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(11-14) 04:00 PST Santa Barbara -- - Fire crews attacked a huge wildfire in and around this seaside city with everything from air tankers to hand tools Friday in a desperate attempt to gain control of flames that destroyed more than 100 houses and forced 5,400 to flee.
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The fire spent most of the day rampaging through the tiny town of Montecito, but by afternoon had burned its way to Santa Barbara, forcing evacuations in the eastern edge of the upscale community. Stiff winds that had whipped the fire into a furious pace when it began Thursday had abated by Friday, but officials said it was imperative that they gain the upper hand fast in case the breezes kick up again.
The biggest concerns as the night settled in were the tony Mission Canyon and Riviera areas of Santa Barbara, said city Fire Capt. Mike dePonce.
"They are in danger until we have containment of the fire," he said.
Residents described near-apocalyptic scenarios Thursday and Friday as flames as high as 150 feet chewed their way through forestlands, canyons and expensive homes.
"I opened up my door, looked up and there was an absolutely massive wall of fire," said Paul Strange, a 43-year-old Montecito resident. "I've been through fires before, but this was absolutely massive. It was amazing."
By the time he, his wife and their three children had packed up their belongings to flee, smoke had filled his house and it seemed like the sky was "raining burning embers," Strange said. They drove to safer ground, and the last word he had was that his house had not burned.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said a 98-year-old man died after being evacuated to a hotel, but it was unclear if his death was directly related to the blaze. At least two people fleeing the fire were hospitalized with burns, and 10 suffered smoke inhalation, officials said.
Firefighters from all over
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Santa Barbara County. Fire departments from all over the state were sending additional personnel and equipment, and by Friday evening there were 1,141 fire personnel on the scene.
The advent of a major blaze this late in the year would be unusual in Northern California, where the fire season was declared over on Nov. 10 - but in the sunny south, it is depressingly predictable.
"It's not like the Bay Area, where you at least get more rain," California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Doug Lannon said in Montecito. "But here, where it's still very hot and we get strong winds, we've been expecting this kind of thing."
Coming on the heels of a busy summer of blazes around the state that demolished homes from Shasta to Santa Cruz and down to Los Angeles, this latest fire is taxing an already overstretched firefighting force in the state. More than 2,700 fires, many sparked by lightning, ravaged California this year and at times blanketed the air of many regions with clouds of smoke for days at a time.
90-mph winds
This week's conflagration - dubbed the Tea Fire - broke out Thursday at 5:45 p.m. in the Tea House, a historic and defunct tea cafe in the hills of Montecito. Driven by the area's famed twilight-hour "sundowner winds" with gusts up to 90 mph, the fire swiftly tore through thick stands of eucalyptus and oak trees and into nearby Westmont College and surrounding mansions.
Most of the 1,200 students at Westmont, a liberal arts Christian school set among idyllic woods and hills, were still on campus when the blaze broke out. Within 15 minutes, they were running for their lives as flames ate through three dormitories, 14 faculty homes and several other buildings.
"We had just had a fire alarm drill earlier in the day, so nobody thought much of it when they rang the alarm again - but then I walked outside, looked behind me, and the whole hill was on fire," said freshman Kelsey Santoro of Walnut Creek. "There was smoke and flames, and it was very scary."
The students ran to the nearby gym, which is fireproofed as an emergency center, and waited in fear as smoke billowed through the building and flames roared through their campus.
"The gym got really smoky, and people were just hugging each other and comforting each other," said Santoro. "We all got in a circle and started praying together."
Flames move west
The fire tore past the college and began spreading west toward Santa Barbara as the evening wore on, and many students evacuated to other areas. About 300 students, including Santoro, spent the night on cots and blankets in the gym, and emerged Friday morning to find the capricious mix of chaos and salvation that big fires so often leave.
"You'd walk by one house that was burned to ashes, then the next would be all complete with a lawn intact and a swing out front," Santoro said. "It was crazy. The fire took a lot of buildings, but it could have been so much worse."
