Zaca Fire fully contained Sunday

Two months of relentless efforts to corral the Zaca Fire - state's second largest wildfire in recorded history - have officially ended, but the work of firefighters is far from over.

While declared fully contained on Sunday, technically the giant blaze is still burning. And while it is not considered a threat to populated areas and is unlikely to expand, firefighters will remain watchful of islands of fire within the perimeter they have carved around the stubborn wildfire.

Officials still do not know how much of the Los Padres National Forest remains unburned within the fire's perimeter. But they estimate it could be months - or until the rainy season - before the last ember dies.

Only then will fire managers consider the blaze fully controlled.

For the most part, fire managers will opt to let the interior islands of vegetation burn on their own as long as they don't threaten to escape the perimeter, said Connie Chaney, a spokeswoman with the California Interagency Incident Management (CIIM) team in the New Cuyama camp.

Smoke may still be visible even after containment is achieved, she said, but those plumes aren't expected to be any bigger than previously seen at the peak of the fire.

Firefighters will continue to work on healing damage to the forest caused by their suppression efforts.

Hand crews and bulldozers built more than 300 miles of line to corral the Zaca Fire, which scorched some 240,207 acres of forest land, including major portions of the San Rafael and Dick Smith wilderness

areas.

A special forest unit called the Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) team is expected to survey the forest. Within seven days of containment, it must report to the regional U.S. Forest Service office in Vallejo or its headquarters in Washington, D.C., with an assessment of the damage and a rehabilitation plan, said Lloyd Simpson, a lead resource advisor with the BAER team.

He said the team will specifically look at ways to reduce further watershed damage from flooding or landslides due to loss of vegetation and the impacts of firefighting efforts.

There are no efforts planned to heal the vast swath of back country ravaged by the fire. That will be up to Mother Nature, he said.

Post-containment

The fire was sparked in a canyon northeast of Los Olivos on the morning of July 4. Winds and parched forest fuels steered flames into the Los Padres National Forest. Eventually, the blaze burned southeast toward mountain communities adjacent to the Santa Ynez River.

After the first month, favorable winds and firefighting measures turned the fire east and north, where it was eventually cornered near Ventucopa and the Sisquoc River.

Fire managers used an array of fire suppression tactics, including air drops of water and fire retardant; widened trails to use as “fire breaks;” direct firefighter attacks; and even burnouts and backfires to eliminate fuels ahead of the fire and stop it from further expansion.

Their means have cost more than $117 million, with the bulk of it going to firefighter salaries and daily use of air tankers. Much of the back country forest was charred, but no human lives were lost and only a single out building burned.

For weeks, fire managers forecasted a full containment date of Sept. 7. Two weeks ago, that date was moved up to Tuesday. After a week of nearly no fire activity, fire officials decided to declare the fire fully contained on Sunday.

To keep costs low, fire officials have released many of the crews that were brought in to battle the blaze. Some go home, others move to to other wildfires.

At the peak of suppression efforts, nearly 4,000 firefighters battled the fire. By Sunday night, the number was down to 1,362.

Chuck Dickson, a lead spokesman with the CIIM team, said an army of firefighters will stay behind to monitor the fire as it burns itself out. Dickson said fire managers on Friday did not know how many would remain.

“Looking back to the Murphy Complex in Idaho, which was three times the size of this fire and had 250 miles of dozer lines, about 1,100 people stayed behind to do rehabilitation,” he said.

Dickson said that most of the crews expected to stay behind are likely to be comprised of less costly - therefore less experienced - firefighters.

For several days, crews have been in “rehabilitation mode” in the southern parts of the fire, where it was declared contained on Aug. 22. As part of the first phase of rehabilitating the forest, their work is based on erasing the human footprint.

Fireline rehabilitation consists of removing equipment, used hose lines and debris off the fire area, said Tricia Christofferson of the U.S. Forest Service. And that's a job that doesn't require highly trained crews, she added.

Similarly, crews on the northern part of the fire will do the same while helicopters continue to drop water on hot spots.

Meanwhile, other crews will restore the forest's condition in areas used by firefighters, such as overnight “spike camps.” Additionally, crews will alter the more than 300 miles of fire line graded by hand crews and bulldozers to avoid long-term effects.

For example, forest officials are concerned that visitors will used bulldozer lines as “off-road vehicle” trails, which slow the natural healing of the forest, Simpson said. To eliminate that problem, he said crews will put boulders or temporary fences to block any vehicles.

The second phase of rehabilitation will focus on minimizing any long-term hydrological effects resulting from future rainfalls, which is the objective of the BAER team, Simpson said.

The team consists of specialists in hydrology, soil science, biology, geology, Geographic Information System (or GIS), recreation facilities and engineering.

“A large part of the Sisquoc River was burned, and that may have an impact on communities that get water from the river,” he said, citing concerns of flooding and erosion. “(The BAER team) will try to do things that help mitigate that.”

Their methods include building “rolling dips” and dirt “water bars” to divert water off the bulldozer lines. The work is based on a set of standards spelled by the BAER team, he said.

“For example, we put water bars to prevent erosion,” he said. “The steeper the slope the closer the water bars” are built.

The team is expected to begin its assessment in forest lands this week, and based on federal funding that must be used within a year, Simpson said their work could go on until their funding runs out.

While some areas that were not burned by the forest have reopened - mostly in the Ventura County east of Highway 33 - other unburned areas that included public campgrounds remain closed.

Forest officials would not speculate when they will reopen. It will certainly be after the fire is fully controlled and deemed safe for the public, said Joe Pasinato, a spokesman with the Forest Service.

“It won't be open tomorrow or next week,” he said Friday.

Luis Ernesto Gomez can be reached at 739-2218, or lgomez@santamariatimes.com

September 3, 2007