At least one adult content provider was forced to evacuate, though no adult studios seemed in danger, as flames from wildfires that blazed across Southern California this weekend began nipping at Porn Valley today. Clouds of smoke rose from Simi Valley and ash began to fall like snow on the northwestern parts of Chatsworth as the fires tickled over Rocky Peak.
Matrix Content, whose offices are located on the far west side of Chatsworth near Plummer Lake, was evacuated earlier today.
“The cops started coming around with the loudspeakers saying there was a mandatory evacuation. Everyone pitched in and loaded the slides into their cars,” Matrix Content president Norman Bentley told AVN.com “We left the machines and everything behind because that’s insurable.”
The staff of Matrix Content relocated to Bentley’s house, where they are still running their operation at full speed, offering all of their services with the exception of fulfilling CD orders.
“That’s why we love having an online company. We could run Matrix from a camel,” Bentley said before his cell phone broke up.
While the offices of Simon Wolf Productions are safe, the house that the studio’s owner, John Chambliss, and production manager, Robert Herrera , share on Rocky Peak, is located where firefighters are currently trying to contain the fire.
Herrera, who has asthma, came down to the offices earlier today because the smoke became too much for his medical condition. Chambliss is still there, keeping an eye on the four horses and two dogs they keep at the house. Herrera says he’s not that worried about the house, there are sprinklers on the roof and in the yard, but he is concerned about the animals, as is Chambliss who is still there keeping an eye on them.
“He’s going to load up the horses and let the dogs go at the last minute,” Herrera said of why Chambliss was still at their house.
Smash Pictures, one of the closest studios to the danger zone, located less than a mile from the containment area, will still be in business tomorrow according to director James Digiorgio.
“A pornographers work is never done, we work harder to get your porn than the mailman does to get you your mail,” Digiorgio joked, though he acknowledged seeing ash falling from the sky.
No evacuation alerts have been issued in the area surrounding the Eton Avenue offices of AVN, nor have any studios been ordered to evacuate as this story was published to the Web.
For the most part, Porn Valley seems safe, though the clouds of smoke from Simi Valley, west of Chatsworth, have blackened a good portion of the sky. Current weather reports indicate relief: the winds tonight will blow north, away from Chatsworth, although one weatherperson was heard to forecast tomorrow’s weather as “Sunny, with occasional smoke.”
The tone of her voice didn’t indicate that she was joking.
"Chatsworth is relatively safe, but not out of danger yet," Edward Osorio, a Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman told the Los Angeles Times earlier today.
The City of Chatsworth only has three fire trucks, with a grant for a fourth, awarded last week, falling $60,000 dollars short of the amount needed for a third.
Fortunately, firefighters from across the state have come to help fight the fire from approaching any further, with the Ronald Reagan Freeway, also known as the 118, being considered the boundary that the fire must not cross.
