UPDATE (7:30 a.m., Tuesday) - Santa Barbara County Fire officials say they have reached 80% containment on the Drum Fire burning near Buellton. GPS mapping now shows that 696 acres burned.
Fire officials will continue to mop up and extend containment lines throughout Tuesday. They say they hope to reach 100% containment by 8 p.m. Tuesday night.
No injuries are reported.
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UPDATE (4:15 p.m.) - The fire is now 60% contained.
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UPDATE (8:53 a.m.) - The Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management says the evacuation warning for the area has been lifted. People returning home are advised to use caution in the area as fire personnel remain on scene.
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ORIGINAL STORY: Santa Barbara County Firefighters are battling a brush fire burning near Buellton, north of Highway 246.
The fire broke out Sunday at around 12: 50 p.m. on W. Highway 246 just West of Buellton. As of Monday morning the fire burned 600 acres and is 30% contained.
Later Monday fire officials will use GPS mapping to get a more approximate number of acres burned.
Fire officials say on Sunday fast easterly winds were causing the fire to move quickly and threatening somestructures in the area. Evacuation warnings were turned into an order for those in the area of Domingos Road to Highway 101 and later for residents near Bobcat Springs Road. A hard closure of Hwy 246 from Buellton to Lompoc was put into place.
Within just three hours fire officials reported the fire jumped to 600 acres, with just 10 percent containment.
At approximately 6:00 p.m. Sunday fire officials announced forward progress on the fire was stopped, lifting the evacuation order to warnings and opening back up the highway.
As of Monday morning at 7:00 a.m. all evacuation warnings were lifted.
There are no reports of any injuries. Approximately 100 structures were threatened and firefighters were able to keep them all from being burned.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
#DrumFire-UPDATE- Overnight cooler temperatures & marine layer helped FF’s increase containment to 30%. The acreage remains 600 acres, however, GPS mapping later today, coupled with large swaths of unburned vineyards inside perimeter may reduce acres burned. pic.twitter.com/5tH6mHi2uF
— SBCFireInfo (@EliasonMike) June 15, 2020
