Sandy Fire Threatens Spears and Michaels Mansions

The new Sandy Fire in the Simi Valley area of Southern California has residents worried.

Simi Valley is home to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library which is the burial site of Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, and his wife Nancy Reagan.

It is also where rock star Bret Michaels of the band Poison .

Michaels took to Instagram on Tuesday to share a video from his home where smoke could be seen in the background. 'To all our Southern  friends & fans in the path of this current fire, please stay safe. We are thinking of you & grateful for our awesome firefighters!' he shared.

And the flames are reportedly heading toward Thousand Oaks, where , ,  and Tom Selleck have mansions.

, who is running for Mayor of , criticized Democratic Mayor in several posts to X on Monday over her handling of the while drawing comparisons to the Sandy Fire.

More than 17,000 people were under evacuation orders in Southern California on Tuesday as a wildfire threatened suburban homes, .

The wind-driven Sandy Fire was reported Monday in the hills above Simi Valley, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles.

By Tuesday morning, it had consumed more than two square miles (five square kilometers) of dry brush and destroyed at least one home, according to the Ventura County Fire Department.

The flames were initially pushed by gusts that topped 30 mph (48 kph), but firefighters were aided by calmer winds overnight, said department spokesperson Andrew Dowd.

'We've made a lot of progress against this fire with those improved weather conditions,' Dowd said. Crews hoped to make further progress before winds increased again, he said.

The fire was 5% contained. The cause is under investigation.

Evacuation orders and warnings were still in place for several neighborhoods in Simi Valley.

It is a city of more than 125,000 people that was shrouded in smoke as aircraft made water drops.

Meanwhile, firefighters were battling a 23-square-mile (59-square-kilometer) blaze on Santa Rosa Island, off the Southern California coast. 

The fire destroyed a cabin and an equipment shed and forced the evacuation of 11 National Park Service employees.

There was no containment as of Tuesday morning.

Santa Rosa, a popular destination for camping and hiking, is home to island foxes, spotted skunks and elephant seals.

This comes as Southern California is still reeling from the Palisades Fire.

It was a highly destructive wildfire that began in the Santa Monica Mountains of Los Angeles County on January 7, 2025, and grew to destroy large areas of Pacific Palisades, Topanga, and Malibu before it was fully contained on January 31. 

One of a series of wildfires in Southern California driven by extremely powerful Santa Ana winds, it spread to 37 sq mi (95 km2), killed 12 people, and destroyed 6,837 structures, making it the 10th-deadliest and third-most destructive California wildfire on record and the most destructive to occur in the history of the city of Los Angeles.

The fire burned simultaneously with the similarly destructive Eaton Fire at the foothills of the nearby San Gabriel Mountains.