MONTECITO
Firefighters struggled to get control of a raging wildfire
Friday that destroyed more than 100 homes and injured 13 people in
this Mediterranean-style coastal town that has been home to
celebrities from Charlie Chaplin to Oprah Winfrey.
By THOMAS WATKINS
Associated Press
MONTECITO
Firefighters struggled to get control of a raging wildfire Friday that destroyed more than 100 homes and injured 13 people in this Mediterranean-style coastal town that has been home to celebrities from Charlie Chaplin to Oprah Winfrey.
Fire crews stationed in cul-de-sacs on winding residential roads had a 12-hour window to gain on the fire before the region’s famous “sundowner” winds – which roar down the mountains to the sea as the sun sets – picked up again, with gusts that could reach 70 mph, said Santa Barbara County fire chief Ron Prince.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Santa Barbara County on Friday as residents waited anxiously for word of their homes after fleeing flames with just a few minutes notice.
There is no estimate for containment of the blaze, which broke out just before 6 p.m. Thursday and spread to about 2,500 acres – nearly 4 miles – by early Friday. About 5,400 homes were evacuated in tony Montecito, which has attracted celebrities like Rob Lowe, Michael Douglas and Winfrey, who owns a 42-acre estate there.
“This situation is not over. We’re going to have a very, very tough day today for firefighting and when the winds kick up this afternoon, we’re going to have an incredibly challenging situation,” said Santa Barbara County fire chief Ron Prince. “Control of this fire is not even in sight.”
Santa Barbara police Deputy Chief Richard Glaus said officers arrested someone Thursday night in the burn area. The person wasn’t a resident in the area and displayed some kind of “suspicious activity” and tried to flee the officers, he said.
The arrest was not arson-related, Glaus said.
Fire officials began an aggressive attack from the air at daybreak with the help of nine water-dropping helicopters and 10 air tankers, said Terri Nisich, a spokeswoman with the Santa Barbara County Executive Office. Helicopter pilots had worked through the night, using night vision goggles to drop water on the flames, said Santa Barbara County Sheriff-Coroner Bill Brown.
A high wind warning was in effect in Los Angeles and Ventura counties through Saturday, with possible gusts of up to 70 mph in some passes and canyons.
Michele Mickiewicz, a spokeswoman with the county emergency operations center, said Friday that 10 people were treated for smoke inhalation and three had burn injuries. Earlier, Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital reported receiving two patients with substantial burns.
“I saw $15 million in houses burn, without a doubt,” Santa Barbara evacuee Tom Bain said. “They were just blowing up. It was really, intensely hot.”
Bain, a 54-year-old electrician, said authorities ordered him to leave his home around midnight.
Bain quickly collected his three cats, his work files and his computer and was out his house within five minutes. On his way out, he saw at least six mansions on a ridge above his home explode into flames.
About 200 people spent the night at an evacuation center at a high school in nearby Goleta, but rest was out of the question for Ed Naha, a 58-year-old writer who lives in the hills above Santa Barbara.
“I don’t think we are going to have the house when we go back,” Naha said.
“We are used to seeing smoke because we do have fires up here, but I’ve never seen that reddish, hellish glow that close,” he said. “I was waiting for Dante and Virgil to show up.”
Thousands of feet above the flames, footage shot from television helicopters showed what initially looked like a massive campfire with dozens of glowing embers.
When cameras zoomed in, however, what appeared to be flaring coals turned out to be houses – many of them sprawling estates – gutted by flame. Palm trees were lit like burning matches and fire was chewing mansions to the ground.
“It looked like lava coming down a volcano,” Leslie Hollis Lopez said as she gathered belongings from her house.
Brown, the sheriff, said he flew over the burn area early Friday. He said the Mount Calvary Benedictine monastery appeared to be completely destroyed and he personally counted more than 80 homes burned to the ground, many in the winding streets around Westmont College.
The Christian liberal arts college is nestled amid wooded rolling hills, some 1,000 students were caught off-guard by the rapidly moving flames.
“It came pretty fast,” said Tyler Rollema, a 19-year-old sophomore who was eating dinner in the cafeteria when students were told to head to the gym. “We came out and it was just blazing.”
The fire temporarily knocked out power to more than 20,000 homes in Santa Barbara, Southern California Edison spokesman Paul Klein said. The city has a population of about 90,000.
At Westmont College, the air was dense with smoke and the scent of burning pine. Flames chewed through a eucalyptus grove on the 135-acre campus and destroyed several buildings housing the physics and psychology departments, at least three dormitories and about a dozen faculty homes, college spokesman Scott Craig said.
“I saw flames about 100 feet high in the air shooting up with the wind just howling,” he told AP Radio. “Now when the wind howls and you’ve got palm trees and eucalyptus trees that are literally exploding with their hot oil, you’ve got these big, red hot embers that are flying through the sky and are catching anything on fire.”
About 300 students fled to gym, where they spent the night sleeping on cots. Some stood in groups praying, others sobbed openly and comforted each other.
Beth Lazor, 18, said she was in her dorm when the alarm went off. She said she only had time to grab her laptop, phone, a teddy bear and a debit card before fleeing the burning building.
Her roommate, Catherine Wilson, said she didn’t have time to get anything.
“I came out and the whole hill was glowing,” Wilson said. “There were embers falling down.”
Montecito, a quiet community known for its Mediterranean-like climate and charming Spanish colonial homes, has long attracted celebrities.
The landmark Montecito Inn was built in the 1920s by Charlie Chaplin, and the nearby San Ysidro Ranch was the honeymoon site of John F. Kennedy in 1953.
Montecito suffered a major fire in 1977, when more than 200 homes burned. A fire in 1964 burned about 67,000 acres and damaged 150 houses and buildings.
