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"If you went out there now, you'd see really tired folks on the line, protecting structures and active firefighting going on," said Santa Barbara County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig during a Wednesday afternoon press meeting on the Alisal Fire. His firefighters were still on the fire and had been since the initial attack on Monday afternoon, said Hartwig, who went on to praise the coordination of his department with Montecito, City of Santa Barbara, Summerland and Carpinteria, and Forest Service fire agencies.
That partnership was being folded into a Type 1 incident command led by the Forest Service, said Woody Enos, an incident commander and deputy chief of operations with County Fire. The difference, said Jimmy Harris, a fire chief with Los Padres National Forest, was the advantage of 58 leadership roles versus three in the Type 3 command in place earlier. Harris noted the winds were shifting, always a dangerous time, but when they let up, aircraft were able to make the round trip from Santa Maria in 40 minutes.
