I moved to the lower Riviera area of Santa Barbara 1.5 years ago. My home is one block below the volunteer evacuation zone.
As of this morning, the #ThomasFire has burned 237,500 acres and is 25% contained.
It has burned more in 8 days than the Zaca fire did in 8 weeks. Why? Dry. Dry. Dry.
The steps of my home have ash ½ inch thick. The large palm leaves on the birds of paradise in front of my porch are like pools of dirty snow. I hope the many birds that visit daily are finding other sources of nourishment.
The air is not breathable.
I wore a painter’s mask for a while (the stores were out of N-95 masks). Yet, even wearing the mask inside my home - I was getting headaches.
Many homes in Santa Barbara are Spanish or Mission style, which means…..old. The windows have leaky spots due to 1930’s hardware and a style of opening outward and clicking into a round hole with a long metal bar. They are beautiful, but not quite efficient when it comes to keeping the house airtight.
The other night, my friend and I decided to venture into the mandatory/volunteer evacuation demarcation line zone to check on a friend’s house on East Valley Road in Montecito (as seen in the blue dotted box).
Every road on the other side of East Valley was closed, with two police cars and officers blocking the entrances so that no one could enter. We didn’t want to.
Our friend’s house was intact and that’s all we wanted to know so that we could report back to him (he was in NorCal).
We saw the flames on the ridges above Montecito.
We saw the fire engines. Otherwise, Montecito (and most of Santa Barbara) remained a ghost town.
Since then, firefighters have created a fire line near homes to stop the fire in its tracks. Toro and Romano Canyons (where I have run trails many times), are burning.
But firefighters are getting a handle on the fire and hopefully it will be out soon.
Updates from Community Update Meeting - Incident Commanders, Battalion Chief - on 12/12 at 4pm.
· 1% humidity last night in Montecito.
· Toro Canyon burning (near Carpenteria).
· Heavy helicopter operation (water and retardant).
· Almost 240,000 acres burned in one week.
· 100,000 evacuated.
· 20% contained.
· As of this morning of 12/13: 25% contained.
· In last day: 204 million gallons of water dropped.
· 1.2 million gallons of retardant dropped.
· The flames on the ridge are containment lines.
· The winds are low now, so progress is being made.
· Life safety is the priority.
· Ventura structure loss is staggering.
· If it rains in the near future, there is not enough vegetation to hold the rain back, which means potential flooding.
The fight against mother nature will continue for many more days at least.
A firefighting Christmas is quite possible.
The firefighters are our heroes.
We are survivors.
I will not be living back in my home until the fire is over and the air is clear. I have relocated 1.5 hours north to a small beach town near San Luis Obispo. Here is what I see now.
The red sun is from the #ThomasFire smoke.
I will report back with pictures when I visit my home in a few days.
For update information.