La Brea Update 8-15
Update: KEYT reports – “In a press release from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Narcotics Unit and the U.S. Forest Service: Investigators revealed that the La Brea Fire was started by a cooking fire in a marijuana drug trafficking operation.”
The fire in the San Rafael Wilderness area has now burned about 84,150 acres and is 25% contained. The major emphasis has been on backfires and bulldozing to create fire lines to stop the fire from spreading outside the National Forest. The jump in the containment from 10 to 25% shows the success of the plan.
Ray Ford, the Santa Barbara Independent‘s back-country and wildfire reporter, has a couple of great pictures, and a quick tutorial on creating them in Pano Provides Perspective.
There have been 2 minor injuries fighting the fire which has already cost $6.3 million.
Currently there are 108 engines, 59 crews, 25 dozers, 5 air tankers, 14 helicopters, 14 water tenders and 1,980 total personnel assigned to the fire.
Links: The KEYT La Brea Fire article, the Santa Barbara Independent La Brea Fire page, InciWeb La Brea page with a map, KSBY has videos and the Enplan Wildfire Viewer, which used satellite sensors to spot fires.
[For more information go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Fires” for all of the posts related to wildfires on this site.]
4 comments
The photos really give a sense of the daunting task that firefighters have in battling these fires in the Santa Bar-B-Que back country.
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That’s really the reason for the strategy of building fire lines where they can and using aircraft. You can’t directly attack the fire on the ground, because you can’t get to it.
My Lord! Those panorama pictures offer another reason to be thankful that I’m too old and fat to do that stuff anymore…
It is amazing that there have only been two minor injuries on a fire of this size, given the ground they have to work on and given that there appears to be – according to the resource list – around 1300 people on the line (assuming 20-person crews and at least 2 people per engine). This fuel type doesn’t allow for much in the way of daytime direct attack – especially during the afternoon ‘burning period’ when temperature and humidity (or, more precisely, the lack thereof) create dangerous circumstances…
The width of that flame front is truly daunting…
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There are pictures of crews walking on paths cut through the chaparral. The paths are 8-10 feet wide and the vegetation and either side is solid. That is no place to be with fire around. You would need a chain saw to move anywhere but the path.
I was stationed in Monterey twice, which is South of this, and the hills are no joy to walk, even in the city. You head out to the back country and you are thinking mountain climbing more than hiking.
It sounds like the crews are more involved in clearing fire breaks than direct attacks, because, like you say, there’s not much level ground to work from, and not a lot of access to the interior.
There may not be “injuries”, but we both know there are a lot of aching bodies from working in an area like that. In addition to equipment, you would have to carry a major water supply with you when you leave camp. It’s a job for the young and fit, who will feel a heck of a lot older after a couple of days.