Fire weather holds steady, as containment increases for Lake Fire

Containment has reached nearly 20% for Lake Fire in Santa Barbara County. Burning at 38,004 acres, it's currently the largest wildfire in California.

Rough weather to continue

Temperatures at the Lake Fire will be hot, approaching 100 degrees. Temperatures are expected to be cooler today, but a fire weather watch is in effect throughout the day, with a chance for dry lightning and gusty winds in the region.

Some of California's largest wildfires have been the result of dry lightning.

Evacuation orders — which can be found here — are still in place for communities around Los Olivos, and will likely continue to expand as fire behavior is expected to maintain its intensity in the coming days due to high heat and wind.

The fire has been burning for more than a week. Its steady growth has forced firefighters to approach it from multiple fronts.

One group of firefighters is focused on the Southern portion of the fire, which is where the largest communities are located. They've been able to limit spread, in part, by doing back burns. Crews have been using big metal cans with a mix of diesel and gasoline to purposely set brush on fire, all in an effort to use up the fuel before the main fire gets there. They've also been firing flares into the brush, a technique that lets them start fires from further out. They'll work to bolster containment lines through Friday.

"In conjunction with putting bulldozers in there, aerial operations and doing firing operations, it definitely improved that area over there," said Captain Scott Safechuck, public information officer with Santa Barbara County Fire.

Those on the northern side of the fire are trying to stop the blaze at the Sisquoc River by prepping brush and using back burns in an effort to take advantage of the naturally occurring fire break.

Portions of the wildfire could decrease in intensity when they hit the burn scar left by the Zaca Fire in 2007.

Firefighter injuries

The extreme heat is also taking a toll on firefighters. It's estimated that seven of them have suffered from heat related illness, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

Hotter temperatures associated with climate change puts wildland firefighters at an increased risk for heat related illness and death.

A total of 12 firefighters have been injured, the others a result of burns and poison oak exposure. All have been treated and released, some after being taken to area hospitals.

“There’s always the potential for heat related injuries working in extreme conditions like our firefighters do,” said Marc Peebles, public information officer with the U.S. Forest Service. “The number that we have is not necessarily surprising. We’ve had less and we’ve had more.”

There are 3,411 personnel from local, state and federal agencies working on the Lake Fire.

Is this normal?

While fires like these aren't unheard of during this time of year, we usually see larger conflagrations in the fall when bigger vegetation has dried out enough to carry fire and the Santa Ana winds show up, often making fire spread unstoppable.

Unfortunately, due to high temperatures, vegetation across much of the state is drier than normal for this time of year. Two years of good rain and few fires has resulted in an increase of grass growth in some areas, raising the amount of fuel available to burn. If that dry grass catches on fire, given there's so much dry vegetation, fire can quickly spread to larger fuels, making it more difficult to stop.