Jesusita fire in Santa Barbara
Since a bunch of readers have asked, I’ll give a quick update about the fire in Santa Barbara. I took the photo above when MD and I went out to dinner last night in downtown Santa Barbara. The top of our car, which is parked next to the restaurant, is in the foreground, providing some perspective.
As it stands now, MD and I are a little ways from the evacuation area, but the margin is getting closer and closer. Fires move pretty fast when they are driven by winds gusting from 60-70 mph. I’ve driven around and looked at the fire and placed it on a map and compared it to where we are. When I do this and think about it, the reasoning, cognitive part of my brain tells me that we are in no danger at this point, but the primitive, reptilian part of my brain screams a different message.
If you click this link you can see a Google map of Santa Barbara that will update every 15 minutes. You can see the areas that are under voluntary and mandatory evacuations. And you can see how far this fire has spread in just four days, which is what the primitive part of my brain is focusing on. You’ll have to scroll to the right to see the part of the fire that affects us. Our house is north of E. Valley Rd and above the Birnam Wood Golf Course. If you see the edge of this evacuation hit Birnam Wood, you’ll know we’re out of here.
The most annoying thing about this fire – aside, of course, from the potential of being burned to death and/or having your house burn to the ground – is the lack of information available from the press and the authorities. I watched a press conference this morning and almost ran screaming from the room. Instead of one person who knew what was going on transmitting information, the press conference was a parade of ‘authorities’ and politicians jockeying for TV time and thanking one another for all the support. The politicians thanked the fire fighters, the fire fighters thanked the politicians, and both thanked those involved in law enforcement. Absolutely no information of value was transmitted.
Which brings me to another almost unbearably annoying part of these press conferences. Along with profusely thanking one another for all the help, everyone defaults to what I call ‘authority’ talk. There are no policemen or sheriffs, only ‘law enforcement personnel.’ No firefighters, but ‘fire control personnel.’ There is no wind, but ‘wind events’ instead. We have fixed-wing aircraft and rotary wing aircraft circling overhead instead of airplanes and helicopters. A DC-10 tanker is on the scene dropping tons of fire retardant. It’s called the ‘largest dropping resource’ we have. The fire itself is referred to as the ‘fire incident.’ ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!
I’ll keep everyone posted on what goes on via Twitter. If you don’t want to sign up, you can simply go to the Follow Me On Twitter button (with the little blue bird) in the upper right of this blog and find all the updates.
Keep your fingers crossed for us.
What follows is a series of photos showing the fire in different stages.
Below is a photo I took from the tee box on the 17th hole two days ago.
Here is the view from the same spot about 18 hours later. I was playing with our son, and hit our drives off the tee.
By the time we got to our balls, a hot spot had erupted. You can see how much change can take place in less than five minutes.
Here is the view taken about an hour ago from behind an info kiosk located about a half mile from our house.
A view of the fire at dusk last night.
Glad you’re safe!
This is really off-topic, but I just found this interesting article regarding meat-eating and cancer in which Gary Taubes was brought up: http://dcscience.net/?p=1435 Taubes even responds to it within the comments. It looks at different type of studies, as you have done, because the media bias fails us all. Perhaps you can give it a look whenever you get a chance and share your thoughts on it with those of us who follow your blog.
I read it several days ago. It’s a great blog, especially if taken together with Gary’s comment. I’m glad you sent to that others can read it. In fact, I think I’ll ‘tweet’ it.
just read your latest twitter update which says you think you are out of danger for now. I’m so glad to hear it! hope it stays that way.
i was recently in California for the first time in my life, and drove up the PCH with my husband and baby (from LA) to spend a night in Santa Barbara. it really is such stunning country there. my husband grew up in L.A. but I’m from England – now that I’ve seen it, i don’t know why *everyone* doesn’t want to live there and can well understand why people call it paradise…
It usually is paradise, but it hasn’t been so paridise-y these last few days. I’m glad the marine layer of cool, foggy air has drifted in at last.
hello dr. eades,
i hope i heard correctly that the fires are being brought under control…so hope you are back in your home and all is safe and well. just wanted to mention that i read the people magazine issue with kirstie alley on the cover…in addition to the many reasons mentioned for why she’s gained back 85+ pounds she says she gained an enormous amount of weight while eating a vegetarian diet! if only she would find her way here and start eating natural whole foods instead of cardboard boxes of chemicals.
please send mother’s day wishes to md!
MD had a great Mother’s Day. Two of the three kids got together and had us to a nice brunch. And gave her a Tiffany necklace, which she loves.
Too bad about Kirstie. I didn’t know that had happened.
OMG, you guys have sure been hammered with bush fires over the last couple of years! Our suburb has only been threatened twice over the last 20 years.
@Ben F ury (hi Ben),
Must also add the important action of keeping roof gutters clear of leaves and so forth. It is crucial for the survival of the house. Also, that 30 feet should also be kept clear of fallen leaves as well. Especially if you have gum trees around your home, as we obviously do but I also imagine are common in California, the leaf and bark litter keeps piling up all year round, not just in autumn.
I think that after the horrific Australian experience in Victoria a month or two ago, your authorities are evacuating houses rather than letting people stay and defend. I know that we always send experienced staff to California when you guys get big fires, as our bush fire seasons are anticyclic.
And has dear old Elvis make its appearance at Santa Barbara? We all love Elvis here! It gets flown over in an Andonov transport (as well as some brothers and sisters) and then back again to California when it’s finished here.
Our thoughts and prayers are with you.
Has all this impacted the Choral Soc’s preparations?
Michael Richards
P.S. Your tweets are a treat!
I’m clueless as to the Elvis deal. I’m not sure who or what he/it is (other than the original, of course, who now rests peacefully in Memphis). Give me a hint.
MD’s choral society presses on. They are doing the Verdi Requiem next Saturday and Sunday. I’ll post on it a little later in the week. It’s a huge deal for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it’s the Verdi Requiem, a huge piece. But this performance comes with a lot of history that I’ll discuss in my post.
Relieved to hear that you and MD are safe and that your home has not been damaged. I think of you both several times a day and hope lady luck continues to keep you and your house out of harm’s way.
~Monty
Thanks for the kind thoughts. We appreciate them.
Elvis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_(helicopter)
And Note Giuseppe Verdi with an I. Call him “Joe Green”.
Caudio Monteverdi: “Claude Greenberg”!
Cheers, Mate.
AAARRRGGGHHHH!!! Don’t know how that happened, but it’s fixed. I guess I was so worried I would misspell requiem that I didn’t focus on old Joey’s name enough. Maybe I was thinking ‘green’ when I spelled it.
Just a note that there are many misconceptions concerning the small hose operated gel systems. I am actually really suprised that there are no laws making them illegal to market. Remember the Australia fires and how many lives were lost there not to mention all the property? They were using the backpack and portable gel systems. First line of common sense, do you see fire fighters using backpack pumps and garden hoses on active structure fires? I bet the answer is no. We all put expensive alarm systems in our homes, expensive fire sprinklers on the interior, and spend thousands on in ground yard sprinkler systems, but why is it we are only willing to spend mere $300 to $3000 to adequately protect our home and everything inside against a wildland fire. This only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to misconceptions about exterior fire protection. The best thing you can do is create the legal defensible space and couple it with an exterior fire prevention/suppression system that works. It is going to cost you over $15000 but it saves you time, covers faster, is easy to use, and produces significantly more volume than a ridiculous garden hose.
Thanks for the info.