Fire Hits Artists’ Enclave Again, Spreads to Junkyard

VENTURA —  For the second time in as many weeks, fire ripped through an artists’ enclave in west Ventura on Monday and destroyed about a third of the structures that make up Art City, authorities said.

Wind-fanned flames from the midafternoon blaze also raced through Roscoe Auto Salvage, located nearby at 175 Dubbers St.

“I was in disbelief when someone yelled ‘Fire!’ ” said Paul Lindhard, unofficial mayor of Art City and one of 12 artists who work there. “I grabbed two fire extinguishers. The flames were licking up the wall, then they shot up and sheeted across the ceiling and knocked me to the ground.”

No one was injured in the fire, which was extinguished in about half an hour. However, artists lamented that works that survived the first blaze were consumed by the second.

Artist Steve Knauff lost most of his works accumulated over 22 years, including videotapes, newspaper clippings, bronze castings and notebooks.

“The first time this happened, I was sick to my stomach,” Knauff said. “Now I’m in shock. I don’t know what to feel.”

Deputy Fire Marshal Brian Clark said that city inspectors were investigating to determine whether Art City complies with building and safety codes when Monday’s fire erupted. The investigation will continue.

Fire erupted Dec. 16 at an Art City studio when the pilot light of a water heater ignited fumes from a leaky propane tank, triggering multiple propane tank explosions.

The origin of Monday’s fire appears to have been young people tossing matches into brushy weeds and scrap wood piled against a fence shared by Art City and Roscoe Auto Salvage, Clark said.

A witness told police he spotted youths running from the scene shortly after the 1:54 p.m. blaze broke out. Moments later, police apprehended four teenagers at Sheridan Way Elementary School, where the youths acknowledged that they had accidentally started the blaze, said Lt. Bill Bogner of the Ventura Police Department.

“It was an accidental fire,” Bogner said. The youths were cited and released to their parents.

Fed by westerly winds and weeds, the fire raced in a two-prong assault on the artists’ center and the scrap yard. Within minutes, buildings at both locations were ablaze.

At Art City, furniture, paints and other art materials were devoured by flames. At Roscoe Auto Salvage, plastic car parts and fiberglass roofs on buildings were also charred.

Flammable, and in some cases explosive, materials at the junkyard hampered firefighters’ efforts. For example, Clark said, piles of magnesium stripped from old cars at the scrap yard reacted with water and led to explosions, complicating the assault on the flames.

Meanwhile, piles of skis, logs, ceramic urns and stone blocks used by artisans at Art City as raw materials continued to burn late into the night.

“They’re pulling things apart and shooting some water inside the piles. It’s going to take awhile,” Clark said.

At one point, firefighters fought the flames from nearby California 33, where trees caught fire near Olive Street.

About a quarter of the structures at the Roscoe salvage yard were destroyed, fire officials said.

In a preliminary estimate, officials placed the damage to both locations at $50,000 to structures and $100,000 to the contents of the buildings.