SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Sept. 18 (UPI) — A wildfire at Vandenberg Air Force Base near Santa Barbara, Calif., has forced the delay of a satellite launch, officials said Sunday night.
The wildfire started and spread swiftly in a remote canyon at the south end of the military base on Saturday and has now burned 1,200 acres said Wayne Seda, the assistant chief of the Vandenberg Fire Department.
“It’s burning in some very tough vegetation,” Seda told reporters Sunday. “It jumped roads at times and came out of the containment lines.”
The WorldView-4 commercial satellite was scheduled to be launched atop an Atlas V rocket Sunday. The satellite will get high-resolution images of the planet, according to contractor United Launch Alliance.
An evacuation warning has been sent out to about 400 residents in San Miguelito Canyon, though no structures are threatened and authorities expect the fire to remain on the base.
Vandenberg AFB engineers are working to restore power to a remote area at the edge of the base.
Nearly 230 Vandenberg AFB, U.S. Forestry Service, CalFire, and Santa Barbara County firefighters are currently battling the fire.
