A bolt of lightning seen Saturday from Vandenberg Village, as thunderstorms move through the area, sparking several vegetation fires. 
A Santa Barbara County helicopter over an area at Hollister Ranch that burned on Saturday. The blaze reportedly was sparked by lightning. 
Smoke rises from a vegetation fire sparked by lightning Saturday in the Alisal Ranch area of the Santa Ynez Valley. Several lightning-sparked blazes were reported throughout the area. 
Flames from a lightning-sparked fire above a highway on Saturday in the Santa Ynez Valley. 
Map shows lightning distribution on Saturday in western Santa Barbara County. 
A bolt of lightning near a North County farm field as thunderstorms move through the area, sparking several vegetation fires.
Several vegetation fires believed to have been sparked by lightning kept firefighters busy in Northern Santa Barbara County on Saturday, as the thunderstorms left thousands of customers without power.
At approximately 8:30 a.m., personnel from the Santa Barbara County Fire Department and Los Padres National Forest responded to the Alisal Ranch area for a report of smoke following lightning strikes, county Fire Capt. Daniel Bertucelli said.
As a Santa Barbara County helicopter flew overhead to help firefighters get to the scene of the hard-to-access small fire, another incident was reported near Drum Canyon and Centennial Street in Los Alamos.
That fire had burned about 2 acres with some resources from the Solvang incident diverted to Los Alamos with that blaze estimated as having the potential to grow to 10 acres.
Shortly after 9:30 a.m., a third fire was reported near La Purisima Golf Course off Highway 246.
Personnel from the Santa Maria, Lompoc, Santa Barbara City and Vandenberg fire departments also responded to assist with the numerous incidents.
In the Santa Maria Valley, firefighters responded to a tree on fire on the 200 block of East Foster Road, and a structure fire involving a fence in the 4500 block of Edenbury Drive with an open gas line nearby.
With resources spread thin, an off-duty Montecito batallion chief responded to the Orcutt structure fire to help and asked for Southern California Gas Co. personnel to be dispatched to the scene, according to emergency dispatch reports.
As of 11 a.m., signficant resources were focused on two other incidents, one called the Surf Fire at Hollister Ranch, and another at Vandenberg Air Force Base property but near Vandenberg Village, according to emergency dispatch reports.
The Surf Fire burned 7 acres before crews stopped the forward progress. The blaze threatened one structure for a time, but it was not damaged.
“That cause is still under investigation but it is believed lightning was the cause,” Bertucelli said.
The Vandenberg fire reportedly charred between 5 and 10 acres with crews also concerned about the possibility it could grow larger.
By Saturday afternoon, crews had stopped the forward progress of the various fires, but remained at the scenes performing mop-up chores.
The Santa Barbara County 911 dispatch center received more than 300 lightning-related phone calls on Saturday morning, county fire spokesman Mike Eliason added.
Bursts of lightning and booms from thunder greeted county residents on Saturday morning as firefighters chased the multiple incidents. Rain also fell in Santa Barbara, Santa Maria and other areas.
More than 22,000 Pacific Gas & Electric Company customers in the Santa Ynez Valley, Lompoc, Orcutt and Los Alamos areas were without power. Hours later, some 19,000 customers were still lacking power at of 4 p.m. Saturday, a representative said.
Most of the outages were blamed on lightning that hit transmission equipment and crews were working to assess the extent of damage, PG&E spokesman J.D. Guidi said Saturday afternoon.
He said he could not provide an estimate for when power might be restored, noting crews were working as quickly and safely as possible.
Additionally, Lompoc reported a citywide power outage due to downed transmission lines belonging to PG&E, whose crews were working to restore power. Police said they did not have an estimate for when power might return.
Lompoc City Electric Division crews were standing by to address any problems with its equipment when PG&E restores the power. The city operates its own electrical utility.
Police asked residents not to call dispatchers so phone lines could remain open to address emergencies. Updates on the power outage were expected to be posted on the Police Department’s app.
Authorities said California Independent System Operator (ISO) has declared a Stage 2 electrical emergency due to excessive heat driving up electricity use and putting a strain on the electrical grid.
If system conditions do not improve, the ISO may declare a Stage 3 Emergency, as they did Friday evening.
A Stage 3 emergency is declared when the ISO is unable to meet minimum contingency electricity reserve requirements. These typically occur during periods of prolonged, excessive heat that covers a large geographic area as California is currently experiencing.
This can lead to rolling outages, lasting one to two hours, to conserve power and can occur anywhere in the state including Santa Barbara County.
Both PG&E, which serves North County, and Southern California Edison, have warned customers about the potential outages.
Although rotating power outages may occur because of the extreme heat statewide, officials emphasized that Stage 3 rotating power outages are not associated with the public safety power shutoff (PSPS) program.
Check back to Noozhawk for updates to this story.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
