By Patric Hedlund, TME

As we go to press, Lockwood Valley residents are on alert for sudden moves to the northeast by the monster blaze that has swallowed over 237,500 acres—an area larger than the entire island of Manhattan.

Governor Jerry Brown made two proclamations referring to the Thomas fire last week.
First he proclaimed a state of emergency for Ventura County. Then, to Sunday’s 60 Minutes on CBS and to a crowd at the Ventura County Fairgrounds, he proclaimed that this year’s unprecedented fires in California are ‘the new normal.’

60 Minutes said Brown has become a…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

This photo of the Thomas fire was taken from an Aspen Helicopters craft, straight up Highway 33 on Saturday, Dec. 9. By the next day the fire was 50,000 acres larger.

At Right: The July 2016 Pine fire was only 2,300 acres (red outline). The burn area that depleted fuels in that footprint provides a small, partial buffer zone against the massive Thomas fire, which had consumed 237,500 acres by Wednesday, Dec.13. Depending on the winds, the Thomas fire could out-flank the earlier Pine fire burn area to either the east or west and head north toward Lockwood Valley or the Cuyama Valley (Ventucopa and New Cuyama).

The Thomas fire is raging through the rugged, dry mountains of Ventura County, driven by dry Santa Ana winds that can be like a blast furnace, drying out foliage as they pass, making it ever more vulnerable to ignition from the blowing embers that can fly a mile from an active fire.

Bryan, Adah (nine months) and Lela Queen evacuated from Ventura, in the path of the Thomas fire. As it burned, they came to Pine Mountain Village to watch the parade with Santa’s sled being pulled by a big red tractor.

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This is part of the December 15, 2017 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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