Calif. wildfire burns 75 homes in Santa Barbara
Pastor Dale Morgan
Calif. wildfire burns 75 homes in Santa Barbara
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By JEFF WILSON – 1 hour ago
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — Paradise is not lost, but it's in flames —
again. The seasonal wildfires that menace this idyllic coastal city
roared to life earlier than usual but with all-too-familiar ferocity,
damaging or destroying 75 homes and forcing about 12,000 people to flee.
"I knew it was time to leave," said Tom Morse, 62, a day after he dusted
off his motorhome as the fire neared his Mission Canyon Heights house.
"I could see the flames getting close."
The fire was just the latest to ravage the area known as the American
Riviera, home to screen stars, former presidents and Oprah Winfrey. The
blaze reached the burn area of another wildfire that just six months ago
destroyed about 200 homes in Santa Barbara and Montecito.
By day's end, state officials said the latest fire grew from 1,300 acres
to more than 2,700 acres — roughly 4 square miles. Firefighters were on
alert for a predicted return of a "sundowner" — fierce winds that late
in the day can sweep down from the Santa Ynez Mountains towering close
behind Santa Barbara.
The wind did kick up, but it blew from the ocean pushing the fire up
into the mountains and away from homes.
A sundowner on Wednesday afternoon turned a slumbering brush fire on
rugged slopes above the city into a towering wildfire that hurled flames
into homes and spit embers into more distant neighborhoods.
About 4,700 homes remained evacuated, and another 12,000 people were
advised to be ready to leave.
"It started firestorming dramatically," said Gregg Patronyk, a lifelong
Santa Barbara resident who grabbed a hose and started wetting his roof
when he saw other houses ablaze. "The fire got within 200 to 300 feet of
my house.
"There was a lot of pressure to leave," he said. "Police wanted me out
and I got a frantic call from my sister, who was walking up the hill to
get me. So I packed up the car and left, picking her up on the way."
About 2,300 firefighters from many departments were on the lines, aided
by aircraft. The fire was just 10 percent contained.
Authorities reported 10 firefighters injured, including three who
sheltered in a house during a firestorm. They were in good condition at
a Los Angeles burn center but two faced surgery. Other injuries ranged
from smoke inhalation to ankle sprains.
Structure losses were still being counted but the numbers were expected
to be in the dozens, not hundreds, said Joe Waterman, the incident
commander from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Franklin said the destruction during Wednesday's firestorm could have
been much worse.
"There maybe should have been hundreds of homes lost due to the amount
of fuel in that canyon and the 70 mph winds," he said. "There was some
real effort made on that fire front and some real saves that the
firefighters made out there."
The city's location on the state's central coast gives it some of the
best weather in the world, with temperatures routinely topping out in
the 70s, and views of the Pacific Ocean. Now with a population of about
90,000, it dates to the Spanish colonial era of California and a Roman
Catholic mission established in the 1780s is a major tourist draw.
Ronald Reagan's Rancho del Cielo in the mountains became his western
retreat during his presidency. In 1992 President-elect Bill Clinton and
his family spent a pre-inaugural vacation at an estate in nearby Summerland.
Over the decades, celebrities ranging from Charlie Chaplin to
Christopher Lloyd and Rob Lowe have been drawn to the area. In 2007,
then-presidential candidate Barack Obama made a speech on a Santa
Barbara hillside en route to a celebrity-studded fundraiser at Winfrey's
estate in nearby Montecito.
But the geography that gives the area beauty and a serene atmosphere
also brings danger.
"I'm from the East Coast and at this point I'd rather put up with this
than the winter," said evacuee Jim Hatch, 40, an illustrator who
returned home to pick up clothes Thursday and motored up Jesusita Road
on a baby blue Piaggio scooter to see the fire.
State Assemblyman Pedro Nava fled Wednesday with his wife, two dogs and
a cat. They tossed pictures, documents and a few days of clothes into a
car and went to the home of a friend.
"I've learned how important preparation is in an emergency," he said.
"The public has to be prepared to move, and in Santa Barbara they are
prepared. When the police squad car came through with loudspeakers
telling us to leave, there was no arguing. And they will all be back."
Morse, the executive director of the environmental group Global
Preservation Projects, said he's not surprised by so many fires, blaming
it on global warming.
"Temperatures are rising and humidity levels are dropping. It means more
fires," he said.
Global warming can't be blamed for specific fires, but it creates
conditions that foster larger and more frequent wildfires, scientists say.
"A warming climate encourages wildfires through a longer summer period
that dries fuels, promoting easier ignition and faster spread," the
Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change wrote in 2007.
Hatch, the scooter-riding illustrator, said his wife grew up in Santa
Barbara.
"Her family thinks this is normal," he said. "But after living here for
20 years I think the fires are getting worse."
Elsewhere, a southern New Mexico wildfire destroyed three homes and
damaged a fourth near the small mountain community of Timberon. It also
burned five outbuildings, such as sheds and garages, and 10 vehicles,
fire information officer Darlene Hart said. Twenty homes were evacuated.
In southeastern Arizona, winds cooperated Thursday in holding down a
wildfire that had destroyed three homes and critically injured a man,
officials said. That blaze was 30 percent contained.
Associated Press writers Raquel Maria Dillon in Santa Barbara and Seth
Borenstein in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.