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Ventura County's fire record: two fires, seven years apart

The Thomas Fire rewrote the coast and the valleys in 2017. The Mountain Fire rewrote the Camarillo hills in 2024. Together they explain the 2025 map.

Quick answer: The Thomas Fire (2017 to 2018) burned 281,893 acres, destroyed 1,063 structures, and took more than 500 Ventura residences in a single night; it remains the anchor event for Ventura, Ojai, Santa Paula, and Fillmore. The Mountain Fire (November 2024) burned 19,904 acres and destroyed 243 structures, at least 83 in Camarillo Heights. The 2025 remap that followed placed roughly 59,000 of the county's 86,000 mapped parcels in Very High, driving where Zone 0 (Zone Zero) applies.

The record

The numbers, kept where they belong

281,893 ac
Thomas Fire, Dec 2017 to Jan 2018, then the largest wildfire in California history
500+
Ventura residences destroyed in a single night, of 1,063 structures lost overall
19,904 ac
Mountain Fire, November 2024, in the hills above Camarillo and Somis
243
structures destroyed in 2024, at least 83 of them homes in Camarillo Heights

The Thomas Fire ignited December 4, 2017 and burned into January, crossing into Santa Barbara County and forcing a generation of coastal and valley residents through evacuation. Its worst single night belonged to the City of Ventura's hillside neighborhoods. Agricultural losses exceeded $171 million across citrus, avocado, and berry country. It is the shared anchor for Ventura, Ojai, Santa Paula, and Fillmore, and by extension the Ojai Valley communities.

The Mountain Fire ignited November 6, 2024 near Balcom Canyon Road north of Somis: a brush-clearing fire believed extinguished, rekindled a week later by Santa Ana winds. Within a day roughly 14,000 residents were under evacuation notices, and by containment on November 27 it had destroyed 243 structures and damaged 127 more, with roughly 12,000 acres of avocado, citrus, and berry farmland affected and at least 10 people injured. Its story belongs to Camarillo, and this site keeps it there.

The 2025 remap read both events and more than doubled the county's Very High parcel count versus 2010: roughly 59,000 of 86,000 mapped parcels. That's the map your obligations follow.

Questions

Quick answers

What are Ventura County's defining modern wildfires?

Two, seven years apart. The Thomas Fire (December 2017 to January 2018): 281,893 acres across Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, 1,063 structures destroyed, more than 500 Ventura residences in a single night. And the Mountain Fire (November 2024): 19,904 acres, 243 structures destroyed, at least 83 homes in Camarillo Heights.

Why does this site assign each fire to specific cities?

Because that's what happened. The Mountain Fire's losses centered on Camarillo; the Thomas Fire hit Ventura, Ojai, Santa Paula, and Fillmore. Borrowing a fire's story for a city it didn't burn would be exactly the kind of interchangeable content this network refuses to publish.

How much did the 2025 remap change Ventura County?

Substantially: roughly 59,000 of the county's 86,000 mapped parcels are now Very High, a 108% increase over 2010. Two major fires in seven years reshaped how the modeling reads this county.

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