Santa Rosa Island Fire now 18,379 acres with 97 percent containment
CHANNEL ISLANDS, Calif. (KEYT) – On Tuesday, new details emerged about the circumstances before a 67-year-old mariner was rescued and a vegetation fire was first reported on Friday, May 15 on Santa Rosa Island.
As of Monday morning, the 18,379-acre fire continues to burn across the federally protected island which is home to multiple indigenous plant species found nowhere else on the planet including the Torrey Pine.
The use of an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) has helped to determine the scope of damage done to the rare stand of Torrey Pine Trees standing in the path of the destructive Santa Rosa Island Fire.
"The initial assessment was that it was a low intensity burn but they can't do a full condition assessment until drones go through," said Sierra Frisbie, Santa Rosa Island Fire Information Officer.
Crews on the ground and in the air have been able to achieve 97 percent containment of the wildfire as of Tuesday, May 26.
Frisbie shared a brief update with Your News Channel pending the next, more thorough "dump" of information expected later Wednesday.
"The UAS module got there yesterday to do a mission today to check out the condition, depending on weather and conditions," she said.
A new timeline shared with Your News Channel by Channel Watch Marine Services Inc. DBA TowBoatUS Ventura ("Channel Watch") on Tuesday gave a more detailed account of what that stranded mariner may have experienced.
On May 15, Your News Channel broke the news about the rescue of a 67-year-old sailor who was stranded on the remote island and was spotted by a local sport fishing captain while a vegetation fire raged nearby.
The airlifted man had no injuries shared the U.S. Coast Guard Friday.
Since then though, the nearby vegetation fire has grown to be the largest wildfire this year according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
On Tuesday, Channel Watch stated that the 67-year-old shared with them that the sailboat he was piloting had run aground in the afternoon of May 14, a day earlier than previously reported, due to heavy surf.
Around 3 p.m., the vessel caught fire, but the smoke did not attract the attention of passing ships as the man had hoped.
The next morning, the 67-year-old fired several distress flares and that is how local sport fishing captain Jace Malone aboard the New Hustler spotted the stranded man.
Captain Malone navigated closer to the island, saw both the stranded man and the mast of the destroyed sailboat, and waited until a Coast Guard helicopter airlifted the man to Camarillo Airport.
While the local sport fishing captain noted that the New Hustler and crew returned to their fishing excursion after the Coast Guard had released the Hook's Landing group from assisting in the response, the fire has continued to burn.
The flames have spread from the initial site of the rescue near Ford Point on the southeastern edge across the federally-protected island as shown in the image below, courtesy of the National Parks Service.
The following weekend, the Santa Barbara County Fire Department evacuated all eleven federal parks employees on the island as the fire continued to grow and the entire island is now closed to the public.
