Santa Barbara County Officers Volunteer to Assist at Caldor Fire

A contingent of 29 peace officers from Santa Barbara County have joined their colleagues in El Dorado and Alpine counties in the fight against the Caldor Fire.

Roaring past 214,000 acres today and with containment at 37 percent, the Caldor Fire, which started on August 14, has been burning toward communities along south Lake Tahoe. Mandatory evacuations and evacuation warnings affect tens of thousands of people in the potential path of fire. Calmer wind conditions and a modicum of humidity have raised containment optimism in recent days. Evacuees are sheltering across three counties — El Dorado, Amador, and Nevada.

The 21 deputies from Santa Barbara County’s Sheriff’s Department and two dispatchers, as well as four officers from the Santa Barbara Police Department and two officers from the Lompoc Police Department, are offering the same mutual aid protection in the fire zone that they are accustomed to performing in the county’s own fire history. They will be relieving local officers at barricades and on patrol in evacuated neighborhoods, as well as providing relief to dispatchers. Joining them are another 70 law enforcement personnel from San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties.

“California’s public safety mutual system is the finest in the world, and we here in Santa Barbara County have been the recipient of outside help from agencies across the state many times,” said Sheriff Bill Brown, expressing pride in the voluntary deployment. “We know how important this mutual aid is, so it is an honor for us to be able to help other counties.”

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