Dry weather expected to stoke California fires
A massive blaze threatening Santa Barbara, including homes of celebrities, remains largely out of control, and the weather won’t help firefighters contain it this week.
“The thing that is troublesome is that next week, we’re supposed to have a dry spell and elevated temperatures. There’s no rain expected in the next seven days,” said Charles Esseling of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The fast-moving Thomas Fire had scorched 230,000 acres as of Sunday evening. It prompted mandatory evacuation orders in two wealthy oceanside towns near Santa Barbara. As of Sunday, officials said, the fire had damaged 135 structures and destroyed 524 in the city of Ventura, Calif., and more in the region.
Just under 6,000 firefighters were battling the flames at an estimated cost of $34 million, officials said late Sunday.
Residents in portions of Carpinteria and Montecito were fleeing as the blaze moved closer to homes, including some owned by celebrities. The fire, which straddled Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, was 10% contained as of Sunday evening, Esseling said.
One person died in Ventura County on Saturday, Esseling said. More than 750 structures have been destroyed and 15,000 are threatened. Though smaller fires plagued areas closer to Los Angeles, Esseling described the Thomas Fire as “the granddaddy of them all.”
The temperature in Montecito was
81 on Sunday, and the National Weather Service predicted temperatures in Santa Barbara to hit 83 on Tuesday. The fire cut power to more than 85,000 people because of damage to lines.
For comparison, the fires that burned in California’s wine country in Napa and Sonoma Counties in October consumed about 110,000 acres.
Fighting the fire is difficult because although the winds have calmed down somewhat, they sporadically pick up. Gusts of up to 35 mph have caused the fire to spread erratically.
“The fire goes in all different directions; we don’t know where it’s going to come from,” Esseling said. The area is especially at risk because it has not burned since 1932, and thick brush has built up, and the brush is dry because of a lack of winter rains, he said.
Santa Barbara County, which dubs itself “the American Riviera,” lies just north of Los Angeles.
The area under evacuation expanded three times over Saturday night and Sunday morning. More than 88,000 people have fled.
The Santa Barbara County Fire Department tweeted out photos of homes burning in Carpinteria early Sunday and crews fighting a wall of flame advancing on homes at 6 a.m. PT Sunday.
Red flag warnings, the highest fire alert possible, were in effect Sunday for large swaths of Southern California, from Anaheim in the south up through Los Angeles, Burbank, Oxnard and Santa Barbara.
Under normal weather conditions, this season should be a time of rain in California, but it has been largely dry. Gov. Jerry Brown, speaking at the Ventura County Fairgrounds on Saturday, called winter fires “the new normal.”
“We’re about ready to have firefighting at Christmas,” he said.