Firefighters battle with five blazes in the Los Padres National Forest

Associated Press

Comments (0) |

E-Mail

Text Size:

tool goes here

Nearly 90,000 acres of the Los Padres National Forest remained closed Sunday while firefighters battled five wilderness blazes ignited by lightning last week.

U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Kathy Good said fires charred about 250 acres in remote, rugged areas of Santa Barbara County. No homes or buildings were threatened, and only a single injury was reported � a bee sting.

The forest closure encompassed the northernmost portion of the San Rafael Wilderness, an area of backcountry roads and rustic camp sites popular with deer hunters. The national forest has nearly 2 million acres.

The closure is expected to remain in effect until the fires are suppressed.

�The fires right now are pretty small, and we hope to keep them that way,� Good said.

Three of the fires, collectively called the Buckhorn Complex, burned about 150 acres since they were sparked early Friday morning. The so-called Owl Fire burned 30 acres. The Manzanita Fire was at 60 acres.

Helicopters transported crews to the remote wilderness areas where the fires were burning, backed by aircraft dumping water and retardant.