County Firefighters Continue to Fight Southern Fires

A total of 137 Santa Barbara County firefighters-the most to ever be fighting a fire outside the county at one time-are still involved in quelling the nine fires that continue to burn in Southern California. The weeklong firestorm has included almost three dozen separate fires, with the total acreage climbing above 500,000. More than 1,800 homes have been destroyed and seven people have been killed as a result of the fires.

According to Santa Barbara County fire Capt. Eli Iskow, firefighters are making process due to improving weather conditions, and no fires being fought by county firefighters grew significantly over the last day.

Firefighters from Guadalupe, Santa Maria, Orcutt, Lompoc, the city of Santa Barbara, Montecito, Carpinteria and Summerland are all helping contain the fires down south.

While many of the departments are at “drawdown” status, which means the agency has committed as many personnel as possible without impacting its own ability to fight fires and serve the people in their communities, no agency has exceeded the drawdown level, Iskow said. Firefighters are working extra shifts to keep it that way. “All of our local fire department’s fire stations remain fully staffed with personnel and equipment, operating at 100 percent capacity and responding to all fire, medical and related emergencies as normal,” he said.