Update: New Evacuations Ordered Friday After Lake Fire Burns Half of 6,000-Acre Sedgwick Reserve in Santa Ynez Valley

[Update: Fri., July 12, 2024, 5:45 p.m.] On Friday afternoon, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office issued a new evacuation order in response to the Lake Fire. An evacuation warning has been upgraded to an evacuation order for the area of KP Ranch west of Alisos Road, and includes parts of Estelle Vineyard Drive, Santa Agueda Creek, and Brinkerhoff Avenue. Anyone in that area must leave now.

Meanwhile, an evacuation order has been downgraded to a warning for the area between 8721 Foxen Canyon Road and the intersection of Zaca Lake Road and Foxen Canyon Road. Foxen Canyon Road in this area is back open.

All other previously issued evacuation warnings and orders remain in effect and may be reviewed at ReadySBC.org. To see if their properties fall within an evacuation area, residents can type in their addresses to the Lake Fire Incident Map here.

[Original Story] The Sedgwick Reserve in the Santa Ynez Valley is no stranger to fire. It’s had a prescribed burn program for a couple of years. But the Lake Fire — which as of Friday has grown to more than 36,700 acres — has scorched half the reserve’s nearly 6,000 acres and now is less than a mile from Duke Sedgwick’s 1947 ranch house. Firefighters from Santa Barbara, Oxnard, Los Angeles, and Ventura have crisscrossed the land with reserve managers to learn the locations of not only structures — including a restored barn built in 1908 and a telescope installed in 2009 — but the research projects that dot the landscape.

“The fire was active in the northern part of the reserve yesterday,” said Nikki Evans, a communications specialist for Sedgwick, “and they’ve dozed lines to the east, west, and northwest, all around the field station.” Some of the plots are multi-year projects, for instance one involving UCLA and Princeton scientists studying water competition, species distribution, and other ecological factors in the unique serpentine soils of the northern part of the reserve, she said. Native oaks have sap-flow meters to study water stress, and wildlife cameras are positioned to test new classification technology.

Frank Davis, director of the La Kretz Research Center, and Lyza Johnsen, a steward at Sedgwick, have returned to the site to guide firefighters around the reserve and point out the research projects. Part of the much larger Rancho La Laguna Mexican land grant of 1845, the property was bought in 1952 by Francis “Duke” Sedgwick and Alice de Forest-Sedgwick — the parents of 1960s “It Girl” and Andy Warhol muse Edie Sedgwick. Half was given to the University of California in 1969, and the UC Natural Reserve System received the rest in 1997 after a fundraising effort spearheaded by the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County.

“Some of the people on the fire were here during the prescribed burn. They’re familiar with our research and research sites,” Evans said. “Defensible space and fire prevention is at the heart of the work our landscape crew does. Trimming and watering goes on all the time. We have so many giant oak trees,” she said of the landscape around structures close to Sedgwick’s southern border.

In the valley, grocery stores remain stocked, she said, but the air quality has been really bad in Los Olivos. People are still walking around Solvang with pastries in hand, so some normalcy remains. Evans lives within sight of Santa Ynez Airport, which has been a hub of helicopter flights, even at night, she said.

Supervisor Joan Hartmann visited the frontlines with Santa Barbara County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig on Thursday, saying that more than 3,300 personnel were working this fire. “It struck me just how tall and dry grass is right now — a curse of the blessing that was record rain,” Hartmann observed in an update. Firebreaks and dozer lines along ranch roads and trail systems were underway, amid temperatures hovering around 100 degrees in the valley and higher on the fireline.

Of the economic losses the valley was experiencing, Hartmann said, “We are doing everything we can to maximize state and federal financial assistance.”

Kelly Hubbard, who directs the county’s Office of Emergency Management, said that Mona Miyasato, the county’s executive, signed a declaration of emergency for the county this morning. The next step is to gather information on losses from residents and businesses and to ask state and federal authorities for financial assistance.

“We know there are businesses and agriculturalists with significant impacts from the Lake Fire,” Hubbard said. The county has just posted forms for residences, businesses, and vintners/tasting rooms at the Lake Fire page at ReadySBC.org. For farms, ranches, and vineyard owners, the Ag Commissioner has a form to be used with the USDA Farm Service Agency. Hubbard could make no promises, but she said the information was vital to receiving disaster assistance.

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The fire updates Friday morning indicated that five firefighters had been injured so far. Embers were dropping  into areas with no recorded fire history, and crews were using old dozer lines and roads to create contingency lines in the wilderness area. In Los Padres National Forest, three recreational buildings were confirmed destroyed, as well as one outbuilding and a campground. The command remains a joint effort between county, state, and federal fire agencies, though it has split into management north and south: “The fire has just grown to a size and amount of people that the Elks Rodeo Grounds was not large enough,” explained Captain Scott Safechuck, county fire’s spokesperson. Cal Fire crews are now at the Santa Maria Speedway.

The fire has reached the Davy Brown campsites on Figueroa Mountain and was headed south. Crews were on the forest roads, keeping the fire to the west and away from the east, reported Operations Section Chief Jason Wingard. Helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, hand crews, and dozers were all working to keep the fire contained.

As coastal Santa Barbara faces cool fog and smoky-cloudy skies, Santa Ynez is under a fire weather warning for Saturday. Interior mountains, foothills, and valleys — including the fire zone — face heat and the potential for dry thunderstorms with erratic, strong winds.

The evacuation warnings and orders have come all week in anticipation of every leap by the fire. Supervisor Hartmann cautioned that people should be ready. “We kind of forget exactly what comes next with these kinds of emergency messages,” she said. “It’s kind of a flurry at the beginning, no matter what,” she noted.

For the most recent updates, including air quality information and evacuation maps, go to ReadySBC.org.