Santa Barbara County Fire responds to vegetation fire on side of Hwy 101 in Goleta

GOLETA, Calif. — Around 2:30 p.m. this afternoon, the Fairview Fire broke out near a homeless camp on the southbound side of Highway 101. 

As cars drove by, Santa Barbara County firefighters swiftly surround the scene. 

“There was light smoke showing and within seconds of getting onto the scene, it just exploded to 60-foot high flame lengths,” Santa Barbara County fire captain Mike Riach said.

Within a matter of minutes, the vegetation fire had jumped four lanes over to the north side of the freeway. 

"The flame lengths were so tall and we had a little bit of wind on it and it just skipped across the highway,” Riach said. “First it started across the medium, then the wind got heavier and it blew into the palm trees."

"We did have a little bit of a challenge when it spotted across the freeway but we quickly put engines on that,” Santa Barbara County Fire Battalion Chief Sergio Sanchez said.

While the flames bursting from above, firefighters rescued a homeless man — unaware of the dangerous situation — from his tent.

“We had one person inside his tent and he didn't even see the fire,” Riach said. “It was right behind his tent and we had him get out of there."

To provide a safe perimeter, California Highway Patrol closed both sides of Highway 101.

While this caused a significant traffic jam for many vehicles traveling for Fourth of July weekend, it allowed the firefighters to contain the blaze. 

"Our engines are relatively close, so we were able to jump on it pretty quickly,” Sanchez said. “This allowed us to get some perimeter control around it."

“We had about six engines and a hand crew,” Riach said. “We all worked on this one mainly and then we had three engines over by Zodo’s.”

Around 3:20 p.m., fire officials halted forward progress.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff's lifted all evacuation orders by 3:30 p.m.

Around 6 p.m., all lane in both directions were reopened on Highway 101.

With numerous blazes breaking out over the past 30 days, the Santa Barbara County Fire Department warns that we’ve officially entered into high fire season. 

“The fuel is really receptive so things are going to burn,” Sanchez concluded. “People need to use caution out there."

No structures were threatened or damaged and nobody was hurt.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.