Fire officials lifted evacuation warnings Wednesday for a wildfire burning in the Cuyama Valley.
Fire officials issued evacuation warnings for a wildfire burning in the Cuyama Valley. The warnings were lifted on Wednesday. Credit: Santa Barbara County Fire Department photo

Fire officials lifted all evacuation warnings for the Hill Fire burning in the Cuyama Valley Wednesday afternoon as they reached 70% containment.

The fire started midday Tuesday near Kirschenmenn Road and Foothill Road in the northeast corner of Santa Barbara County. It was burning southwest of the intersection of highways 166 and 22, and moved south toward Los Padres National Forest.

The blaze burned 1,383 acres and was 70% contained as of Thursday morning.

Forward progress was stopped as of 4 p.m. Wednesday and about 200 personnel were assigned to the blaze to help build containment lines, County Fire Capt. Scott Safechuck said.

Unified Command for the firefighting effort includes Santa Barbara County, CalFire and Los Padres National Forest.

The agencies issued evacuation warnings Tuesday for areas south of Foothill Road, between Castro Canyon and Santa Barbara Canyon. All of them were lifted Wednesday.

A fleet of helicopters and tankers responded to help battle the fire on Tuesday, the day it started, but were released that night.

The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.

Noozhawk executive editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com.