Los Padres National Forest

Fire and Aviation

Wildland Fire Status

The National Incident Information Center morning report is published daily during fire season and provides current information on the national wildland fire situation, burned area rehabilitation activities and more.

Please check the Incident Information System (InciWeb) for information about current wildfires in the Pacific Southwest Region, including the Los Padres National Forest.

Nationwide Fire Employment information can be found on the Forest Service, Fire & Aviation Management web site.

When fire conditions change on the Los Padres National Forest, we will post up to date information on the Current Conditons web page.

Zaca Fire Information

The Zaca Fire started on July 4, and burned approximately 240,207 acres before it was contained on September 2. It is the second largest fire in California's recorded history and the largest in Santa Barbara County's recorded history.
Zaca Fire Progression Map (pdf 234kb) 
Chronology of Events (pdf 64kb)
Burned Area Emergency Response Information

Wildfire on the Los Padres

Wildfires burned more than 2.3 million acres of the forest between 1912-2002. The average annual burned acreage is 25,000. Most wildfires in Los Padres National Forest are human-caused, the balance are caused by lightning.

There are several heavily populated urban interface areas adjacent to the forest including Monterey-Carmel Valley, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ojai areas. The encroachment of housing has greatly increased the potential of wildfire in these areas to cause personal and economic losses.

Firefighting strategy in the interface area is complicated by limited access and the presence of structures. Aerial attack is hindered by utility lines.

Current management focuses on fire prevention, fire suppression and fuels management. Fire prevention includes law enforcement, fire closures, measures to ensure safety or special use activities and programs to educate the public on causes and effects of wildfire. The objective of fire suppression is prompt suppression of all wildfires. Fuels management consists primarily of prescribed burning and fuel break construction and maintenance.

Use of aviation in fire management is steadily increasing. Wildfire air attack not only increases the speed of emergency response, but also can be safer, less expensive, and more effective than traditional ground-based response. Safe coordination of aviation resources is a critical job which must be accomplished with a high degree of cooperation with other agencies and private enterprises.

Emergency staffing is organized using the Incident Command System. Under the Incident Commander are 4 sections: operations, planning, logistics, and finance/administration. A smaller incident may have individuals performing multiple functions. This universal management system makes it easy to combine qualified employees from many agencies on a common goal.

In order to quickly mobilize for emergency incidents, yearly planning is done between cooperating agencies. Areas are mapped and primary and secondary responsibilities are assigned to individual units. Incident management teams are organized and trained in advance of emergencies so the coordinated response runs smoothly from the beginning of the incident.

WILDLAND FIREFIGHTERS SCHOOL

Learn more about how wildland firefighters are trained.
Fire School (pdf 530kb)