The crops and their paychecks went up in flames: How the Mountain fire hammered farms and farmworkers
LA TimesWhen the Mountain fire broke out more than two weeks ago, Samuel and Florentino witnessed the all-too familiar hazy, gray sky and the smell of smoke as they harvested strawberries in an Oxnard field. Ventura County officials are gathering information and resources for residents and farmers who have lost their property or suffered damage, but there isn’t a financial safety net for field workers because of their undocumented immigration status, according to local nonprofit groups. Preliminary findings estimated more than $7 million in agriculture losses from the fire, which scorched avocado, citrus, raspberry and other fields as well as rangeland, said Korinne Bell, Ventura County’s agricultural commissioner. California’s basic fire insurance program is limited to coverage for farm structures and is prohibitively expensive, said Maureen McGuire, executive officer for the Farm Bureau of Ventura County. On the first two days of the Mountain fire, the worst days for air quality, advocate groups, the county agriculture commissioner and the Farm Bureau of Ventura County gave many farmworkers N95 masks.
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