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November 2018Westlake Village Fire History: the Woolsey Near Miss
Woolsey, as Westlake Village lived it
November 8, 2018, afternoon. A brush fire ignites near the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, east of the city, as the Hill Fire burns separately to the west. Santa Ana winds are forecast to strengthen overnight.
Overnight into November 9. The fire jumps the 101 freeway near Liberty Canyon and runs into the Santa Monica Mountains. Evacuation orders sweep the corridor; Westlake Village goes under mandatory evacuation along with Agoura Hills, Oak Park, and Malibu. Residents leave in the dark, many with minutes of notice.
November 9-12. The fire burns through the hills ringing the city on its way to the coast. News crews report structures lost in the wider Westlake area: several mobile homes and vehicles at a mobile home park, and at least 17 homes described along Sherwood Drive, losses concentrated across the county line and in the hills rather than in the city's core neighborhoods. On November 13 a flare-up near Lake Sherwood burns roughly 1,000 more acres of unburned brush just west of the city.
November 13. Repopulation of Westlake Village and Agoura Hills begins. The lake, the greenbelts, and the village's neighborhoods are intact. The hills around them are black to the ridgelines.
We do not publish a structure-loss count for parcels inside city limits because no verified standalone figure exists, and we do not estimate what we cannot verify. The honest summary: Westlake Village was evacuated, surrounded, and spared. The 2025 hazard maps say the exposure has not gone anywhere.
What the near miss teaches about hardening →From near miss to Zone 0
Woolsey, and the 2025 fires that followed elsewhere in LA County, drove two changes that reach every Westlake Village parcel: the March 2025 CAL FIRE remap, which expanded the city's Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone territory, and the Zone 0 regulations now in final drafting.
A planned community has one structural advantage here: its greenbelts, wide parkways, and irrigated common areas already function as fuel breaks. Zone 0 asks each homeowner to finish the job in the five feet the master plan could never control: the band around your own walls.
Fire history questions, answered
Did the Woolsey Fire burn homes inside Westlake Village?
The city was fully evacuated and the fire burned to its edges. News reports of "Westlake Village" losses, a mobile home park, homes along Sherwood Drive, largely described the wider Westlake area across the county line. We have not found a verified standalone loss count for parcels inside city limits, so we do not publish one.
Why does a city built around a lake need an ember-resistant zone?
Because Woolsey demonstrated the mechanism. Wind-driven embers crossed ridgelines, freeways, and open water throughout that fire. The lake is not a moat; the first five feet of each house is the last line that actually decides ignition.
Which parts of Westlake Village face the highest exposure?
The edges that meet open terrain: the Three Springs hillside above Triunfo Canyon Road and the streets facing the ridges toward Agoura and the Santa Monica Mountains. The March 2025 CAL FIRE remap expanded the city’s Very High territory; check your own parcel on the official maps.
Has this area burned before 2018?
The Santa Monica Mountains around the Conejo corridor carry a long fire record, and large historic fires have repeatedly run the same wind-driven paths toward the coast. Woolsey is the anchor event for this city because it forced a full evacuation within living memory.
Turn the near miss into a checklist
A free assessment translates 2018's lesson into specific work on your parcel: the fence line, the first five feet, the vents.