Zaca fire burning way into state history

A stubborn wildfire that ignited near Solvang on the Fourth of July and is expected to burn past Labor Day is now the third-largest blaze in modern California history and might eventually become the largest.

A combination of parched, century-old chaparral and steep, roadless terrain has turned the Zaca fire, which has burned 193 square miles of mostly uninhabited wilderness, into one of the most challenging blazes that firefighters have ever battled in California.

The fire in the Los Padres National Forest and surrounding wilderness is so massive that thick smoke and grimy ash have blanketed parts of four counties -- Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Kern -- triggering on-and-off health alerts since early July.

Although the fire was considered 75% contained Sunday, it moved into Ventura County over the weekend and firefighters still must build three more miles of fire lines on its eastern flank before completely surrounding it.

As a precaution, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday proclaimed a state of emergency in Ventura County, expanding the declaration he had issued for Santa Barbara County on Aug. 3.

“The fire is growing, and certainly it’s still a situation of concern,” said Jim Turner, a spokesman for the team of federal, state and county firefighters. “We’re not out of the woods by any means.”

The Los Padres National Forest, which stretches from the Big Sur coast in Monterey County to the western edge of Los Angeles County, is considered the worst location in the state when it comes to massive, difficult-to-control fires. Of the 20 largest fires in California since 1932, nine have burned there.

The fire grew by several thousand acres over the weekend, and with hotter, drier weather forecast for the next two days, it probably will become even more active. Humidity in the area is expected to drop into the single digits today and Tuesday.

The main goal of the 3,000 crew members who are battling the Zaca fire, at a cost so far approaching $82 million, is to keep the flames from heading south into the coastal communities of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

Their strategy has been to aggressively light many backfires, since most areas of the wilderness are inaccessible and unsafe for firefighters and heavy equipment.

“We’re fighting fire with fire,” said Bill White, a spokesman for the firefighting effort and also a captain with the Atascadero Fire Department.

As the fire crossed the Ventura County line, Turner said, “There’s no imminent threat” in the county.

In Ojai on Sunday afternoon, about 200 residents showed up at a middle school for a 90-minute update from the Ventura County Fire Department and U.S. Forest Service. Accustomed to large, persistent wildfires in the area, many of them applauded fire officials and expressed confidence in them. Nevertheless, they were still concerned that even the best firefighting techniques can be overwhelmed by hazardous fire conditions.

In particular, if strong winds get behind a fire, “I don’t know if there is anything you can do,” said Art Balchen, a rancher in Ojai whose property was destroyed during a wind-whipped 1985 fire that drove a 200-foot-long wall of flames on his ranchland.

“How can you fight that? You can’t,” Balchen said, adding that “luck is going to have a whole lot to do with it.”

Peter Haggerty, a retired scientist from Ojai, said that when the Zaca fire broke out “it didn’t seem like it was our fire.” Instead, it was Santa Barbara County’s.

“It’s kind of hard to believe that it has burned as far as it has burned,” he said.

“Now that we’re seeing it, and being affected by the ash and smoke, it becomes a little more real,” Haggerty said.

Ojai City Manager Jere Kersnar said that repeated public briefings and fire information updates at grocery stores have helped calm residents’ concerns. Still, in recent weeks frequent smoke has been an unpleasant reminder.

“With the smoke always being there, that does cause anxiety. Sometimes it’s been really bad,” he said. “People are worried. It’s there all the time, day after day, and that’s hard for folks.”

On Sunday, the blaze got within three miles of California 33, which was shut north of Ojai, between Wheeler Gorge and Ventucopa.

On Saturday night, residents of a few dozen houses along the west side of the highway were advised to evacuate.

Firefighters set backfires near the highway in an effort to prevent the flames from crossing it and racing through wilderness that extends to the northernmost subdivisions of Los Angeles County.

“The fire has made some easterly moves over the past three days, so the active front is on the eastern side and it has made a small incursion into Ventura County,” Turner said. “We are reinforcing the eastern end. We want to protect Highway 33 on the east side and the communities of Ojai, Montecito and Carpinteria on the south side.”

The fire was sparked accidentally on the morning of July 4 by workers who were repairing a pipeline at a ranch 15 miles northeast of Buellton.

Officials have predicted for several weeks that it would be contained by Sept. 7, but Mike Dietrich, one of the incident commanders in charge of fighting the blaze, said Sunday that target might “possibly” be achieved, but he added that “we’re currently reevaluating that.”

“It’s a pretty explosive environment out there right now,” Dietrich said, adding that the dry brush was “literally explosive.”

Just about everything about the Zaca fire is extreme -- its size, persistence, the dryness of the brush, the difficulty of the terrain, the cost of controlling it.

The moisture level of the chaparral is at 49%, well below critical levels, and a continuous bed of the dry brush lies ahead.

But Dietrich said it was rated only seventh on the federal priority list, and he signaled some frustration that more firefighters and equipment weren’t available.

“Quite frankly, we’re in competition with all of the fires in and around the Western United States,” he said.

Burning in multiple directions, the fire had charred 188,035 acres by Sunday.

The Zaca fire took the No. 3 spot in California history by surpassing a fire that burned 177,866 acres in Monterey County in July 1977, according to a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection chart.

California’s largest fire over the last 75 years was the Cedar fire, which burned 273,000 acres in San Diego County in October 2003. Fifteen people died and nearly 5,000 structures were destroyed.

The second largest was the Matilija fire, which ignited in September 1932 and charred 220,000 acres in Los Padres National Forest and surrounding areas.

The 162,702-acre Day fire, the sixth largest, also burned in the forest last September and lasted four weeks.

Wildfires in Los Padres have steadily increased over the last 60 years because of nearby urban sprawl, expanded recreational use and aging chaparral, the U.S. Forest Service said.

Most are human-caused, and they damage the forest’s natural resources, which provide food and shelter for almost 500 species of wildlife and fish, including 26 animals and plants on the nation’s endangered species list.

David Cohan, who moved to Ojai 15 years ago, said many residents have accepted this fire and others philosophically.

“We wouldn’t have the fires if we didn’t have the wilderness, and we all love the wilderness. We hike and camp and do everything else in these mountains,” he said.

About 888,000 acres of national wilderness areas are closed to the public, including much of Los Padres, the entire San Rafael, Matilija and Chumash wilderness areas and a portion of the Sespe Wilderness.

The California Highway Patrol is urging motorists in the area to take U.S. 101 and stay off California 154.

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marla.cone@latimes.com

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stuart.silverstein@latimes.com