Looks like Santa Barbara had some bad-ass Sundowner Winds overnight and this morning. Winds are expected to pick up. The sh*ts about to get real!
Spotters are in place. Hillsides have been scrubbed of as much flammable vegetation as possible. And now it’s time to see whether it was all enough to stop the deadly Thomas fire from wreaking additional havoc.
The fire that started in Ventura County on Dec. 4 continued to grow overnight and on Saturday was taking aim at hills above Montecito in Santa Barbara County.
The wildfire has scorched 259,000 acres as of Saturday morning, the third-largest fire in modern state history.
The westernmost edge of the giant Thomas fire was in the north-south canyon drained by San Ysidro Creek. An army of firefighters were trying to keep the fire away from homes along in the hills of Montecito.
And if the fire gets into the canyon and the winds breathe new life into the flames, there is nothing to stop the blaze from racing into the foothill homes of Montecito, said Mark Brown, a fire operations commander.
Firefighters have smothered the hills with hundreds of thousands of gallons of fire retardant in an attempt to keep embers from igniting spot fires and to keep flames at bay, Brown said. Some hillsides have been intentionally denuded above Montecito, Summerland and Carpinteria, including in Romero and Toro canyons, to limit the potential damage. The fire is out in much of those areas, which are now protected by established containment lines, he said.
So at some point Saturday morning, when the spotters on mountaintops alert crews below that the winds are coming, firefighters will clear out and wait to see whether their preparations were enough.
If the winds catch the flames well enough to send the blaze running south down the canyon toward Montecito, “we won’t stop the spread,” Brown said.
There are hundreds of homes in the fire’s potential path and with winds that strong, it’s too dangerous to put firefighters in front of it to stop it. They would have to watch the fire pass by from designated “safety zones” then attack it from behind.
Here is the best link (long) for fire maps and updates:
http://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappvi...=938108677306826752&adbpl=tw&adbpr=1510718227
Spotters are in place. Hillsides have been scrubbed of as much flammable vegetation as possible. And now it’s time to see whether it was all enough to stop the deadly Thomas fire from wreaking additional havoc.
The fire that started in Ventura County on Dec. 4 continued to grow overnight and on Saturday was taking aim at hills above Montecito in Santa Barbara County.
The wildfire has scorched 259,000 acres as of Saturday morning, the third-largest fire in modern state history.
The westernmost edge of the giant Thomas fire was in the north-south canyon drained by San Ysidro Creek. An army of firefighters were trying to keep the fire away from homes along in the hills of Montecito.
And if the fire gets into the canyon and the winds breathe new life into the flames, there is nothing to stop the blaze from racing into the foothill homes of Montecito, said Mark Brown, a fire operations commander.
Firefighters have smothered the hills with hundreds of thousands of gallons of fire retardant in an attempt to keep embers from igniting spot fires and to keep flames at bay, Brown said. Some hillsides have been intentionally denuded above Montecito, Summerland and Carpinteria, including in Romero and Toro canyons, to limit the potential damage. The fire is out in much of those areas, which are now protected by established containment lines, he said.
So at some point Saturday morning, when the spotters on mountaintops alert crews below that the winds are coming, firefighters will clear out and wait to see whether their preparations were enough.
If the winds catch the flames well enough to send the blaze running south down the canyon toward Montecito, “we won’t stop the spread,” Brown said.
There are hundreds of homes in the fire’s potential path and with winds that strong, it’s too dangerous to put firefighters in front of it to stop it. They would have to watch the fire pass by from designated “safety zones” then attack it from behind.
Here is the best link (long) for fire maps and updates:
http://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappvi...=938108677306826752&adbpl=tw&adbpr=1510718227
