Santa Barbara wildfire expands, more losses

[Auggie]

Source: Associated Press

(05-08) 11:06 PDT Santa Barbara, Calif. (AP) --

A wildfire raging along coastal mountain slopes burned more homes Friday as it expanded in two directions along a five-mile front, and mandatory evacuation orders grew to encompass some 30,500 people, authorities said. Thousands more were urged to be ready to move on a moment's notice.

Towering columns of brown smoke roiled off the face of the face of the Santa Ynez Mountains after a fierce overnight battle as the 4-day-old, 3,500-acre blaze repeated its pattern of relative calm in daylight and explosive behavior when winds arrive in the evenings.

"Literally last night, all hell broke loose," Santa Barbara city Fire Chief Andrew DiMizio said.

Firefighters put out roof fires and kept the blaze from spreading into Santa Barbara proper, and many homes were saved, he said.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/08/state/n092611D46.DTL

[LakeSamish706]

1. This is unreal, going through this every year and seeming to get worse each year.... n/t

[NV Whino]

2. This really early for wild fires

Most of the extra fire fighting staff don't even come on duty until June.

[LakeSamish706]

3. Is it extra hot down there right now or something? n/t

[Auggie]

5. Hot and windy. All of California is heating up this weekend.

[kestrel91316]

7. Yep, too hot for early May, especially since we already paid our dues

with that 104F day in late April.

Fire season isn't a season anymore. It's anytime the rain isn't actually falling.

[NV Whino]

12. SoCal has been hot and dry

We up here in NoCal just finished with a week of cold and rain. Supposed to be 80 this weekend. Because of our wet, cool weather I wasn't paying much attention to what was happening in SoCal and was really shocked to learn of this first seasonal fire.

[EFerrari]

4. DUer Hekate is in Goleta.

Stay sake, Hekate. :hug:

[kestrel91316]

10. They were sending the evacuees to the shelter at the HS in Goleta.

That is, until it filled up. Then they set up a bigger shelter at UCSB. The west end WAS safe from this, but those winds had better die down.........

[EFerrari]

11. She was posting last night but the situation sounded serious. n/t

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5615767&mesg_id=5615767

[Tikki]

6. Plus there was a 4.2 Earthquake about 25miles from

Santa Barbara a few minutes ago...not that it will affect the fire...but, jeeze.
http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/

Tikki

[kestrel91316]

8. I just saw that. Sort of unsettling, given the 4.4 a week ago in the Santa

Monica Mountains. This one was basically in Ojai.

I don't like it. These are not aftershocks of anything. Don't forget, the San Andreas is overdue for a jumbo quake.

[Tikki]

9. Yeah, I just read up on foreshocks....they have to..

meet a certain criteria before they are considered...but, who knows.
Too close for comfort, I say...

Tikki