Firefighters, their food and gear, and even wildland fire engines are being sent to Santa Rosa Island by boat to battle the wildfire that had burned 16,942 acres and was 26% contained as of Tuesday night.
The blaze that started Friday has burned through the Torrey pine tree area, one of the two places in the world where the rare tree grows naturally. It was approaching the Water Canyon Campground and historic ranch house complex on Wednesday, and that’s where firefighters were focusing their efforts.
“Firefighters will continue working on enhancing defensible space preparation of the structures in the Main Ranch Complex ahead of and if the main fire front reaches that area,” officials said.
Santa Rosa Island, part of the Channel Islands National Park, is closed to the public due to the fire. In addition to the fire threatening park infrastructure, historic structures and Chumash archeological sites, it threatens the unique flora and fauna of the island.
There are 80 plant species that are unique to the Channel Islands and six that are only found on Santa Rosa Island, according to the National Park Service.
“Today, more firefighters and equipment will arrive on the island, including a crew from Chumash Fire Department who have a special connection to Channel Islands National Park as Chumash Homelands,” federal officials said Wednesday morning.
“The U.S. Wildland Fire Service has also sent National Park Service firefighting resource advisors to the island who will be working in tandem with the Chumash to protect cultural and natural resources.”
There were 135 personnel assigned to the fire on Wednesday. The wildfire had burned mostly along the southern coast of the island.
“The weather conditions have vastly improved,” said Mike Theune, a fire information officer for the incident. “Today is the warmest day so far, however, the forecast is showing cooler conditions as we head into the weekend.”
The fire had not reached the main ranch house, staff housing and other buildings on the eastern side of the island, but “it’s close,” he said.
Crews are doing direct fire suppression along the ridges, structure preparation, and coordinating with aircraft water and retardant drops.
Incident command for the firefighting response includes the U.S. Wildland Fire Service and National Park Service. They are using NPS and Island Packers boats as the main transportation to send crews and supplies to the island.
Island Packers is the concessionaire that ferries visitors and staff to the Channel Islands National Park including stops on Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands offshore of Santa Barbara County.
Their boats and staff have transported more than 75 firefighters to Santa Rosa Island as of Wednesday, the company shared on Instagram.
“We are grateful for all their efforts to extinguish this blaze before it damages even more ecologically sensitive land or historic sites and buildings,” Island Packers spokespeople said.
They were working with The Nature Conservancy and California Institute of Environmental Studies for “dockside assistance in checking gear for biosecurity risks before it was sent to the islands.”
More Crews, Aircraft Join Firefighting Effort
Federal incident commanders started using firefighting aircraft Wednesday, including water-dropping tankers and water scooping aircraft that dump seawater. They also used retardant-dropping tankers near the historic ranch house complex.
Due to concerns about the environmental impacts of retardant, they planned to use water when possible.
“The preference will be water, but we’re going to utilize every tool available to us to stop the spread of this fire,” Theune said Tuesday.
The water-dropping aircraft fills up on the mainland, from tanker bases in Santa Maria and Lancaster, and makes runs out to the island. Some of the large tankers can drop 4,000 gallons of water in a single pass, and the scoopers can drop 1,500 gallons at a time, according to federal officials.
Strong winds prevented the use of firefighting aircraft until Tuesday, and contributed to the fast growth of the blaze, officials said.
Two uninhabited structures on the south side of the island were destroyed by the fire — a historic equipment shed and camp cabin — but crews confirmed that the South Point light station is still intact.
The Santa Rosa Island Fire as seen from the Main Ranch Complex on Tuesday, May 19. Credit: U.S. Wildland Fire Service photo 
Resource advisors and a six-person crew from the Chumash Fire Department prepare to board an Island Packers vessel for the three-hour trip to the Santa Rosa Island Fire at Channel Islands National Park. The team will support efforts to help protect sensitive cultural sits and natural resources threatened by the wildfire. Credit: U.S. Wildland Fire Service photo 
A large airtanker drops fire retardant on the Santa Rosa Island fire. Credit: U.S. Wildland Fire Service photo
Fire Investigation
The U.S. Coast Guard initially said the fire appeared to be caused by a man who crashed his sailboat at the island and fired signal flares.
The agency and fire incident officials later issued a correction to statements citing the flares as the cause, and now say the cause is still under investigation.
The sailboat reportedly caught fire after crashing at the island, started the island wildfire, and the 67-year-old mariner fired signal flares to alert boats to his presence, according to a SFGATE story published Wednesday. The man reportedly took video of the burning boat from shore.
Carson Shevitz of Channel Watch Marine Services posted on TowBoatUS-Ventura’s Instagram that the mariner told them he ran aground on Thursday afternoon and went on shore. Later, the boat caught fire.
“Unable to call for help from the island, he hoped the smoke from his vessel’s fire would attract attention to his distress, but to no avail,” the post said. “The following morning, he deployed several aerial distress flares from within the already-burned area on the island as nearby fishing vessels approached, successfully alerting boaters to his presence who made the report to the Coast Guard.”
Federal fire officials have said the fire was reported by a passing aircraft on Friday morning, and it was confirmed by National Park Service staff.
When asked about the videos and narrative shared with SFGATE, fire officials reiterated that the cause is still under investigation.
Air Quality Impacts
Smoke from wildfires on Santa Rosa Island and in Simi Valley could blow into the Santa Barbara area and affect air quality this week.
Moderate air quality has been forecasted due to the minor smoke impacts, according to the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution and Control District.
“We expect smoke to mostly blow away from our county, but there is a small chance that some smoke could reach the most southern areas of Santa Barbara County,” spokesperson Lyz Bantilan said Tuesday.
“For the most part, we expect that smoke will not affect ground-level air quality, but you may notice a slight smoke smell or see some haze high in the sky.”
Check air quality and the AirNow Fire and Smoke map here.
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