More than three thousand firefighters continue to work to try to contain two massive brush fires burning in Santa Barbara County.
The Alamo Fire, which started July 6th near Twitchell Reservior northeast of Santa Maria, is 85% contained as of 6y p.m. Thursday, with about 29,000 acres of land burned. All mandatory evacuation orders were lifted Wednesday, but access to the area is still restricted to residents only. Highway 166 remains closed.
The Whittier Fire south of Lake Cachuma has now burned more than 12,000 acres of land, and stands at 48% containment, the same level it was at Wednesday. Highway 154 remains closed from Santa Barbara to Highway 246.
The public is still restricted from the areas burned by the Whittier fire, and when Highway 154 reopens, many people will be shocked to see what the once lush landscape looks like in the wake of the blaze.
KCLU's Lance Orozco takes us on a tour of the burn zone, with stops at some of the hard hit summer camps, where a number of the 20 structures which burned were located.
