Well, it’s yet another fire in Santa Barbara. I was outside having a beer with some friends and we were noticing that it started smelling smoky. So, we turn on the TV and there is a pretty friggin’ huge fire going on burning up the edge of the city. We’ve lost a couple of dozen houses so far. The houses up there are probably worth a couple a million apiece. It’s the time of the year for Sundowner winds, the hot winds coming off the desert. It was 80°F at 9PM. Everyone probably has friends who live up there; I certainly do. The winds were howling earlier, with gusts over 70mph.
The winds are dying, I hope it doesn’t burn into town too badly. Power has been up and down all evening. I’m going to wander out and see if I can shoot some pictures from Santa Barbara City College. I hope everybody is OK!
I saw it driving on the 217 around 6:15 today. Looked pretty small, but really strong flames. Now it’s gotten a lot bigger, at 400 acres. This is going to be a nasty one. My home’s ok, no loss of power or anything, but yeah, this sucks. And so soon after the Gap Fire, too. Luckily, there is a full moon, and the winds are starting to reverse themselves, I heard.
I hope that everyone is OK too. One of the big summer wildfires got within 2000’ of my property and it was terrifying. Having only a few minutes to grab our pets and whatever else we could and then having to wait days to find out if your house is still there is awful. Sitting in the evacuation zone watching what looked like the whole mountain was on fire is an experience that I hope to never repeat. On the other hand, coming home and seeing your house and garden unharmed amidst a circle of charred trees makes you want to kiss every firefighter you see. Those guys were amazing.
I live uptown on the ocean side of the 101. It’s nowhere near me. My step sister isn’t so lucky. She was one of the first to evacuate and there is a reasonable chance that she lost everything. This is catastrophic.
After I finished class at the college I noticed it smelled smoky. If I had known there was a fire that close to the college I would have gone to the east campus lookout. I didn’t even notice it until I was driving on Meigs heading to the 101. It was pretty friggin big.
I hope her home makes it. This is a very rural area and firefighters were fighting it right up to the doors of houses that were in the path of the fire and saved almost all of them. There’s still hope.
We know someone who lost a home. It wasn’t their primary home, so in that regard, it’s good, but it’s still got to be devastating to lose all the contents and personal belongings that were there.
I live on Upper State, slightly mountain-side. I’m about 1/2 mile from the edge of the current “possible evacuation” zones, but it would surprise me if the fire got that far into a dense neighborhood.
San Roque? I’m in Hidden Valley. We’re pretty close to each other.
News is that my step-sister’s street is totally destroyed. It’s not totally confirmed but it’s almost certainly a fact. She’s staying at her husband’s parent’s house. They got out with their 6 month old twins, the inside cat and some baby clothes. The outside cats didn’t make it with them along with pretty much everything they owned. Thankfully, everyone is safe and they had renter’s insurance.
Weather conditions have gotten more favorable but that can change in a moment. There is no word yet on containment and something like 200 houses damaged or destroyed. Westmont college has been hit pretty hard as well.
Air quality is terrible at times. It smells like a campfire. Lots of helicopters up too. It sounds like an episode of MASH.
Well, the two couples who I was worried about that lived up there had their houses totally destroyed. They escaped unharmed, but pretty much lost everything they owned. They are just working class people; one couple has a small child. I’m scared to face them. Everyone at the farmer’s market today was telling war stories.
On the positive side, the weather gods were kind, and the winds did not pick up again or else we would’ve lost a couple hundred more houses.
My brother-in-law managed to get to his street and confirm that their house is gone along with all of their neighbor’s places too. National news keeps talking about the multimillion dollar estates and fucking Oprah. My step-sister lived in a modest two bedroom home. She’s a new stay at home mom and her husband is a payroll accountant. Sure some large estates burned but most of the lost houses belonged to regular middle class folks.