Teens’ Film Project Sparks Hillside Fire

A foray into homemade special effects sparked a small, brief brush fire near Avenida Loma Portal this weekend.

Four teenage boys were firing bottle rockets in a backyard Sunday afternoon, filming the tiny explosions for a school history project on war, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. About 3 p.m., one of the rockets landed on an adjacent hillside and set the brush on fire.

The four juveniles, whose identities are being withheld by the Sheriff’s Department, tried to put out the flames with buckets of water and a shovel, but the fire continued to spread.

Neighbors, however, had heard the rockets’ explosions and saw smoke rising from the hillside. They called the Ventura County Fire Department, which extinguished the fire. Less than an acre of brush was burned, and no one was injured.

The four boys, ages 16 and 17, were cited for negligently starting the fire and possession of illegal fireworks.

Sgt. Larry Meyers said the boys were lucky that the rocket landed on the side of the hill sheltered from Sunday’s strong winds, noting that the recent hot weather and strong winds could easily turn a minor mishap into a major fire.

“It could be disastrous,” he said.

The firefighters who snuffed out the small Newbury Park fire were then sent to Fillmore to fight a bigger blaze.