Student Haley Smith, 21, lives off campus on the eastern side of Santa Barbara, and she said she was stunned at the speed of the blaze. She watched it grow as she was driving home from work, and when she arrived her six roommates were in a state of near-panic as they packed up to evacuate.
"It moved faster than you can imagine," Smith said. "On the mountain was a stream of fire."
With average home values of $2.9 million, the Montecito area's address book is full of the rich and famous, claiming among its 10,000 residents actors Rob Lowe, Michael Douglas and talk show maven Oprah Winfrey. Lowe and many other neighbors were forced from their homes as showpiece estates were gobbled by flames. Fifty horses were also evacuated.
Oprah interviews Lowe
On her show Friday, broadcast from Chicago, Winfrey spoke worriedly about the chaos the fire was wreaking on the tony area where she keeps a $50 million estate.
"It's not a good morning for us. Some of my friends left their homes with only their dogs last night," she said on the show. Winfrey's home apparently escaped damage. During the broadcast, she also interviewed Lowe, who fled his home Thursday.
"We just left with the kids," Lowe said. "We just got everybody out. This thing came on so fast, you just can't believe it."
At least 1,800 acres - down from earlier estimates of 2,500 - in Montecito and the edge of Santa Barbara have been torched, and firefighters had not declared containment of any side of the fire by nightfall.
The blaze's cause was under investigation. Witnesses told officials they saw several people gathered at the Tea House around the time the fire began, and some said at least one person appeared to be lighting a fire.
The last wildfire of this magnitude in Montecito erupted in 1977 and demolished 200 homes.
The howling winds of Thursday night died by Friday to about 5 mph, but they are forecast to swell again today, giving extra urgency to the battle, said CalFire's Lannon.
"We're going for it with everything we've got," he said. "The fire is still in full swing, and we're trying to keep it corralled. |
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Reporting from Montecito -- A fast-moving brush fire driven by 50- to 70-mph winds erupted Thursday night in the hills above Montecito in Santa Barbara County, burning at least 800 acres, destroying up to 80 homes and forcing evacuations of luxury neighborhoods, authorities said.
The fire broke out about 6 p.m. in the wealthy Cold Springs area of Montecito, where a number of celebrities live, and quickly overwhelmed firefighters with its spee
"I have so many concerns," said Terry McElwee, operation chief for the Montecito Fire Department. "It's just moving so fast right now. . . . We're having trouble rounding up enough resources."
Three helicopters with the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection were dropping water where they could gain access as firefighters struggled to get engines and equipment to threatened structures. Nevertheless, the fire continued to press southwest, toward Santa Barbara.
"It looked like lava coming down a volcano," Leslie Hollis Lopez told the Associated Press as she gathered her belongings from her house.
More than 1,000 firefighters were battling the blaze, dubbed the Tea fire. Departments included Santa Barbara County, the city of Santa Barbara, Montecito, Carpinteria, and the California Department of Forestry. Mandatory evacuations were in effect for an area above California 192, between Cold Springs Road and Hot Springs Road.
Geri Ventura, a spokeswoman for the Montecito Fire Department, said an evacuation center was set up at San Marcos Senior High School in Santa Barbara, and students at nearby Westmont College were told to gather in the campus gym.
As the fire swept through the college area, at least two buildings were destroyed, but no injuries were reported, authorities said.
Although two evacuation centers were opened, many Montecito fire-area residents chose to wait out the fire at hotels -- some of which were full -- or at friends' homes.
Bobby Shand stopped at the Holiday Inn in Carpinteria, about five miles away, looking in vain for a room for himself and his family. He had just received word that two of his friends' homes had been destroyed, but he didn't yet know the fate of his own. The family had not waited for evacuation orders but packed up cherished belongings in three cars and headed out.
Lone Jensen Broussard, a minister from Phoenix, moved to the Holiday Inn after the fire interrupted her stay at the Casa de Maria retreat in Montecito. She had been enjoying Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara when she looked up into the hills and spotted the smoke and flames near the retreat house. She hurried back to find a nervous staff getting ready to leave.
