Sandy Fire Explodes to 1,698 Acres With Just 5% Containment as 44,000 Simi Valley Residents Are Ordered Out and Evacuation Warnings Cross Into Los Angeles County

The wind-driven Sandy Fire that erupted in the hills above Simi Valley on Monday morning has more than doubled in size overnight, swelling to 1,698 acres by Tuesday with just 5 percent containment as nearly 44,000 Ventura County residents found themselves under mandatory evacuation orders and a wall of flames pushed evacuation warnings across the county line into northwest Los Angeles County.

The blaze ignited shortly after 10:17 a.m. Monday near the 600 block of Sandy Avenue when a man clearing brush with a tractor struck a rock and threw a spark into bone-dry chaparral, according to Simi Valley police Sgt. Rick Morton. By Tuesday morning, the Ventura County Fire Department had marshaled 869 firefighters, five helicopters and three air tankers to the front, up from roughly 500 personnel when the fire first broke out. At least one home on Trickling Brook Court has been confirmed destroyed and crews are still tallying outbuildings burned along the fire's southern flank.

Evacuation orders remain in force for a broad swath of Simi Valley north of the 118 Freeway, and warnings now reach into Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Chatsworth and West Hills as forecasters track an unstable boundary between weakening Santa Ana winds and a rising onshore flow. Ventura County emergency officials reported four active evacuation orders and three warnings Tuesday afternoon and urged residents in warned areas to pack go-bags and pre-stage vehicles facing outward. The Simi Valley Unified School District canceled classes at every campus Wednesday, May 20, citing fire perimeter uncertainty and smoke that has pushed local air-quality readings into the unhealthy range.

A spot fire that jumped containment lines south of Box Canyon Road early Tuesday morning forced fire commanders to redeploy more than 100 additional firefighters within hours, and a Type 1 incident management team has now assumed command. Cal Fire engines from San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Kern counties are rolling into the fairgrounds staging area under a regional mutual-aid request, and the California National Guard has placed two C-130 air tankers from the 146th Airlift Wing on alert. Officials at Rancho Santa Susana Community Park, the primary evacuation point at 5005 Los Angeles Avenue, said they processed more than 1,200 displaced families overnight, and the Ventura County Fairgrounds has opened a large-animal shelter that has taken in roughly 200 horses, llamas and livestock.

The Sandy Fire is the second major Ventura County blaze in 14 months and follows last year's devastating Mountain Fire, which destroyed more than 240 structures in nearby Camarillo. National Weather Service meteorologists in Oxnard have extended a red flag warning through Thursday evening, citing single-digit humidity, gusts up to 45 miles per hour in the ridgetops and a fuel moisture reading at Cheeseboro Canyon that ranks among the driest May figures on record. Cal Fire Chief Joe Tyler told reporters at the fairgrounds Tuesday that the agency was 'fighting a fire in May with August fuels,' a warning that California's compressed wet season has set the stage for a brutal summer across the southern half of the state. Information on evacuations and resources is available through the Ventura County Emergency hotline at 805-465-6650.