Deja Vous in SBA

Yes Coop, about 1 1/2 miles to the left of where I was shooting up the mountain. Started at the top and burned down the face of the mountain. Now at the foothills and slowing. We are keeping out fingers crossed. So far no structures harmed but we lost power last night for 4-5 hours.
John

 

Coop,
Fire started close to the little peak on the top left of the first picture. Near West Camino Cielo at the Winchester Gun Club. You can spot the rifle, pistol and shotgun ranges on Google if you are curious. Set North up, Start over Santa Barbara Airport. Fire Is burning down this side of mountain quite far to the left of the houses in the pictures. My shots were all to the right (East) of Fairview Ave. Fire was down close to the junction of Cathedral Oaks and Glen Annie road this morning. Different speed down each canyon and there are lots of canyons. Goleta is getting ashes and lots of smoke. The orchards go all along the fothills and should make a good firebreak for most structures. Google pictures are old and there are more orchards than shown. We are hoping for low winds tonight. Scary thing to watch.
John

 

I have a friend doing some Engineering consulting in SB and called him last night. He says the air quality is poor to worse. I hope you and Candi are safe and healthy despite such smoke in the air.
Scott

 

We are fine and miles from the fire. Do have a great view when the smoke clears. Last night the fire did come down behind the houses in the pictures. It is slowly widening on both sides. All in canyons that have not burned in 30+ years. Orchards really are the fire breaks as are the areas cleared around houses in the area. Folks learn! Only structure lost was a mobile home in the wrong place. About all the firefighters can do is slow things down. Just going to have to wait for the "sundowner" winds to quit. Fire is slow during the day but the nights are Hell. Car is getting a continuous coating of ash. Will take it out later and blow things off.
John

 

Glad to hear you're alright, John. Breaks my heart as a local to see this, but a great, and so far successful effort has been made on our behalf to protect homes, animals and people. Some horses are taking refuge at my daughter's place of work-SB polo and racquet club. This is a good community when it comes to pulling together in adverse times. Hope to see you blowing some ash off on the backroads.- John

 

I am fine here, fire got too close. We were in the evacuation area and I hated driving my Dino in that foul air but that is what air cleaners are for I guess. I took the Dino to my father-in-laws downtown to safety. I must have looked awfully odd driving down the freeway in that black air with a dust mask on but I could not drive with the top in that warm weather at 10PM There was a point on the freeway where traffic was flowing slowly due to poor visibility. My wife followed with our other car on the trailer (1934 Singer 1.5 Litre Sports) as it does not run yet.

Brought the car back home today and its back in its garage nice and safe. Fire seems mostly out with a few hot spots but at least we are out of the danger zone, its moved up the hills and can't come back since it has burned all its fuel on the bottom of the hill.

 

Happy for us tonight. All of our friends are safe and still have their homes. One friend lives at the Trout Club and stayed to help fight. Fire crews were fantastic and he learned a lot. Air drops were critical to the saving of the whole community. Those fire guys earn their salary. Now the fire is headed West and everyone hopes they can keep it below the peaks and on the ocean side of the mountains. We still lose power periodically and get rains of ash but mostly all over for Santa Barbara and Goleta. Thanks for the concern and good wishes.
John