Forester Media’s offices are located
in Santa Barbara, CA, a city of some 80,000 inhabitants that has made it into
the national news for the fifth time in less that two years with yet another
serious fire.
Named the “Tea
Fire” because of its birth in an abandoned but oft-trespassed tea
house in the foothills of neighboring Montecito, as of today (November 18) the
blaze is close to full containment after burning some 2,000 acres, destroying
210 residences, and damaging at least nine others. Twenty-two cases of smoke
inhalation have been reported, along with three burn injuries, but thankfully no
deaths have been attributed to the fire.
During the late fall, Southern
California is subject to hot and dry desert winds known as Santa Anas, which
turn vast amounts of brush in the coastal hills and canyons into ticking time
bombs awaiting mere sparks to turn vast areas into rampaging wildfires.
This was the situation Santa Barbara
faced on the afternoon of November 13, when the fire began. By evening, flames
had spread to nearly 200 acres and consumed as many as 100 homes. Mandatory
evacuations were ordered for 3,500 residents, with 10,000 standby warnings
issued for adjacent areas. By the early hours of November 14, the fire was
approaching its zenith, and I started writing a running
report:
(2:30 a.m.) Once again, Santa Barbara
is in flames...this time I think we may be in big trouble, as the weather report
is calling for scorching temperatures and high winds over the next couple or
three days. I’m looking out at flames less than five miles away leaping 300-plus
feet into the air.
(4 a.m.) It’s still dark, but there
are perhaps a dozen helicopters swooping in to drop water, gliding down to the
junior high school athletic field to load up, then launching again to rejoin the
queue...shades of Vietnam. At first light, the fixed-wing tankers will be taking
up the attack, but if the winds pick up during the day, who knows what will
happen?
(9 a.m.) The DC-10 tanker is
operating and is able to put down a convincing deluge…except when you look at it
in the larger perspective where it is no more than a drop in the bucket compared
to the fire. Fire crews from all over the state are arriving and being
dispatched to fire lines. The problem is that the winds make fire lines iffy
propositions at best, so we’re stuck in the wait-and-see mode where we’ve been
four times in the past year-and-a-half.
(10 a.m.) A radio report says that
100 homes have been destroyed and 3,500 more lie in mandatory evacuation areas.
My guess is that the toll will rise throughout the day and maybe the weekend as
well.
(11 a.m.) Just now a pair of Ericson
Skycranes (H-54s) came growling by carrying water tanks to meet a new outbreak
in Sycamore Canyon, where sudden plumes of dark smoke signal the additional
losses of structures. The winds have picked up again, and this in conjunction
with the fire’s ability to make its own weather adds an increased level of
uncertainty to the situation.
(Noon) Things have begun really to
kick up in the canyons, and the fire officials admit that they have zero-percent
containment. More plumes of dark smoke accentuate the burn areas, but the
prevailing winds seem to be keeping the fires out of the city
proper.
(1 p.m.) Just now, a pair of tanker
aircraft (converted P2 Neptune and P3 Orion) made an in-trail pass over the main
portion of the Mission Canyon blaze, which sits about a mile and a half above
the mission itself. Endangered icons in the area include the Museum of Natural
History, the Botanical Gardens, and the El Encanto Hotel. Smoke obscures much of
the area known as “the Riviera,” overlooking the city and Santa Barbara Channel
and islands, as well as Sycamore and Barker Canyons and the Cold Springs area.
Westmont College in the Montecito foothills reports the loss of two
buildings.
(3 p.m.) Tankers and helicopters
shuttle to and from the burn areas in a constant assault, and for the first time
I have the sense that the tide of battle is turning in favor of the fire crews.
What a magnificent job they have been doing.
(6 p.m.) While the fire is far from
contained, hot spots continue to shoot flames high into the nighttime sky—yet it
appears that the worst is over.
By the next morning many of the fire
crews from other areas had been released, but their trials were far from over.
Ninety miles to south, fires began to spring up throughout the Los Angeles
Basin, beginning with a blaze in the Sylmar area of the San Fernando Valley,
followed by more fires in Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino
Counties.
Today (November 18) most of the fires
are under control, but the devastation they have wrought is enormous. Yet,
despite the toll in dislocation and suffering for those who lost their homes and
possessions, we have the extraordinary skill and tenacity of hundreds of fire
units who pulled out all the stops to thank for preventing far greater loss of
property and life.
We all owe them a great debt of
gratitude.