Fog Helps Firefighters Get Handle on 11,000-Acre Vandenberg Blaze
A wildfire at Vandenberg Air Force Base that forced evacuations in a nearby town and temporarily closed a section of California 1 grew to more than 11,000 acres Thursday.
The Vandenberg fire, on the air base between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, was about 40% contained.
The blaze started Wednesday and winds spread it to 8,000 acres within three hours, but firefighters Thursday were aided by a morning blanket of fog.
“The fog layer is helping a whole lot,” Santa Barbara County Fire Department spokesman Charley Johnson said. “We initially thought it would take three to five days to get control, but now it might be sooner.”
A voluntary evacuation for the 200 residents of Casmalia was lifted at noon Thursday, the same time California 1 was reopened with traffic controls, said Bill Peters, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
About 900 firefighters from the state agency, the Santa Barbara County Fire Department and the Air Force were on the scene. The air base was not evacuated, Peters said.
The fire’s cause was still under investigation, according to base officials.
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