The Lake Fire that started on July 5 in the hills outside Los Olivos has brought thousands of firefighters to the Los Padres National Forest.
“We currently have 2,485 people on on scene here," said Santa Barbara County Fire Captain Scott Safechuck. He tells me their biggest concern is preventing further spread of the flames.
"The terrain is the biggest obstacle and the heat and weather coupled together is the biggest obstacle that we're dealing with," Safechuck says.
Nearby residents, like Rosanna Eubank from Rancho Ynecita, are keeping a close watch.
“You're kind of used to fires around here in the summer, but then it it obviously got closer and you could visually see it from our property at night and so especially at night, it's scary," Eubank said.
In Santa Ynez, cafe owner Amy George says the fire is all her customers have been talking about since Friday;
“This fire is kind of unusual because it's not burning. It's Santa Barbara on the other side of the hill. It's burning right here in the valley, which is unusual for us.”
Multiple resources are being used to fight the fire both on the ground and from the air.
“We have to create a safety line or a fire line to get into that edge of the fire so we can get close to it, start extinguishing it. Using bulldozers to reinforce those containment lines or the fire line that we're putting in as well as using aircraft to assist out ahead of that," Safechuck explains.
With evacuation orders still in effect, he says a lack of cooler conditions at night is hampering firefighting efforts.
“We'd be able to advance on that fire more in the evening, but we're just not getting that recovery at night here.”
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