Fire in Ventura County burns hours after shooting at Thousand Oaks Bar

Thousand-year-old Oaks' 70-year-old woman cried Thursday on hearing that 12 people had been dancing in one of her former places of worship, the Borderline Bar and Grill, and had been killed by Ian David Long, a former 28 year old man. Navy dressed in black. He died later of a shot that is believed to be self-inflicted.

In the shadow of Wednesday night's tragedy in a bar that Goodman's sons sometimes visit, Mother Nature's reminder came in the form of a fire. The flames approached Goodman's home Thursday in the Thousand Oaks neighborhood of Westlake Hills. Strong winds sent a branch to crash against his roof.

"I'm just wondering what's next," Goodman said Friday before the evacuation center set up at the Thousand Oaks Teen Center. "There is so much chaos in the world."

This chaos targeted Ventura County and the Conejo Valley with an intensity that seemed unfair because that was it.

More: California fires forced 157,000 people from their homes

More: Shooter Ian David Long posted on Instagram during filming, says official

While locals struggled to understand the brutal gunshots, 95,000 people were driven from their homes by the Woolsey and Hill fires.

"It's a coincidence – it does not make sense – a man takes the picture and kills 13 people," said Thousand Oaks Mayor Rob McCoy, who spent Thursday's game in a center. of reunification where families waited to know if their loved ones were dying the limit.

The Woolsey fire burned in the Conejo Valley early Friday after moving north. It started in the area of ​​the old Rocketdyne factory near Simi Valley. (Photo: JEREMY CHILDS / THE STAR)

As he was preparing for a vigil on Thursday, McCoy learned that his family had to evacuate their home because of the hill fire. On Friday morning, he went to evacuation centers to meet other people expelled from their homes.

"I could see it on people's faces, they were tired, the only thing I noticed in everyone's mind was that they were working together," she said. he declared. "Absolute misery has visited us in the past two days, and the sense of community is even stronger."

Pitching to help others has emerged as a mechanism of adaptation.

Taylor Young was dancing at the border on Wednesday when Long started shooting. The 23-year-old from Moorpark survived the bullets but learned that three of her friends had not done so. They are dead.

She returned to the bar Friday in sweatshirt, jeans and slippers in the hope of finding her car again. This was a brief break from the ceaseless activity of helping people evacuate fires.

"I did not stop," she says. "I have not dealt with anything, I just keep going."

Kristen Reichenbach woke up Friday morning at a Simi Valley evacuation center, dressed in a sweatshirt, flannel pajama pants and fur lined boots. His mind was quick to deal with fires and shootings.

She had planned to go to the border on Thursday to play billiards, but the shooting that occurred a night earlier meant that she had instead attended a vigil for the victims. Among them was Jake Dunham, the son of one of Reichenbach's 21-year-old colleagues.

After the vigil, Reichenbach woke up at 3 am in his Westlake Village condominium. It smelled like barbecue because of the fire. She fled with her eleven year old daughter and drove for two hours looking for a hotel room. They ended up on a Red Cross site.

"I just want all the trouble to end so we can start moving forward," she said Friday before a trip to buy water and snacks in case a another tragedy would happen, maybe an earthquake.

"It's like we're being criticized with a lot of things," she said.

The 12 marginal victims included two members of a group of young adults from Calvary Community Church, in the village of Westlake.

"We were hit pretty hard," said Shawn Thornton, senior pastor at Calvary, describing how the staff rallied and cried for an hour, crying more during a vigil and d & rsquo; A service for young adults gathering 500 people.

As Thornton explained the grief and exhaustion that was weakening his body and shaking his legs, he noticed that he was moving away from his home at Wood Ranch in Simi Valley. The flames of Woolsey's fire exploding into a ball triggered his evacuation.

"I have been sleeping for about three hours in two days," he explained, explaining his intention to take a shower, have a meal, and begin to consult with other employees. church and faithful.

That's how you treat with one shot on two suckers, Thornton said. You ask others how they are doing. You find ways to help.

"Do not be locked in isolation," he said. "Talk to a friend, talk to a neighbor, shout to heaven, all you need to do, this feeling is very real but it will not always be there."