{"id":323181,"date":"2026-05-19T18:04:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T18:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/323181\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T18:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T18:04:20","slug":"sandy-fire-growth-stalls-overnight-containment-climbs-to-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/323181\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandy fire growth stalls overnight, containment climbs to 5%"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lighter winds and cooler temperatures allowed firefighters to slow the growth of a fire in Simi Valley that forced tens of thousands of residents out of their homes, firefighting officials said.<\/p>\n

As crews made progress against the Sandy fire after sunset Monday evening, authorities began to lift evacuation warnings in some areas.<\/p>\n

Four areas that were under evacuation warnings to the fire\u2019s north and west saw those warnings lifted after 9 p.m. Monday, according to the Ventura County Sheriff\u2019s Emergency Service\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

Several other neighborhoods in the area remained threatened <\/a>and under evacuation orders after sunrise, however.<\/p>\n

\"All <\/p>\n

All that is left of a home after the Sandy fire, fueled by high winds,scorched parts of Simi Valley.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to get complacent,\u201d Andrew Dowd, a spokesperson for the Ventura County Fire Department said. \u201cThis is the time to dig in … for if and when that fire behavior does increase.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sandy fire in Ventura County began just before 11 a.m. Monday off Sandy Avenue and raced toward nearby homes within minutes, destroying one. It had burned across 1,386 acres as of Tuesday morning and was 5% contained.<\/p>\n

As the smoke and flames spread when the fire broke out, authorities began to issue evacuation warnings ahead of its path on Monday. At one point, some 28,000 people were under an evacuation order, officials said.<\/p>\n

By Tuesday morning, that number was hovering around 17,000 residents, Dowd said.<\/p>\n

Still, an evacuation warning in Ventura County was in effect in county-line areas near Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Chatsworth, West Hills and the Lake Manor neighborhood. Evacuation zones in Los Angeles County <\/a>are listed on the county\u2019s site. Information on evacuations in Ventura County<\/a> are available on their website.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the Los Angeles Fire Department pre-positioned resources in the San Fernando Valley just in case the fire grew out of control.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the Sandy Fire is in Ventura County, the Los Angeles Fire Department continues to closely monitor the situation and has deployed resources on the ground \u2014 including strike teams, a hand crew, and helicopters \u2014 to assist local crews in firefighting efforts,\u201d Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. \u201cAt this time, we do not expect the wildfire to reach the City of Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wind-driven fires on a dry landscape are extremely dangerous, as multiple fast-moving wildfires i<\/a>n the last two years have shown.<\/p>\n

\"Raymond <\/p>\n

Raymond Sanchez looks over a smoldering hillside as the Sandy fire burns near Sunnyside Ave. in Simi Valley.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Winds were gusting at 25 to 35 mph gusts in the valleys, and up to 40 mph on the ridge tops in the area of the fire, Devin Black, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard, said of the conditions in Simi Valley on Monday. <\/p>\n

Tuesday was expected to be less windy, with gusts peaking at 25 to 35 mph, but slightly warmer and drier, said Ryan Kittell, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. High temperatures were projected to reach 83 to 86 degrees, with humidity levels between 8% and 12%, he said.<\/p>\n

The winds were expected to switch from northeast offshore to southwesterly onshore winds around 3 p.m., he said. The transition could result in erratic winds, which could enhance fire activity and send up a fast-growing plume, he said.<\/p>\n

On Monday evening, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that his office had secured a fire management assistance grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to bolster the response to the Sandy fire. Local, state and tribal agencies will be able to apply for 75% reimbursement of their eligible fire suppression costs.<\/p>\n

The blaze \u2014 one of several that recently broke out in Southern California, including a fire that\u2019s scorched 16,600 acres of Santa Rosa Island<\/a> \u2014 came as the region sits on the precipice of its high fire season. <\/p>\n

While there\u2019s \u201cno perfect on \/ off switch\u201d that determines when that season begins, fire agencies track vegetation moisture levels, which are the main drivers of the region\u2019s fire activity, Kittell said. <\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, the latest readings show we\u2019re right on the cusp of when most of the plants are ready to burn,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s still kind of a mixed bag but we\u2019re getting real close.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lighter winds and cooler temperatures allowed firefighters to slow the growth of a fire in Simi Valley that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[599,6577,6947,37667,4999,3802,134627,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,1024,288,134626,23286,1069,1226,978],"class_list":["post-323181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-area","tag-authority","tag-crew","tag-evacuation-order","tag-evacuation-warning","tag-fire","tag-firefighting-official","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-monday","tag-resident","tag-sandy-fire-growth-stall","tag-simi-valley","tag-tuesday-morning","tag-ventura-county","tag-west"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}