As new winds pushed from the Pacific Ocean Tuesday, the Zaca Fire made a 1,500-acre run northeast, taking its peril away from mountain communities overlooking Santa Barbara.

Officials predicted the 71,300-acre wildfire would burn right through the Sisquoc River drainage and move northeast into the Dick Smith Wilderness, where thousands of acres of parched pine and oak trees have not burned in the last century. But on Tuesday, a cool marine layer kept those flames mostly at bay.

The fire was 68 percent contained, and officials still consider it a threat to some 575 homes, camps and historic buildings along the upper Santa Ynez River, east of Highway 154.

Until firefighters secure fire lines along Upper Oso and the Buckhorn Trail, just north of Paradise Road, evacuation orders and road closures will remain in effect, officials said.

This past weekend, the fire made a quick run south, and reached a drainage northeast of Lake Cachuma, triggering an immediate evacuation of some 800 people along Paradise Road and the Lower Santa Ynez River Road to Gibraltar Dam.

Those evacuated could not return home Tuesday, and much of Highway 154 was still closed to through traffic.

Since that evacuation, the fire has not made any significant threats to mountain communities north of Santa Barbara. Still, officials do not want to take their chances.

Advertisement

About 50 engines and nearly 280 firefighters from Cal Fire have been staged at the Earl Warren Showgrounds in Santa Barbara since Sunday to familiarize themselves with local roads in the event of a mass evacuation, said Cheryl Goetz, a captain with the state fire agency.

“They would be the first ones in the line of defense,” she said referring to the possibility that the fire could breach lines and enter populated areas on the South Coast. “These engines aren't here to scare people. Hopefully they are here to provide comfort.”

The duration of their camp will depend on where the fire moves, she said. “Once they feel the threat is no longer here in these communities, then we will be going home,” Goetz said.

Fire managers are expected to open a new camp in Cuyama, where hundreds of firefighters will be staged and transported to the fire as it continues to move north, said Ron DeHart, a spokesman with the U.S. Forest Service.

“Currently we're staged at Live Oak and it's a long way” from the fire itself, he said. “It takes a lot of time shuttling people.”

Now that the southern flank closer to the Santa Ynez River is tightly secured with bulldozed buffer lines and hundreds of firefighters, the focus on the north will be to steer the fire to the east.

“It's going to take a lot of work, and cooperation from the weather,” DeHart said.

The fire that started July 4 some 15 miles north of Los Olivos has burned mostly in the San Rafael Wilderness, northeast of the Santa Ynez Valley. Suppression costs have now risen to $54.6 million.

Luis Ernesto Gomez can be reached at 739-2218, or lgomez@santamaria

times.com

August 8, 2007