California wildfires: Fears for avocado harvest as fires devastate top fruit-growing region

Lethal combination of flames and Santa Ana winds means even those farms not directly impacted by the blaze may have suffered devastating losses due to the hot, dry conditions

(Reuters)

Wildfires in southern California have decimated a large area of the region’s famed avocado crop.

Known as the “avocado capital of the world”, the fire spread to the orchards of Fallbrook in Ventura County, scorching trees and ruining the fruit.

Experts said even those farms that were not directly impacted by the blaze may have suffered devastating losses due to the hot, dry Santa Ana winds that blow out of the California desert, knocking avocados from the trees with gusts up to 80 miles per hour.

“A lot of the fruit everybody was looking forward to harvesting next year is laying on the ground,” said John Krist, chief executive of the Ventura County Farm Bureau.

Once an avocado is on the ground, it cannot be sold for human consumption due to food safety regulations.

The ash will also leave the fruit vulnerable to pests, according to Ben Faber, a University of California farm adviser in Ventura, who believes the impact of the fires will not necessarily be immediate.

“When you get all this ash, they can’t do their jobs,” he said. “That’s going to cause a disruption to the bio controls that’s going to go on for a year or more.”

Wildfires killed one woman as flames ripped through more than 500 buildings, killed dozens of horses and caused hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate.

Burning nearly 250 square miles since Monday, 1,000 firefighters have been battling the flames with help from a fleet of air tankers and helicopters.

Virginia Pesola, 70, of Santa Paula, was found dead on Wednesday night along an evacuation route near a fire northwest of Los Angeles.

Her death was caused by crash injuries, smoke inhalation and burns, the medical examiner’s office said in a statement.

“The crews were trying to stay out ahead of this as quickly as they could,” said Captain Kendal Bortisser of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention.

“As we know, when a tornado hits the Midwest, there’s no stopping it. When a hurricane hits the East Coast, there’s no stopping it. When Santa Ana winds come in, there’s no stopping them.”

Firefighters northwest of Los Angeles gained some control over the largest and most destructive fire in the state, which destroyed 430 buildings.

The blaze in Ventura County grew to 206 square miles after igniting on Monday, while a fire 50 miles north of San Diego ignited for unknown reasons and destroyed at least 85 structures as it burned six square miles.

Fire crews made enough progress against other large fires around LA to lift most evacuation orders.

Horse trainers took stock of the damage at the elite San Luis Rey Downs training facility for thoroughbreds in Bonsall, where many of the more than 450 horses were cut loose to prevent them from being trapped in burning stables.

Most of the loose horses were corralled and taken to another location, but about 25 died as barns and pasture burned.

Crews were also dispatched to stamp out a small new fire that began to the east in the Cleveland National Forest near the mountain town of Alpine.

Additional reporting by agencies