Firefighting crews reached 93% containment on the Alisal Fire Tuesday morning, according to incident command.
The blaze has burned 17,254 acres since it started last week, and the number of personnel assigned to the incident has dropped to 969 as of Tuesday, which is several hundred fewer people than the weekend.
“Generally, as a whole, the fire is looking pretty good,” said Chris Childers with California Incident Management Team 1, who is also a Santa Barbara County Fire battalion chief, during Monday’s operational update. “We think we have a pretty good handle on the fire.”
The incident command page lists Oct. 25 as the estimated containment date.
All evacuation orders and warnings for the Alisal Fire area have been lifted, although the areas are still restricted to residents only, according to county officials.
Los Padres National Forest issued a closure order for the area through Nov. 16 that affects roads, trails, campgrounds and lands within the closure.
Although the state parks and campgrounds on the Gaviota Coast are no longer in evacuation zones, they will be closed through Oct. 24 while firefighting personnel use them for staging and housing, according to the county. That includes Gaviota State Park, Refugio State Beach and El Capitán State Beach.
“A slight warming and drying trend is forecasted for Tuesday through Friday,” Monday’s Forest Service update said. “Winds continue pushing over the area from the south with little potential to create a flare-up or spot fire.”
The Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District forecasted good air quality conditions throughout the county for the next two days.
“Today, with residual clouds at high elevations within the fire perimeter and cooler temperatures, minimal new smoke emissions are expected,” the APCD said Monday. “As smoldering continues and mop up clears any remaining hot spots, overnight smoke in low laying areas along the immediate vicinity of the fire is possible.”
While cooler temperatures and higher humidity are expected, wind gusts up to 40 mph are also expected Monday.
According to a news release from the county, incident management will transition to a local team on Wednesday.
The incident command page is available at https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7862/ and the county’s Alisal Fire information page can be found at https://readysbc.org/alisal-fire/.
Real-time air quality conditions and forecasts can be seen at https://www.ourair.org/todays-air-quality/.
The cause of the Alisal Fire is under investigation. Flames were first reported around 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 11.
— Noozhawk staff writer Serena Guentz can be reached at sguentz@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.