SANTA BARBARA — With extreme heat in the offing, more than 4,000 firefighters held the line Saturday against a massive wildfire threatening thousands of homes in Santa Barbara County, but made little progress in controlling a larger, out-of-control blaze ringing the Northern California coastal town of Big Sur.
Firefighters who have converged on California from throughout the nation face an ominous weather forecast as a large swath of the state is expected to be enveloped in severe heat beginning Monday. Forecasters predict erratic winds and the possibility of more fire-igniting lightning strikes.
Today's weather may offer a brief opportunity to gain an advantage.
"That just gives us a day of lull . . . the calm before the storm," said James Smith of the U.S. Forest Service, incident commander for the five-day-old Gap fire near Goleta.
In Big Sur, fire commanders are bracing for the heat by asking for more firefighters, especially because some crews have been on the fire lines virtually nonstop for weeks.
"Everyone here is showing a lot of concern," said Jeremy Hamilton, a spokesman for state and federal fire crews at Big Sur, where the 71,000-acre blaze is only 5% contained.
Officials at the 8,700-acre Gap fire, the state's top priority because more than 2,800 homes are threatened, had viewed Saturday as a strategically critical battle day.
They were largely pleased with their effort to gain 28% containment by nightfall, when notorious "sundowner" winds were expected to be lighter than the past night's winds.
"I don't get overconfident until we get it all, but they're making some good work up there with the helicopters," Smith said, "and we've got a few more crews in there, so it's looking better."
Evacuation orders, which shifted throughout the day and at times included about 2,600 homes, stretched along the foothills of Goleta and into the northeastern canyon areas. Many evacuees were allowed to return to their homes late Saturday, although warnings remained in effect.
Evacuees scattered to the homes of relatives and friends, leaving only a few families at San Marcos High School, the main shelter.
Nearly 2,200 firefighters, 19 helicopters and six air tankers helped solidify the southern border of the Gap fire 3 1/2 miles from Goleta and targeted its eastern side, an area considered of high concern because it borders hundreds of homes under evacuation orders.
