Santa Barbara on Fire

My hometown is Santa Barbara. I spent my entire childhood and most of my adult life there. Santa Barbara has a problem with fires!

My first memory of a large scale wildfire was the Coyote Fire in September of 1964. We lived on Mountain Drive, the main battle zone for this fire. When the destructive wall of fire approached our home we quickly evacuated. As we were driving away we heard a large explosion and saw flames shooting over 100' into the night sky. It was not until we were allowed to return several days later that we learned that our house had not been consumed by the fire. It was our eucalyptus trees that had caused the explosion and flames. The houses to the West and South of us both burned. The Coyote Fire burned about 67,000 acres and destroyed or damaged about 150 buildings during a 10 day period.

Between 1964 and 1972 there were several other wildfires of note, but I was away (military service and college). The Sycamore wildfire was the next conflagration that is vivid in my memory. Late July of 1977 was unbearably hot (94 degrees the afternoon of the fire). We were in the middle of a drought and everything was kindling-like dry. Those conditions and a box kite shorting out power lines lead to the 5th worst fire ($26 million dollar damage) in California history (at the time). The firestorm (pushed by winds exceeding 70 mph) took a severe toll in just 7 hours. 195 homes were destroyed in that one night. Many of the people who lost their homes were childhood friends and neighbors. I will never forget the sights, sounds and odor of that night.

Although the Wheeler Fire of 1985 was the next major wildfire in the area, I don't really have much of a memory of it. However, I vividly remember the Painted Cave Fire of June-July of 1990. The end of June was unseasonably hot and dry for Santa Barbara. We had 3 consecutive days that hit over 100 degrees. Again, conditions were perfect for a devastating fire. Even though this fire started high in the Santa Ynez Mountains behind Santa Barbara (at the intersection of Hwy 154 and Painted Cave Road), in just 27 minutes the fire involved the "Trout Club" and was enveloping Santa Barbara homes. Although this wildfire lasted 7 days, in the first 4 hours this inferno razed over 500 homes and destroyed over $250 million dollars of property! It had traveled 5 miles downhill cutting a swath between Goleta and Santa Barbara setting afire entire neighborhoods in it's path. The fire jumped the combination of our 6 lane freeway and the two side roads, Calle Real and Hollister and continued burning down stores, restaurants, businesses, apartment buildings, and more houses on the other side. It appeared nothing but the Pacific Ocean itself was going to stop this fire. I was living in the Samarkand area at the time. Even though we were in no immediate danger, we had to evacuate (in our RV) because the volume of smoke and ash made it impossible to stay. We had the luxury of sitting in our RV 20 miles away watching the fire and it's blazing 150'-200' flames on our TV. Many of my friends and clients were not so lucky! Because the fire moved so quickly, people were happy to just get out alive...there was no time to remove photos and other valuable/precious possessions.

For the last 5 years we have generally traveled in our RV from early May through December, so we missed the devastating Zaca Fire of 2007. The Zaca Fire, the largest fire in Santa Barbara's history and the second largest in the state, burned for months. The Zaca Fire burned about 375 square miles of the Los Padres National Forest. This wildfire did limited damage to man-made structures but wreaked havoc in the National Forest. The months of smoke and ash made breathing difficult and almost impossible for residents with asthma. While we were gone the ash from this fire engulfed the exterior of our "Trailer" and managed to infiltrate and leave ash in every nook and cranny inside.

Again, we were traveling during most of 2008. This time we missed two destructive firestorms, the Gap Fire and the Tea Fire. The Gap fire started July 1, 2008 and continued to burned for over a month, involving about 10,000 acres. No homes were destroyed, but the amount of devastation in the foothills of the mountains was serious. The fire season for Santa Barbara is generally June-September, so we were shocked to learn of the Tea Fire that started on November 13th. This 4-day conflagration, fanned by "sundowner winds" up to 90 mph burned about 2,000 acres, destroyed 210 homes and cost over $6 million dollars to fight. It was not until we returned to Santa Barbara in late December that I learned that my childhood home (saved during the Coyote Fire) was totally destroyed in the Tea Fire (I know the current owners). I have 2 clients and friends that lost thre homes in this holocost. The fire was named after the "Tea Gardens", a popular hangout in the foothills for over 50 years. I spent a lot of time there as a teenager.

Santa Barbara was off to an early summer season for 2009. In early May the temperatures were high and the humidity low. From our winter home we could see the foothills changing color from green to brown. However, we had no inkling of what was about to unfurl. On the afternoon of Tuesday May 5th a wildfire was ignited near the Jesusita Trail in the Santa Barbara foothills. Fueled by high temperatures, low humidity and strong winds, the fire quickly moved to inhabitated areas. By Thursday evening the inferno had consumed thousands of acres (final toll was over 8,700 acres) and destroyed 80 homes. Thursday night we loaded photos into the truck (just in case). By early Friday morning we in the mandatory evacuation area. Once again, our home was spared. Not so lucky was a friend that had 20 minutes warning and lost his home and most possessions. Santa Barbara has a fire problem!