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MyspaceThis morning, Thursday, August 16, at 10 a.m., the Montecito Fire Protection District put the following update on its website:
“FIRE PROGRESSION UPDATE:
The Montecito Fire Protection District is in an elevated state of awareness due to the southern progression the fire made yesterday and last night. Romero Canyon Trail will be closed due to work being done to create and widen a fuel break contingency line in the Romero Canyon area.”
J'Amy Brown
MFD Chief Kevin Wallace
In a previous article, MFPD Chief Kevin Wallace said important decision-markers would be the Don Victor Jeepway and the Hildreth Jeepway. In a brief interview this morning, Wallace said the fire has now crept across the Hildreth Jeepway, causing Montecito Fire to issue the elevated state of awareness notice.
“We needed two days to be out of it,” said Wallace. “We didn’t get them. We are investigating how far the fire moved south across the Hildreth Jeepway.” Wallace is meeting this morning with Incident Command to explore further safety measures for Montecito.
To be clear, Montecito is NOT under any evacuation warnings or orders at this time.
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At 10:48 AM, Montecito Fire District added the following information:
FIRE PROGRESSION UPDATE:
The Montecito Fire Protection District is in an elevated state of awareness due to the southern progression the fire made yesterday and last night.
The US Forest Service may need to utilize backfiring as an offensive tool to prevent the southerly spread of the ZACA fire. This would bring the fire line closer to the Montecito community.
There are contingency lines behind the Camino Cielo ridge, but in an effort to provide an additional contingency line between the projected backfire line and our community, there will be hand crews, dozers and masticators improving existing and old lines that exist between the Camino Cielo Ridge and the Montecito community.
Romero Canyon trail will be closed due to this work.
JAMY (J'Amy Brown)
August 16, 2007 at 12:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Clarification: Tonight Montecito Fire District has send an updated email extending the earlier awareness notice. They have also noted some backfire possibilities and clarified that the Romero Canyon trial is not closed. (Trail closure would be an action of the Federal Government, as the trail is in a US Forest area). However, MFD discourages trail use, as their 8PM notification implies:
The Montecito Fire Protection District is in an elevated state of awareness due to some southern progression of this fire.
The US ForestService has proposed utilizing back fire operations as an offensive tool to prevent additional southerly spread of the ZACA fire. This would bring the fire line closer to the Montecito community.
There are contingency lines behind the Camino Cielo ridge, but in an effort to provide an additional contingency line between the projected backfire line and our community, there will be hand crews, dozers and masticators improving existing and old lines that exist between the Camino Cielo Ridge and the Montecito community.
MFD has initiated an advisory for use of Romero Canyon trail; it may be unsafe to utilize this trail because of boulders and debris falling from to this work.
JAMY (J'Amy Brown)
August 16, 2007 at 10:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)