"I was there for a nice, peaceful retreat, to get away from the stress and strain," she said, "but at least now I have something to pray for."
Some residents decided to leave their homes even before being required to do so.
Physicist Matthew Fisher, watching news of the fire in the Nugget restaurant and bar in Summerland, a village adjacent to Montecito, said he spotted the blaze up the hill from the family home in Montecito's Eucalyptus neighborhood.
"I looked up and decided it wasn't irrational to pack up the car," Fisher said. His wife, Wendy, decided to take her wedding dress, and their 3-year-old daughter, Maya, chose her flamenco dress -- a gift from her grandparents' trip to Spain. They also packed up photos and journals Wendy had kept as a teenager. And, of course, the family dog.
Janet Higbie, visiting from New York, got more than she had bargained for when she found herself waiting to see whether her mother's assisted-living home in Santa Barbara would be evacuated.
"The sky is pink, it's smoky, and for a while, the power was off," Higbie said. "Now we're just waiting to see whether we need to evacuate."
In the hills of Montecito, residents could be seen packing up cars. Horse trailers and Porsches snaked their way down narrow, winding mountain roads.
Montecito resident Kent Kimball, 47, left his three sons and employees from the family's mechanic shop watering down his home on Sycamore Canyon Road while he took his mountain bike up to the 700 block of Chelham Way to get a better look at the fire and the direction it was taking.
Asked if he was worried about his home, Kimball responded: "Not necessarily. I've got good fire insurance."
Among those celebrities with homes in the area is talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, who owns a 42-acre estate there. Other famous property owners include actors Rob Lowe and Michael Douglas.
Lowe's publicist, Alan Nierob, told the Associated Press that the actor's home had not been destroyed and he was not staying there Thursday night.
Chawkins and Saillant are Times staff writer |
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DENVER - With a goal of preventing a catastrophic wildfire in the Colorado high country, Gov. Bill Ritter (D-Colorado) and a bipartisan group of lawmakers announced plans on Wednesday to move forward with the "Healthy Forests/Vibrant Communities Act of 2009."
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The series of bills includes money to train firefighters as well as to incentivize the removal of dead trees from the mountains and will be introduced when lawmakers return to work in January.
"We'll still experience wildfires because we always have, but the fact of the matter is it could be so much more limited in the breadth of the damage done if we take this kind of action now," said Ritter at a State Capitol news conference announcing the plan. "Our forests are at risk. They are fighting epidemics from pine beetles, diseases, drought and climate change."
It is estimated that 1.5 million acres in Colorado contain dead or dying trees and the pine beetle, specifically, is claiming anywhere from 300 to 500,000 new acres of trees each year. In Colorado, a significant amount of that land is owned by the federal government. Ritter said the state has asked for emergency funds from the federal government to help mitigate against wildfire and that the Forest Service has requested $175 million for the Rocky Mountain region to deal with the pine beetle.
The series of bills being sponsored would include $5.5 million from the state's Severance Tax Operational Account, which gets its money from taxes paid by oil and gas companies operating in Colorado. Already, there are planned projects in Summit County and Mesa County to turn woody biomass produced from beetle kill into ethanol. One of the bills being discussed would further incentivize the removal of dead trees from troubled areas to turn into energy production.
Tourism is Colorado's second largest industry behind agriculture, with $7.9 billion spent in the state during 2007. It accounts for roughly 200,000 jobs in Colorado. Lawmakers say the risk to the mountains must be eased for the health of the entire state which is why much of the funding would go to training, recruiting and retaining the volunteer firefighters in the region.
"A catastrophic wildfire in the Northern and Central Rockies at this point in time is not so much an if-it-will-happen event, but a when-it-will-happen event," said Rep. Christine Scanlan (D-Summit County), recapping the testimony of a wildfire expert to her over the summer. "If you knew Katrina was going to happen in two years, wouldn't you do something different? The answer is yes. The state of Colorado is going to do something different." |
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