed a cluster of small flames that jumped the road and chewed through a hillside of dry brush. In moments the flames grew, burning more of the hillside as black smoke darkened the sky.

"Now I'm worried. That's too big. This is not good," he said.

The flames quickly marched up the hillside in two directions, toward the farmworker housing and deeper into the canyon. Flames climbed up the hill and towered over Piru Canyon Road.

A larger task at hand

Audel Dominguez was driving down the road after feeding his cattle when an ember dropped onto a hay bale in his pickup truck and sparked a small, smoldering fire. A firefighter doused it before turning to the larger task at hand.

A "hot shot" crew quickly dug a line in front of one side of the fire to keep it from spreading down the canyon toward Piru about six miles away. As the fire grew, three rabbits scampered from the oncoming flames. Another wasn't fast enough and limped away with singed hair and burned skin.

The fire charged in the other direction, toward the farmworker housing and the propane tanks behind it.

Cohen had done aggressive weed abatement over the years, cutting a wide swath around his property, and hoped it would pay off. Workers climbed atop water trucks and sprayed down their homes as the flames grew to 30 feet on the hill behind them and firefighters kept the blaze from advancing. At times, the sky was completely dark. Within 10 minutes, the flames had passed the houses and moved toward the Santa Felicia dam, a massive concrete structure that couldn't burn. By day's end, all the hills around Cohen's property had burned, destroying only brush. His workers started going back to feeding the horses and other ranch chores.

"Too close," Cohen said as he looked at the smoldering fires. "Too close."