The County Fire Department has released its new wildfire protection plan for Santa Barbara foothill areas to identify high-risk areas and outline plans to prevent future fires.

Fire Chief Mark Hartwig said The Santa Barbara Foothills Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) and plans passed by cities are woven together to cover the entire region.

The new plan will cover Mission Canyon, San Roque, Barger Canyon, Northridge, and other South Coast foothill areas.

The plan describes Santa Barbara County as having a Mediterranean environment with dry summers and wet winters. One of the reasons given for Santa Barbara’s high fire risk is the deep canyons that concentrate winds. These high winds lead to dry vegetation and help fires spread more easily.

The new CWPP will replace the older plan, which was developed in 2011, and covers a larger region. The new plan also includes an evacuation study.  

According to Fred Tan, the fire marshal for Santa Barbara County, the new plan benefits from better science and tools that the department can use to examine wind, topography, how fire is likely to move, and more.

“Fire departments have had projects in Mission Canyon for a number of years now,” Tan said. “It validates our projects; it gave us a couple of new projects. But really the science and the tools available that give us the fire modeling (…) it’s a big difference versus the initial one.”

Projects in the plan include fuel reduction, where crews remove dry brush to reduce the amount of fuel for wildfires.

The County Fire Department met with the community as part of developing the plan.

“Santa Barbara County is no stranger to fire (…) and this community has a pretty high IQ about wildland fires, but as a result of that they also have a lot of concerns,” Tan said.

The CWPP wrapped up public comment recently, and the Board of Supervisors will review the plan in May. Supervisors can vote to approve the plan or send it back with suggestions.

In addition to plans for the fire department, the CWPP shares how the public can protect their homes and prepare for fires. This can include building defensible spaces by removing flammable materials near homes.

Tan also said that the CWPP explains some of these concepts and links to grants that can be used to fund larger projects.

“A lot of home hardening elements can be something that you can plan as a weekend thing, but some of them, some things could be fairly expensive. You know? A lot of homeowners are looking for those types of resources,” Tan said.

Even though Hartwig says he believes in the plan, he says that most of the plan is not designed for the individual homeowner. He added that residents should take steps to protect their homes by creating defensible spaces and home hardening.

Hartwig added that the County Fire Department has a video on its website that explains how residents can prepare their homes and assess whether it is prepared for wildfires.

Read the Santa Barbara Foothills Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) here.