Candy and Jim Lingl moved back into their rebuilt home about two years after the Mountain Fire. After a long rebuilding process, the couple is home again.
The Mountain Fire burned through Camarillo Heights and nearby areas in November 2024. The Los Angeles Times reported that 132 homes were lost and 88 damaged, with no deaths and few injuries.
A Long Road From Foundation to Front Door
Rebuilding took time. On Oct. 31, 2025, the Lingls were still at an early stage: their new foundation had been poured just days earlier, according to the station’s report from that fall. A vcstar.com picture gallery described them as among several Las Posas Estates homeowners working to rebuild nearly a year after the fire.
Community Response and a Slow Countywide Recovery
Camarillo Mayor Tony Trembley struck a note of resilience in the fire's immediate aftermath, telling the Los Angeles Times, “We will get through this, and we will support each other.” That sentiment has played out gradually across the burn area as families like the Lingls rebuild piece by piece, with wildfire recovery timelines routinely stretching into years rather than months.
Ventura County’s Resource Management Agency has tracked rebuild permits across the burn area. An earlier snapshot showed 41 rebuild permit applications received, with 29 still in the permitting process and 12 building permits issued to start construction. The county also issued the first certificate of occupancy for a home rebuilt after the Mountain Fire.
County recovery progress and rebuilding support
In an April 9, 2026 update, Ventura County’s Resource Management Agency reported 246 permits related to the Mountain Fire, covering rebuilds, repairs and other work. It said 72 properties had entered the rebuilding pipeline, with 39 permits issued and all 39 projects under construction; the update also marked the first rebuilt home cleared for occupancy, according to Ventura County RMA.
The county says fire-rebuild applicants can apply for a building permit without first obtaining zoning clearance, and that the Board of Supervisors approved rebuilding-related fee waivers on Dec. 17, 2024; its page does not establish whether the Lingls used or received either measure. As a separate precedent, the City of Malibu says the Woolsey Fire burned through the city in early November 2018 and residents had begun rebuilding—a different recovery, not a like-for-like timeline for the Lingls.
For the Lingls, those bureaucratic details sit in the background of a more personal milestone: a family finally back under its own roof, in the same hills they called home before the fire changed everything.
