COUNTY FARMERS TAKE STOCK OF FIRE-RAVAGED AVOCADO CROPS.

Byline: Kermit Pattison Daily News Staff Writer

Powering his truck up a rutted dirt orchard road, Ed McFadden braked on a sweeping summit to survey his charred crop.

Before him lay acres and acres of burned avocado trees whose once harvest-ready fruit hung on the branches, charred and worthless. To his right, a stark expanse of ashy chaparral marked where 30-foot-high flames had come leaping into the Fillmore ranch the day before.

``There was a time early Monday when it looked like we might lose the whole ranch,'' McFadden, manager of the Rancho Simpatica, said as he surveyed the damage Tuesday from behind the wheel of his truck. ``There was a point where it was out of control. We were not optimistic.''

After two days battling a 11,000-acre wildfire that roared past dozens of ranches, farmers and agricultural officials on Tuesday began to tally the damage to Ventura County's $852 million farming industry. Although the final toll remains days or weeks away, growers and agricultural officials say the fire burned hundreds of acres of valuable farmland and probably caused millions of dollars in damages to crops and equipment.

``It's a very significant loss to the individual growers,'' said David Buettner, Ventura County chief deputy agricultural commissioner. ``But as far as the overall picture, it may be relatively insignificant.''

The Agricultural Commissioner's office has not tallied the full extent of the damages. But Buettner said it probably amounts to hundreds of acres on at least several ranches between Fillmore and Santa Paula.

Up and down the north slopes of the Santa Clara River Valley, farmers spent the day surveying damage to crop land caught in the path of the Grand Fire. Rancher Larry Fuller said the blaze burned about five acres of his Haas avocados - about a third of his crop - on land between Santa Paula and Fillmore that his family has farmed for about 60 years.

``We had done some harvesting,'' he said. ``But I would say at least half the crop was still on the trees.''

Some of the trees may recover, he said, but he will probably miss about two crops before they produce fruit again.

``They're very tough trees,'' Fuller said. ``In 1990, the whole orchard was frozen and all the leaves turned brown and fell off. In six months, you wouldn't even know they were damaged.''

Sparked by electrical lines early Sunday afternoon, the fire quickly spread westward over the next day driven by up to 50 mph Santa Ana winds and temperatures in the 90s. By early Monday, the flames crested the ridge and roared into the 1,000-acre Rancho Simpatica on Grand Avenue in Fillmore.

Farm crews sprayed down the groves and dozens of firefighters fanned out along the dirt roads and canyons of the ranch. But the onslaught of the blaze forced firefighters to retreat and watch hundreds of trees go up in flames in a battle that lasted throughout the day.

By the time the firestorm passed, the surrounding ridges had been stripped of all but a few knots of vegetation left charred black like some volcanic landscape. About 80 acres of the ranch had been burned and Tuesday some embers still puffed thick smoke like smoldering campfires.

The flames singed lemon groves, melted irrigation pipes, destroyed silver-dollar Eucalyptus crops and turned hundreds of beehives into embers. Worst of all, said McFadden, it burned about 80 acres of avocados, a third of the ranch's crop.

``Probably two-thirds of the crop was still on the trees,'' said McFadden. ``It could have been up to half a million in fruit in the trees that was lost.''

But McFadden had at least one reason to be thankful. Although the surrounding hills and chaparral had been burned to ashes, much of the crop remained undamaged thanks to the dozens of firefighters from several agencies who descended on the ranch during those frenzied hours Monday morning.

``They saved a big chunk of the ranch,'' he said, ``if not all of it.''

Now Rancho Simpatica will wait to see if some of the blackened avocado trees will recover from the fire.

Standing beside his pickup as fire trucks rumbled up the dusty ranch road, longtime ranch foreman Angel Gallo shrugged when asked about the fate of the trees he himself planted so many years ago.

``We don't know if they're going to come back or die completely,'' he said. ``You just put water on it and wait.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1--Color) Officials are starting to assess the d amage to the county's farming industry and exports such as these oranges.

(2--Color) The Kimball Ranch in Fillmore lost part of its avocado crop in the Grand Fire.

(3--SAC edition only) Farm workers salvage avocados Tuesday at Kimball Ranch in Fillmore. Officials are beginning to assess the damage to the agricultural industry.

Jeremy Greene/Special to the Daily News