As the Lake Fire grows, firefighters split up to take on two fronts

The Lake Fire in Santa Barbara County has continued to grow, forcing firefighters to approach it from multiple fronts. It's currently the largest wildfire in California, having reached 36,707 acres while driven by strong wind gusts amid dry, hot conditions. Containment was stuck at 16% as of Friday morning.

Evacuation orders — which can be found here — are still in place for communities around Los Olivos, and will likely continue to expand as fire behavior is expected to maintain its intensity in the coming days due to high heat and wind.

A firefighting helicopter performs a water drop as the Lake Fire burns in Los Padres National Forest with evacuation warnings in the area on July 6, 2024 near Los Olivos, California.

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Mario Tama

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Getty Images North America

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One group of firefighters is focused on the Southern portion of the fire, which is where the largest communities are located. They've been able to limit spread, in part, by doing back burns. Crews have been using big metal cans with a mix of diesel and gasoline to purposely set brush on fire, all in an effort to use up the fuel before the main fire gets there. They've also been firing flares into the brush, a technique that lets them start fires from further out. They'll work to bolster containment lines through Friday.

"In conjunction with putting bulldozers in there, aerial operations and doing firing operations, it definitely improved that area over there," said Captain Scott Safechuck, public information officer with Santa Barbara County Fire.

Those on the northern side of the fire are trying to stop the blaze at the Sisquoc River by prepping brush and using back burns in an effort to take advantage of the naturally occurring fire break.

Portions of the wildfire could decrease in intensity when they hit the burn scar left by the Zaca Fire in 2007.

Cal Fire firefighters from Camarillo walks along the fire perimeter as as the Lake Fire burns in Los Olivos, on July 9, 2024.

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David Swanson

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AFP

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Firefighter injuries

The extreme heat is also taking a toll on firefighters. It's estimated that seven of them have suffered from heat related illness, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

Hotter temperatures associated with climate change puts wildland firefighters at an increased risk for heat related illness and death.

A total of 12 firefighters have been injured, the others a result of burns and poison oak exposure. All have been treated and released, some after being taken to area hospitals.

“There’s always the potential for heat related injuries working in extreme conditions like our firefighters do,” said Marc Peebles, public information officer with the U.S. Forest Service. “The number that we have is not necessarily surprising. We’ve had less and we’ve had more.”

There are 3,411 personnel from local, state and federal agencies working on the Lake Fire.

The Lake Fire as seen from Solvang in July 2024.

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George Rose

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Rough weather to continue

Temperatures at the Lake Fire will be hot, approaching 100 degrees. By Saturday, they'll cool slightly before dropping back down to what we'd expect to see this time of year — mid to upper 80s — by Monday. That'll help make things slightly safer for firefighters and potentially mitigate some of the larger smoke columns that can inhibit retardant and water drops.

The strong upper level high that's been responsible for this heat wave is weakening and moving off to the east. As it does, the marine layer — which can increase humidity and lower temperatures — should creep further inland. We should also see some more onshore flow.

The problem is that the marine inversion layer will remain quite low, hovering around 1,000 feet. Hills burning at higher elevations will still be exposed to more extreme conditions.

Wind levels are relatively low with some gusts up to 15 mph peaking in the afternoon. While we're unlikely to see a red flag alert issued, there will be brief periods of fire weather which could last for a few hours at a time.

Dry lightning on the way

Some of California's largest wildfires have been the result of dry lightning, and we could see quite a bit of it in the coming days as monsoonal moisture pushes up from the southeast. The areas of greatest concern are the eastern San Gabriel Mountains into the eastern Antelope Valley, so look out for additional fires from Mt. Baldy down into the desert.

This picture taken on July 7, 2024 near Oak Hills, California shows smoke rising in the distance beyond the Interstate 15 highway as the Vista Fire burns in the San Bernardino National Forest.

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Robyn Beck

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AFP

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Vista Fire

The Vista Fire is still burning up in the San Gabriel Mountains around Mt. Baldy, churning through heavy fuels and charging up drainages.

The fire's grown to 2,800 acres and was 13% contained as of midday Friday. A marine layer helped to drop temperatures overnight, helping to temper parts of the fire.

Still, dry lightning could strike the area in the coming days, potentially resulting in additional starts.

Is this normal?

While fires like these aren't unheard of during this time of year, we usually see larger conflagrations in the fall when bigger vegetation has dried out enough to carry fire and the Santa Ana winds show up, often making fire spread unstoppable.

Unfortunately, due to high temperatures, vegetation across much of the state is drier than normal for this time of year. Two years of good rain and few fires has resulted in an increase of grass growth in some areas, raising the amount of fuel available to burn. If that dry grass catches on fire, given there's so much dry vegetation, fire can quickly spread to larger fuels, making it more difficult to stop.