Crews battling fire at Vandenberg Air Force Base
LATEST UPDATE:
The Canyon Fire in Lompoc has grown to 12,353 acres and is 50% contained. There are no new reports of injuries and 1,056 personnel are assigned.
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The Canyon Fire in Lompoc has grown to 12,000 acres, and is 45 percent contained as of Tuesday night.
Amanda Valdez is live throughout the morning.
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The Canyon Fire at Vandenberg Air Force Base has grown to more than 10,542 acres as of Tuesday morning at 7:30 a.m. with containment at 18 percent.
Air Force officials say 633 fire fighting personnel are on the base fighting the fire along with help from air tankers and water-dropping helicopters.
Base officials said the fire growth is mostly in the west and north end of Vandenberg. Fire crews made significant progress along the south and east portions of the fire.
Vandenberg officials said in a press release Tuesday:
Air Force Base Security Forces have established road blocks along West Ocean Avenue to minimize traffic congestion and to facilitate fire response forces entering and leaving South Base. Base officials are asking personnel to remain clear of West Ocean Avenue between Vandenberg’s North and South base. Today fire crews will continue to build direct and indirect containment lines.
Direct lines are constructed along the active fire perimeter when fire intensity is low. Indirect lines are constructed ahead of the active fire perimeter. Fire managers are utilizing crews with hand tools and bulldozers to construct containment lines on the base property.
A team of Resource Advisors are supporting the fire response by locating and identify natural and cultural resources threatened by the fire. Some of these resources include cultural sites related to the Chumash people, wildlife habitats, and watershed concerns.
Updates will be made to this story as new information becomes available.
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The Canyon Fire at Vandenberg Air Force Base has grown to 6,000 acres as of Monday night at 11:00pm with containment less than 10 percent.
More firefighting resources are arriving from neighboring agencies and southern California including a large contingent from the L.A. City Fire Department.
At last check the fire was burning in a south, southwest direction at Vandenberg’s South Base toward the ocean and away from any structures on base and homes along Miguelito Canyon to the east that remain under evacuation warning.
The fire has knocked out power to several base facilities and the cause remains under investigation.
The fire has delayed the launch of an Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex 3 which base officials say is not threatened by the fire.
Monday afternoon fire crews on scene describe the extreme fire behavior as intense, erratic and insane.
Access to Vandenberg South Base is limited to emergency personnel only.
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Firefighters are battling a 2,200-acre brush fire at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
The blaze is 0% contained.
They are calling it the Canyon fire. It is burning in a canyon near Arguello and Santa Ynez Roads.
About 250 firefighters including hand-crews, bulldozers, and firefighting aircraft are assigned to the fire.
Neighbors said they could see a dark plume of smoke from the fire before dusk on Saturday night.
They said they could see planes making drops to put it out. Santa Barbara County Fire crews are assisting in the fire fight.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
400 evacuation warning phone calls were made to people living in the Miguelito Canyon area, where there’s about 50 homes.
No buildings are threatened at this time according to fire officials. Col. Paul Nosek, Emergency Operations Center commander said no space launch complexes or critical range assets are in danger.
The fire has forced the delay of Sunday’s scheduled launch of an Atlas V rocket yet again.
Live reports from the base starting at 6:00 a.m. with Amanda Valdez.
