Lake Fire burns more than 38,000 acres, Nipomo base camp remains open 

Noelle Berg and her husband evacuated from their Santa Ynez Valley home on their own initiative as they saw helicopters drop retardant on the spreading Lake Fire, Berg told New Times on July 8, three days after the fire started.

“We encouraged all of our friends to get out, but some of these people have said ‘We’re not leaving. Period,’” Berg said, “Seeing what’s happened in the past, we are more on the precautionary side of it.”

Berg and her husband evacuated from their Montecito home during the 2018 Thomas Fire and the following debris flow for three weeks each. After their experience facing natural disasters, the couple decided to buy a home “up the hill.” Now, her home on Ridge Road is sitting at the southernmost tip of an evacuation warning area for the Lake Fire—a blaze that’s consumed more than 38,000 acres and was 42 percent contained as of July 17. The blaze ignited on July 5, and the cause remains under investigation.

While she wasn’t required to leave, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office came by her neighborhood on July 7 to encourage people to evacuate, Berg said.

The Lake Fire started as a vegetation fire near Zaca Lake in Los Padres National Forest, northeast of Los Olivos, and spanned Lookout Mountain, Zaca Peak, the U.S. Forest Service’s Figueroa Station, and Junction Camp, according to Santa Barbara County’s Lake Fire incident map as of July 10.

The U.S. Forest Service, Cal Fire, and Santa Barbara County Fire are leading an incident management team to suppress the fire and prevent it from spreading, particularly further south toward residential areas, Los Padres Spokesperson Andrew Madsen told New Times.

“The grass crop is at a historic level, and it’s been completely dried out,” Madsen said. “It’s like it’s been in the oven for a couple of weeks. Now that we have a heat wave here, it’s ready to go.”

Cal Fire Forester Dave Erickson told New Times that on the morning of July 10, the team was informed of a new base camp that opened at the Santa Maria Speedway in Nipomo. 

Also, a housing assistance for larger animals that needed to be evacuated opened at the Santa Maria Elks Rodeo Grounds, at 4040 Highway 101. Staff is asking that those who are using the rodeo grounds bring their animals’ food and water. 

The fire was spreading close to the 2007 Zaca Fire burn scar—a blaze that started on Fourth of July weekend 17 years ago, burned more than 240,000 acres, and destroyed two structures—but the scar has mostly grown back after nearly two decades and two years of heavy rain and minimal fire activity. 

“It’s not going to run into an area that recently burned and lay down,” Madsen said. “It’s an area where you don’t have an immediate threat to homes, except now it’s moving in a southeastern direction, and it could [go] toward the Santa Ynez Valley. We’re just trying to hold it in place until it’s active in an area where we can put firefighters on the line to go direct.”

  Highway 154 was not within the evacuation warning areas and remained open as of July 17. 

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