Santa Barbara fire consumes 1,300 acres, 'dozens' of houses

The Jesusita blaze has driven 13,575 from their homes. More heat and wind are expected today.

By Ann M. Simmons and Steve Chawkins

11:00 AM PDT, May 7, 2009

Reporting from Santa Barbara — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said today that "dozens" of homes were lost in the fast-moving Santa Barbara brush fire that has consumed 1,300 acres and is now moving west toward Barger Caynon.

Fire officials said they are still trying to determine how many homes were lost in the Jesusita fire. Nearly 1,400 fire personnel are working the blaze, said Capt. Mike Deponce of the Santa Barbara City Fire Department.

Deponce said most of the residents living in the foothills have evacuated. "It's pretty desolate up there right now," he said.

The National Weather Service today issued a high-wind warning for the Santa Barbara coastal area, predicting winds of 40 to 58 mph at times through Friday morning. The warning covers Santa Barbara, Montecito, Carpinteria and San Marcos Pass. Gusts could reach 65 mph.

"Today is another day of concern for us," said Capt. David Sadecki of the Santa Barbara County Fire Department. "It could be a mirror image of yesterday. We're hoping the winds will die down. We'll try to hit the fire pretty hard."

The Jesusita fire roared to life Wednesday afternoon when "sundowner" winds picked up. Although winds are moderate this morning, officials expect them to pick up in the afternoon.

"Wind and smoke inhibit our ability to really get a handle," Sadecki said this morning at the fire command center in Santa Barbara. "It is difficult to get in and get an accurate assessment."

By this morning, at least 13,575 people had been driven from their homes.

Officials said three veteran Ventura County firefighters injured fighting the blaze are suffering from second- and third-degree burns and smoke inhalation and are being treated at the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital. They are in stable and improving condition, said Roy Forbes, a hospital spokesman.

The injured firefighters are: Capt. Brian Bulger, 57, a 30-year veteran; Capt. Ron Topolinski, 51, a 28-year veteran; and Robert Lopez, 44, an eight-year veteran.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with them," Schwarzenegger said as he toured the area this morning.

All three are expected to stay at the center for about a week, Forbes said.

A total of 10 firefighters have been injured in the fire, officials said.

Howard Schiffer believes his home on Orange Grove Avenue is a total loss. He hasn't seen it, but friends who witnessed the destruction in Mission Canyon reported the worst.

"It still seems unreal," Schiffer said this morning as he and his wife called relatives from a friend's home in a Santa Barbara County area called Paradise, far from the fire zone. "I need to see it for myself."

Schiffer has an unusual perspective on being without a home. Last week, he was in a refugee camp in Kenya, handing out nutritional supplements for a group he started in 1994 called Vitamin Angels Alliance.

"These people had nothing at all," he said. "They had no resources. They were sick. They had to deal with losing their homes to violence and hate -- which, I believe, is tougher than losing one to a natural disaster. We're OK."

Schiffer loaded a pickup Wednesday afternoon as smoke billowed through his neighborhood. A worker was just leaving after installing wood floors.

"We've been in the house 15 years, and we wanted to get rid of the carpet," he said. "We finally did."

The Schiffers have two children away at school -- one in Oregon and the other studying in Italy for a semester. Their daughter is a middle-school student in Santa Barbara.

When the smoke has cleared, he said, the family will probably rebuild.

"As bad as it seems right now, you'll see new growth coming up from burned-out ground come spring," he said. "There is rebirth. We believe in that."

The job of firefighters, air tankers and helicopters has been hampered by poor access to the mountainous terrain, as well as winds of up to 50 mph and dense brush that had not burned in half a century.

The Jesusita fire, named for a nearby trail, is the city's third major wildfire in nine months.

The fire broke out Tuesday in wildlands and spread through brush north of the city. For most of Tuesday and early Wednesday, the fire seemed relatively tame. Early Wednesday, firefighters even recalculated the burned acreage to be smaller than first estimated.

Then, about 3 p.m., the notorious sundowners, typical for Santa Barbara this time of year, whipped down through passes and canyons above the city.

The fire leaped into nearby residential areas in Mission Canyon, where mansions are tucked along narrow, winding roads amid thick brush and tall trees -- an area resembling the Oakland hills that burned to the ground in 1991.

As the fire escalated, Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Santa Barbara County, freeing federal emergency funds.

On Wednesday night, James Massie, 52, was at the Earl Warren Showgrounds, the command post for fire crews, where he had driven to find out whether his three-bedroom house at the top of Mission Canyon had survived.

Massie, who is an inventor, and his wife, a graphic artist, had planned to defend their house. But by mid-afternoon, he said, they watched flames as high as 100 feet march across the canyon toward them.

"The air was thick with smoke. You could barely breathe," he said, still dressed in the jeans, work shirt and flip-flops he had worn to battle the fire. "When the winds changed, all bets were off. The energy changed completely. Everything was moving very quickly, and there was no guarantee we would live."

Massie said he and his wife left with some artwork, two cats and important documents. They did not learn whether their house was still standing.

The upper part of the neighborhood now "looks like a moonscape," Tim Steele, president of the Mission Canyon Assn., said in a phone interview from a nearby golf course where he was watching the fire.

"I thought we had this one under control," he said. "I underestimated Mother Nature."

The association has made brush clearance and fire prevention a top priority, Steele said, even bringing in 250 goats Tuesday to eat away vegetation. The goats were evacuated unharmed after the fire ignited.

On Las Canoas Road, George Quinn, 64, and his wife, Barbara, 63, sat in lawn chairs in front of their home Wednesday night, watching water-dropping helicopters circle and firefighters mop up along the heavily hit street.

Across the street, a house had burned to its foundation.

George Quinn, who was soaking wet and smoking a cigarette, had spent three hours using garden hoses to protect the house where he has lived since 1952. "I put everything out," he said. "The damn firefighters were no help."

Quinn said he had saved his house during the 1964 Coyote fire by lighting a backfire on the ridge behind his house.

This time, the couple watched the fire race over the same ridge where eucalyptus trees were growing. "Those trees up there just exploded," Barbara Quinn said. "We were calm. ... If you get hysterical, nothing happens."

Along Mission Canyon Road, several homes burned to their foundations. The hillsides on both sides of the roadway were scorched and spot fires were scattered about. But firefighters managed to save a group of homes at the top of the road.

The only sounds on the mostly deserted street were that of crackling trees burning and helicopters flying overhead. Every so often, another cluster of trees exploded into flames, sending plumes of dark smoke rising into the sky.

Utility workers were busy removing or repairing downed lines along the street.

At a Red Cross shelter set up at Dos Pueblos High School, dozens of evacuees milled about, eating pasta and barbecued chicken, stretching out on cots in the gymnasium or watching big-screen TVs.

Al Hampton, 86, was thinking philosophically about his house in Mission Heights.

"I saw some young guys throwing discuses and doing the sort of things I used to do. And I realized it: I don't really give a damn if my house is gone!" he said in the accent of his native Australia.

Hampton, a retired chemist, said he could invest the insurance money or sell the land or live somewhere else, maybe with his daughter in Arizona or his son in Boston.

"It made me realize how narrowly I've been focusing on this house, on all the things I've acquired through my life," he said. "But I suddenly remembered I don't care about things. I care about people."