Santa Barbara County officials issued new evacuation orders Thursday due to the Lake Fire burning in the eastern Santa Ynez Valley.
The county Air Pollution Control District also updated its air-quality alert to the entire valley.
Most areas of the county had good or moderate air quality as of Thursday afternoon, representatives said, but residents are advised to monitor conditions for changes.
Track real-time air quality through the county APCD page and federal fire and smoke map.
The APCD noted that gray contours on the federal map represent the Lake Fire’s smoke plume, but sometimes smoke may be high in the air, not at ground level.
The Sheriff’s Office announced new evacuation orders for the area east of La Brea Creek and Forest Route 10N06, south of the Los Padres National Forest boundary and north of the Sisquoc River.
A new warning area is: east of Kelly Canyon, north of Sisquoc River, west of La Brea Creek and Forest Route 10N06, and south of the Los Padres National Forest.
Other evacuation orders and warnings for fire-impacted areas remain in effect.
For the most recent evacuation information check readysbc.org’s Lake Fire page.
Click here for an interactive map of affected areas.
About 2,100 people have been affected by the evacuations so far, according to fire officials.
Road closure information is available here.
Highway 154 is not within evacuation areas, but Caltrans recommends drivers use Highway 101 instead because of the wildfire.
Fire Update
It had burned 34,015 acres and was 16% contained as of Thursday.
“Firefighters have conducted firing operations to create a buffer zone in areas of the fire, and they continue to strengthen control lines, identifying and extinguishing any remaining hot spots within the fire perimeter,” officials said.
“The Los Padres Forest Administrator updated the reporting from the last period. The three damaged recreational residences, one damaged outbuilding, and one burned-over campground have been reclassified as three destroyed recreational buildings, one destroyed outbuilding, and damaged campground.”
Fire Operations Split into North and South Zones
As of Thursday, the fire is divided into the North Zone led by one incident command team and the U.S. Forest Service, and the South Zone headed by another incident command team and CalFire.
Unified Command – those two agencies and the Santa Barbara County Fire Department – set up a second base camp Wednesday to handle the increasing number of people and amount of equipment assigned to the firefighting effort.
One base is in Santa Maria at the Elks Rodeo Grounds, and the other is at the Santa Maria Speedway in Nipomo. More than 3,200 personnel are assigned to the blaze.
Incident commanders said no significant changes to the fire were expected Thursday.
