OJAI — Even before the neighbors phoned, even before authorities rolled up with lights flashing and orders to evacuate, Tim Devine knew that he had just a short time to pack the things he loved and head for safety.
As is his custom when the weather turns cold, the Ojai Valley citrus rancher was up at 3 a.m. Wednesday to check on his crops.
What he discovered when he stepped outside his McNell Road home was a wall of flames cutting a diagonal swath down a nearby canyon and racing toward his bucolic neighborhood northeast of town.
"I didn't see smoke; I didn't see a glow. I saw fire," said Devine, who along with his wife, Jana, gathered their two kids, the family dog and her newborn puppies, a pet turtle named Spike and a collection of Christmas presents and family photos, and headed to the Red Cross evacuation center at Nordhoff High School.
"It was like sitting in the middle of a bonfire," he said. "And the bonfire was coming our way."
Devine was among dozens of residents who fled their homes early Wednesday as strong winds pushed a stubborn wildfire dangerously near homes on the eastern edge of this emerald valley studded with citrus trees and upscale residences.
The blaze and subsequent evacuation orders by sheriff's deputies created a mad, predawn scramble along narrow roads that push right to the southern edge of Los Padres National Forest.
Residents loaded vehicles and grabbed garden hoses to spray down wood-shake roofs and the gnarled oaks that grow tall along the roadsides here.
Many spent the morning coaxing horses into trailers and driving them to safety. The Ojai Humane Society made the rounds, offering free shelter for pets that had nowhere else to go.
*
After a 5 a.m. knock on the door from a neighbor, followed by a more insistent knock by deputies, Thacher Road resident Phil Burton grabbed photo albums, wedding albums and Christmas gifts, and headed out the door.
"They said when the sun comes up, the fire is going to come down on you," he said,
About 35 residents, including a handful of senior citizens from an Ojai Avenue retirement home, ended up at the Red Cross shelter.
Shawna Pavlocak, 25, waited in the high school parking lot for the green light to return home. Her compact car was packed with clothes, photos and CDs. She kept an ear to the radio for news of the fire.
