HOPPER IC from Sebastian Ramirez on Vimeo.

A fire broke out in the oil fields east of Fillmore on Friday, April 24th. Black smoke appeared at about 5pm, near East Telegraph Road and Hopper Canyon Road, alerting a citizen who called it in. Fire crews found three crude oil tanks burning in the canyon.

One tank contained 100 barrels of crude and burned out by 5:50pm. A second tank contained approximately 250 barrels of oil and was left to burn out. One tank was empty.

About 80 firefighters worked to keep the fire contained. Some brush was burned but a Ventura County Sheriffs helicopter dropped water on the scene, quenching the flames.

No water or foam were used to fight the blazes to reduce the environmental impact on area wildlife. There was concern over liquid spilling into water drainage routes, but no significant environmental impacts were reported.
The tanks are owned by Ventura-bases DCOR. Company officials were made aware of the fire, and all pipelines into the 250 tank were shut off.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife were called, as was Ventura County’s regional hazardous materials team. Ventura County Environmental Health Division and the California office of emergency Services were also informed of the situation.

Fillmore, Santa Paula, Oxnard and Ventura fire departments were on scene, along with Los Padres National Forest fire crews.

Clean-up began after the fires were out; no obvious cause of origin reported.