VENTURA : Blaze Blackens 100 Acres of Oil Fields

A welder’s torch ignited a brush fire Thursday that blackened nearly 100 acres of oil fields west of Ventura but caused no injuries or property damage.

The welder, who was repairing pipe in the Texaco oil lease in Devil’s Canyon just after 1 p.m., inadvertently started the fire, said Sandi Wells, spokeswoman for the Ventura County Fire Department. About 100 firefighters from all over Ventura County, using five aircraft and more than a dozen engines, fought the blaze for four hours before bringing it under control, Wells said.

The fire burned from the Texaco oil field onto neighboring oil leases in the Taylor Ranch that are owned by Shell Oil Co. and Vintage Oil Co., said Howard Akins, a field superintendent for Shell.

Akins said the fire never came close enough to damage any equipment or oil tanks in the rugged Shell oil field, which is dotted with oil wells and interlaced with pipelines. Texaco and Vintage officials could not be reached for comment.

As a county Fire Department bulldozer and hand crews cut gaps into unburned brush to stop the fire’s spread, engine crews ran hoses directly to the fire to douse the flames.

Two Ventura County helicopters clattered overhead, dropping water from tanks in their bellies.

As soon as the copters had passed, three large tanker airplanes from the U.S. Forest Service in Goleta took turns roaring through Devil’s Canyon within a few dozen yards of the hilltops to shower the fire’s edges with a bright pink fire-retardant chemical.

Wells said that light winds and high humidity kept the fire from spreading too swiftly to be controlled by the fire companies that came from all over western Ventura County.