Voices

“All we can do is juggle resources and hope we’re at the right place at the right time. We can’t really prepare, we just have to react.”

--Ventura County Fire Chief George Lund.

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“The good Lord is with us.”

--Jack Willett, 81, as fire scorched his ranch but spared his home north of Santa Paula.

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“No one’s going home anytime soon.”

--Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Alan Campbell.

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“When you fall in love with a house, you don’t think about those things.”

--Bill Morgan, saying he never considered fire dangers when he bought a house in the Santa Monica Mountains.

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“He had blue eyes. I saw him. Man, that was close.”

--Ventura County Arson Investigator Peter Cronk, watching tanker pilots trying to save the Morgan home.

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“We’re doing what we can. We’re about out of equipment. We were down to two engines in the Ojai Valley when we spotted this one.”

--Ventura County Fire Capt. R. Ranger Dorn, working on the fire in Matilija Canyon.

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“It comes right at you. You panic. You don’t know what to do. So you videotape it.”

--Richard Jensen, who videotaped the flames approaching his Santa Monica Mountains home.

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“We’re professional surfers. We don’t work. We only come out to work when there’s a fire or an earthquake or a mudslide. It’s the only time there’s any fun around here.”

--Brian Merrick, 25, helping fight flames at the Duquette Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains.

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“I guess we’ll be getting a lot of looky-loos.”

--Laura Dunn, as wide-eyed spectators drove through her Newbury Park neighborhood, which escaped fire damage.