About 20,000 residents near Buellton and the Santa Ynez Valley lost power on Sept. 9 after a fire broke out east of Highway 101.
At the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting on Sept. 10, county Fire Chief Mark Hartwig said the 200-acre McMurray Fire was about 20 percent contained as of that morning.
At the meeting, Hartwig said the cause of the fire is still under investigation; however, it appears to have started in multiple spots off Highway 101, between Highways 246 and 154.
The county evacuated residents living in the area after the fire broke out, but those orders were lifted by 8 p.m. that night. Both highways 1 and 101 northbound were also closed for a period of time on Sept. 9.
Hartwig said there were about 600 firefighters trying to contain the fire on Sept. 9, with the county receiving help from San Luis Obispo, Ventura, and Los Angeles counties.
“It’s great to yell for help and have your neighbors say ‘it’s on the way’ and ‘what do you need?’” Hartwig said.
The fire followed a weekend of hot temperatures and strong winds that led Southern California Edison to initiate a public safety power shutoff along the southern coast of the county near Goleta and Gaviota. Utility companies initiate these shutoffs to reduce the risk of wildfires starting near their infrastructure.
At the Board of Supervisors meeting, the county’s Office of Emergency Management Director Kelly Hubbard said the shutoff started on Sept. 7 and the power was turned back on Sept. 8 in the evening.
Hubbard clarified that while thousands lost their power over the weekend due to the public safety shutoff, this was not the case for the residents who lost power during the McMurray Fire on Sept. 9.
“Our understanding is, related to the fire, this was not a proactive, public safety power shutdown,” Hubbard said. “It was related to the fire and was not a proactive event.”
At the meeting, the Board of Supervisors also approved the purchase of four engines at the cost of $670,000 each to replace older engines that have been in use since 2007.
