La Brea Fire Facts
Incident: La Brea Fire Wildfire
Released: 8/20/2009
La Brea Fire
Los Padres National Forest
California Interagency Incident Management Team 3/CAL FIRE/Santa Barbara County Fire
Jeanne Pincha-Tulley / S. Heil/ M. Schmitt Incident Commanders
Fact Sheet Prepared 8/19/09
Fire Start: August 8, 2009 2:50pm
Based upon critically dry weather and fuel conditions, extreme fire behavior, fire rapidly spreading in all directions, the threat to private property adjacent to the LPF, and previous fire events on the LPF; air tankers, helicopters, engines and hand crews were immediately assigned to the fire, and a Type 1 incident management team was ordered.
Incident Command: CIIMT3, under Incident Commander Jeanne Pincha-Tulley, arrived on August 9, and took command of the fire as of 6 am on August 10. On August 11 the fire was placed under unified command with CALFIRE and Incident Commander Rob Lewin. On August 16, Steve Heil replaced Rob Lewin as CALFIRE IC. On August 17, Santa Barbara County Fire Department was added to unified command with Incident Commander Mark Schmitt.
Forest Closure: On August 9, the Los Padres National Forest (LFP) instituted an emergency closure of forest lands surrounding the fire, and campgrounds in the area were evacuated. Effective August 11, the LPF issued an Emergency Closure Order for public entry to 172,550 acres of the Forest. On August 19, the LPF expanded the Emergency Closure Order to include a total of 405,300 acres.
Evacuations: The Santa Barbara County Sheriff issued the following Evacuation Warnings and Evacuation Orders related to the La Brea Fire:
August 11 - 9 am - Evacuation Warning for the Cottonwood Road area in Cuyama Valley
August 11 - 2 pm - Evacuation Order for the Cottonwood Road area; Evacuation Warning for
the adjacent area to Wasioja Road
August 13 - 4 am - Evacuation Order for Pine Canyon and Buckhorn Canyon areas
August 13 - 12 pm - Evacuation Order for Tepusquet Canyon, Colson Canyon and Ruiz Canyon
August 16 - 12 pm - Evacuation Orders downgraded to Evacuation Warnings for Tepusquet,
Colson, Ruiz, Pine and Buckhorn Canyon areas
August 18 - 11 am - Evacuation Warnings rescinded for Tepesquet, Colson, Ruiz, Pine and
Buckhorn Canyon areas, and for the area in Cuyama Valley adjacent to
Wasioja Road; The Evacuation Order for the Cottonwood Road area in
Cuyama Valley is changed to an Evacuation Warning
August 19 - 6 pm - Evacuation Order rescinded for the Cottonwood Road area
