Brush fire breaks out in Thousand Oaks near Highway 101

UPDATE SATURDAY: A new brush fire broke out in Thousand Oaks Saturday afternoon off Arroyo View Street. Read the story here.

ORIGINAL STORY:

A brush fire broke out in Thousand Oaks Friday evening after a car caught fire along the southbound transition of Highway 23 and Highway 101.

The California Highway Patrol reported the car fire shortly after 5:30 p.m. CHP log notes described a vehicle, possibly a Land Rover, that had pulled over to the right side of the roadway. Flames were seen under the vehicle, the log noted. Within minutes, a brush fire was said to be starting up the adjacent hillside.

The blaze, called the Rancho Fire, burned about 13 acres along the south side of the 101 before forward progress was stopped shortly before 7 pm., said Firefighter Andy VanSciver of the Ventura County Fire Department.

Crews expected to have full containment by 10 p.m. or so.

County fire and CHP officials shut down the southbound lanes of the transition from the 23 to the 101 for hours. The blaze also blocked the right lane of the southbound 101 as fire vehicles staged there.

Traffic on southbound 101 that had backed up past Moorpark Road cleared out before dark. The roadways had fully reopened by Saturday morning.

The fire, which grew quickly and sent up a large plume of smoke, posed a potential threat to structures along Rancho Road for a time, radio traffic from the scene indicated.

Helicopters, dozers and hand crews continued to mop up long after firefighters had gained the upper hand. They would continue to monitor hotspots, VanSciver said in an update on social media. All had cleared out by Saturday morning.

Separately, a massive brush fire that broke out near Zaca Lake in Santa Barbara County late Friday afternoon, called the Lake Fire, exploded to more than 4,600 acres by 11 p.m.

This story may be updated.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Brush fire breaks out in Thousand Oaks near Highway 101