VAFB fire officials reported that there was minimal overnight activity Wednesday, and Santa Barbara County Fire lifted all off-base evacuation orders as of 6 a.m.
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A Santa Barbara County Fire Department vehicle enters the Vandenberg Air Force Base Main Gate to respond to a new fire on Thursday afternoon. The driver of the crash was transported to a local hospital with minor injuries, the report read.
A California Highway Patrol investigator looks at the wreck of a water tender fire truck involved in a rollover crash near Vandenberg Air Force base that took the life of a Ventura County Fire Dept. firefighter and injured another firefighter Wednesday morning, September 21, 2016, near Lompoc, Calif.
“It is with great sadness and heavy hearts that the Ventura County Fire Chief announces the tragic loss”, the department said in a statement. “My prayers are with his immediate family as well as his extended firefighting family during these extremely hard times”.
Osler married Yniguez’s daughter, Jennifer, after they graduated from high school in Santa Clarita.
The California Highway Patrol is investigating the cause of the incident.
Osler was with the fire department for 18 years.
Besides lowered flags, mourning bands will be worn until further notice with funeral arrangements pending. An area of the north base, roughly 10 miles away from the Canyon Fire, which is burning on the southern portion of the base, is on fire and has caused the lockdown of Lompoc Federal Correctional Institution.
Osler, 38, was a second-generation firefighter whose father worked for the same department.
Novotny says a major factor in keeping the Washington Fire contained to about 300 acres was the quick availability of firefighting resources, including air tankers, deployed for the Canyon Fire that has burned more than 12,000 acres on Vandenberg’s South Base since last Saturday.
More than 1,000 firefighters are fighting the flames that broke out Sunday in a remote canyon.
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Gov. Jerry Brown said Osler’s death should serve as a reminder of “the dangers firefighters face every day”.
