California fire crews say Lake Fire is dwindling
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Crews believe the end may be in sight for the Lake Fire.
A mostly clear blue sky rises above the Santa Ynez Valley, but the Lake Fire, now two-and-a-half weeks going, remains active.
"Still a fire burning out there, you know, and even when it's contained 100%, there's still going to be a fire out there," said Dennis Burns, a fire behavior analyst.
Crews continue to work hard, keeping the fire at bay, high up into the Santa Barbara County backcountry.
"The suppression resources have really been anchoring in on keeping within the current footprint. The fire hasn't moved, since probably July 20," said Curtis Coots, Incident Commander with the California Interagency Incident Management Team 2.
With containment climbing, resources and personnel are beginning to decline and transition away.
"A lot of these resources will be reassigned to nationally. There are, you know, a lot of big fires still up in Oregon, Washington that we've been filling resource orders to go up there,' Coots shared.
As of Tuesday, crew working the Lake Fire fell below 1,000, far less than the high mark of 3,000 just days ago.
A base camp at the Santa Maria Speedway has closed and the Incident Command Post at the Elks Event Center is grower smaller, and soon, Los Padres National Forest will take over command of operations.
"The goal is to get the fire down to probably 150, maybe 200 personnel that will be left for the [Los Padres] Forest to manage and maintain...the Lake Fire," Coots expressed.
While an end to the Lake Fire is in sight, there's still plenty of work left to be done.
"We still have quite a few unburned islands inside the fire perimeter. Nothing that's a threat to the line, but we're starting to see a little bit more activity in those islands, [which] started as early as [Tuesday] morning," Burns remarked.
After enjoying several days of improved weather which really helped out in the firefighting effort, conditions are beginning to turn a little bit less favorable this week.
"We're supposed to have wind gusts up to 25 miles an hour for an extended period of time, so you know, hot, dry, windy. Those are the three combinations that we don't like to see. On the favorable side, we'll be able to test those fire lines. we're pretty confident that they'll stay where they're at."
Dennis Burns, Fire Behavior Analyst
