Wildfire at Vandenberg Air Force Base grows to 2,260 acres

A wildfire that broke out Saturday evening on Vandenberg Air Force Base continued to burn out of control Sunday as crews coped with high temperatures and dry vegetation while bracing for expected windy conditions.

The Canyon Fire had grown to 2,260 acres Sunday evening, forcing officials to delay the scheduled Sunday morning launch of an Atlas V rocket. The fire had zero containment.

“The fire continues to burn in heavy fuel, heavy brush, burning in a north-northwesterly direction,” Santa Barbara County Fire Capt. Dave Zaniboni said.

As many as 800 firefighters were deployed to the fire, which was burning on South Base, the area south of West Ocean Avenue — Highway 246 — southwest of Lompoc.

Vandenberg Air Force Base officials said “our facilities are intact,” but confirmed power lines had been damaged in the blaze in a remote canyon. The cause of the blaze was not known.

While winds were light Sunday, officials expected them to increase and the relative humidity to remain low.

“The fire’s expected to remain on Vandenberg property,” Zaniboni said. “It’s not a threat to any state-responsibility land right now or public land, and they’re hoping to keep it that way.”

Residents of Miguelito Canyon had been issued precautionary evacuation warnings because of the fire’s activity on Saturday night and Sunday, said Incident Commander Wayne Seda from the Vandenberg Fire Department.

According to emergency dispatch reports just before 10 p.m. Saturday, flames were moving toward Honda Canyon on South Base and had jumped bulldozer lines.

Honda Canyon is the site of a deadly 1977 wildfire that killed the base commander, the fire chief, an assistant chief and a fire bulldozer operator.

South Base has an Atlas V rocket sitting on Space Launch Complex-3, with its WorldView-4 satellite on board. The fire appeared to be some distance away from SLC-3, but VAFB officials said Sunday morning that the rocket launch attempt had been delayed because of the firefighting effort.

A new launch attempt won’t occur before Tuesday morning, United Launch Alliance officials said.

In preparation for another launch attempt, technicians had replaced a valve that caused a leak and forced mission managers to scrub Friday’s blastoff, ULA officials said.

“No facilities or infrastructure have been damaged, as the fire is located in a remote canyon between Arguello and Santa Ynez roads, and crews are working to contain the blaze,” VAFB said in statement late Saturday. “According to Col. Paul Nosek, Emergency Operations Center commander, no space launch complexes or critical range assets are in immediate danger.”

This story was originally published September 18, 2016 at 1:08 PM with the headline "Wildfire at Vandenberg Air Force Base grows to 2,260 acres."