The Lake Fire is now the largest fire to break out in Santa Barbara County since 2018.
"So, this area's a little bit risky with fires and with floods," said Derek Langer.
Langer has lived in Santa Barbara for nine years and evacuated during the Thomas fire in 2017.
"It was distressing," he said.
Since then, Langer has taken steps to protect his home.
"We've cut down on vegetation around the house, did some fireproofing," he said.
Wildfires are part of living in Santa Barbara County, which has historically had one big fire per decade since 1950, according to Santa Barbara Fire Safe Council. Forty-year resident Michael Ring says he isn’t concerned about the Lake Fire.
"It is not an immediate threat as far as fire. Smoke is another issue," explains Ring.
His words of wisdom: evacuate early.
"You know, it's so much easier to evacuate at two in the afternoon than it is at two in the morning," Ring said.
In 2023, California had just over 3,000 wildfires that burned 11,136 acres. So far, this year’s wildfires have already burned more than 200,000 acres. The largest fire in the last eight years in Santa Barbara County was the 2017 Thomas Fire. This year’s Lake Fire is the largest since then, followed by the 2021 Alisal Fire, which burned 16,970 acres.
