LosPadresForest
By Andrew Madsen, Forest Public Affairs Officer
The Lake Fire broke out the afternoon of July 5 near Zaca Lake on the Santa Lucia Ranger District of Los Padres National Forest. A giant plume of smoke dominated the horizon and was visible from Santa Maria to Santa Barbara. Air tankers were soon on scene, criss-crossing the smoke-filled skies over the fast-moving blaze.
Forest Patrol 38 Cassy Buckley had just finished cabin inspections when she saw the smoke and reported the new fire start. Based on her location and after speaking with the IC, she decided it was best to canvass Zaca Ridge Road and flush out any visitors who were recreating in the area. “I notified the local campgrounds that we had a fire and that there was a pre-evacuation order for the area,” Buckley said.
Confident that all members of the public had left the area, she tied in with the Incident Command Post and was told to return to Figueroa Mountain and clear any campers from the Nira, Davy Brown and Figueroa developed campgrounds. Numerous campers were instructed to leave ahead of the fire. She also began making cell phone calls to each of the private residents who lived within the forest boundary at Fig. As midnight approached, Buckley decided to overnight at the Figueroa Fire Station.
The following day, she again had conversations with the residents who remained on the mountain. Many of them were loading their vehicles and preparing to evacuate. The area was under an evacuation warning, but longtime residents on Figueroa Mountain are fire-savvy and not inclined to wait for a formal order to evacuate when there’s smoke in the air. However, there were others who opted to stay put until they had a better idea of where the fire was headed.
Buckley was finishing her shift when she received a call that the fire had advanced to the bottom of Figueroa Mountain Road and top of Tunnel Road. Residents still on the mountain were concerned their evacuation route had been cut off and could only evacuate through Happy Canyon Road.
“The gate at Happy Canyon was locked, and with folks still needing to get out I quickly drove down and unlocked that,” she said. “When I was driving back up to the station, flames were on either side of the road.”
Back at the fire station, Buckley tied in with Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Deputy Doug Jones and the two drove to a property on Tunnel Road belonging to an elderly, long-term resident.
“At about 10 pm, the fire made an extreme run toward the community on Tunnel Road,” said Ventura County Fire Battalion Chief Nick Cleary. “Four residents were still at their homes as the access and egress to Figuroa Mountain were going to be cut off.”
Cleary was part of a strike team of Ventura County fire engines assigned to the mountain that night. He credited Buckley with convincing the last holdouts to evacuate. She confirmed that four residents were still at their homes.
“She directed them to evacuate immediately,” Cleary said. “The first two residents were able to evacuate before the fire hit Tunnel Road. The third resident stayed on the phone with Buckley while driving through the fire front to safety. She helped calm the driver” during the harrowing experience. She even agreed to keep an eye on one resident’s cat and another’s horses so they could quickly pack and go.
The fourth resident was not responding to Buckley’s phone calls so fatality notifications were made with the Lake Fire Incident Commander and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office. A vehicle description and license plate number of the holdout was shared with county officials.
Early the next morning, July 7, the fourth resident called 911 to say he was still at his house but that his escape route was blocked by fire and he was unable to evacuate. A Ventura County Fire engine went to the residence and accompanied the man out of the area.
“I knew through the collaborative relationships that our organizations share, that Buckley was intimately familiar with the residents, had their phone numbers, could quickly achieve accountability of who was still in the community, and could quickly relay the seriousness of the situation faster than anyone else could,” said Santa Barbara County Fire Battalion Chief Richard Dykhouse. “Her knowledge of contact numbers, vehicle descriptions, and personal relationships with the community saved lives. The night operations group would have never been able to get in contact with the individuals and give them a warning to evacuate.”
That evening the fire front made a push toward the Figueroa Fire Station. Buckley worked into the wee hours of the morning with the Ventura County strike team to keep the flames out of the compound.
“All day Sunday the fire was burning around the station,” Buckley said. “That night we lit backfires on Figueroa Mountain Road and near Spirit Pines.” By early Monday morning, the fire was burning through the drainage below the station as Buckley and a Cal Fire strike team and Ventura County strike team along with a Los Angeles County Fire hand crew worked to keep the front from getting into the compound. The spring box and pump house that supplied water to the station were destroyed, but the station was saved.
Buckley credits her experience while assigned to Incident Management Team 15 and the relationships she forged with the Incident Commander and other team members with helping to keep calm during the overnight chaos.
“I received a good pep talk from the IC of Team 15 who heard the mountain was on fire and gave me a call,” she said. “That really helped with my focus. He said, ‘Follow your training.’ Since we had that cohesion, it helped us to quickly come together and communicate what we needed to do. Having that trust across three different agencies was a huge factor.”
Although three recreation cabins burned in the fire, and the Figueroa Mountain Campground host lost a travel trailer and other personal effects, the fact that the residents escaped ahead of the fire was a direct result of Buckley’s pre-existing relationships with the community.
“If not for the selfless actions of Deputy Jones and Cassandra Buckley, I am convinced that we would have had fatalities” on Figueroa Mountain, Dykhouse said.
Related Articles
Lake Fire Remains 90 Percent Contained, Evacuation Orders Lifted
Santa Barbara County Proclaims Local Emergency Due to Lake Fire
Good work. Thank you!
Public service at its best.
And yet already driving through Figueroa Mountain there are so many beer bottles chucked on the side of the road. People have no respect for how much someone like this sacrificed to save people and the mountain. Hikers were already out when the forest was officially closed. I had official permission to be in the forest.