It’s dusk, and the Santa Ana winds are whipping through the parking lot of the Thousand Oaks Teen Center.
Dan Porter is standing next to his parked car, looking at the smoke from the Woolsey fire drifting above the Santa Monica Mountains. He’s calm, in fact, especially calm for someone who doesn’t know whether some of that smoke could be from the mobile home he’s lived in for more than four decades.
Porter lives in the Seminole Springs Mobile Home Park. It’s off of Mullholand Highway, south of Agoura Hills in the Santa Monica Mountains.
He says he was aware the fire might head his way, he came up with a plan. He decided to make a test evacuation run, getting in his car and driving to Kanan Road, and Highway 101 in Agoura Hills where he could find safety.
But, when he reached the 101, he found the fire had already arrived. Porter says he had a front row seat as the fire raced across Highway 101 in the Agoura Hills area. So, what started as an effort to figure out what to do if the fire moved his way turned into his evacuation.
He admits the vigil is a lonely one. The 78 year old man stayed at the shelter at the Teen Center in Thousand Oaks for the last three nights because he has nowhere else to go. Porter is a widower, with no relatives.
The mobile home park lost a number of units, but Porter doesn’t know one way or the other whether his home survived.
He says he’s trying not to worry about things he can’t control.
