New terrible fire in Santa Barbara area

[martha24]

For those who remember, this last summer the Gap Fire burned just in the hills above me, it was a huge fire that fortunately didn't burn any homes, but did burn avocado trees and other fruit trees which was a huge loss to the farmers, but helped save homes. That fire was way too close for comfort as I could see it from my home.

Now an even worse fire broke out this evening at 5:30pm in the Montecito hills, an area right next to Santa Barbara on the other side. The fire has been named the Tea Fire as it started near the Tea House near Westmont college. This fire has burnt over 800 acres in 6 hours, burnt over 70 homes and 2 people were burned and sent to a special burn center.
Right now it is midnight here and the fire is still out of control and many people are evacuated in Santa Barbara & Montecito especially in the hills and going into the edge of the more populated part of the city. The news pretty much ends at midnight, so I will have to wait until morning to see what the rest of the night brings. Fortunately the winds aren't blowing as hard as earlier. At the beginning of the fire, the winds were gusting up to 70 miles an hour.
Fire can be so devastating. I hope the winds calm down so the firefighters can get the fire under control. Firefighters are coming here from all over southern CA.

a few photos
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sbfire14-2008nov14-pg,0,5936188.photogallery?1

some news articles
http://www.independent.com/news/2008/nov/13/tea-fire-moving-west-santa-barbara/

[CAJUN LADY]

Martha:

I hope you and your family are safe from the fire. What a horrible experience that must be. I have been through many hurricanes and one very scary earthquake (1989 in California) but never fire. You are right...devastating.

Please stay safe...you are in our prayers.

[Mike C.]

Martha.....be real careful.

Just saw this headline on the Drudge Report and he said 100+ homes have been destroyed already.

Keep safe and keep in touch.

[mandy]

Martha I'm saying my Prayers for you and your community.

Mandy

[martha24]

With fires it is hard to get exact information, but here is a small update.

We are perfectly safe since the fire is east of Santa Barbara in Montecito and on the eastside of Santa Barbara. We live in Goleta, west of Santa Barbara.

A 100 plus homes have burned, 2,500 acres burned and the fire is still out of control. Winds aren't as bad during the day and the firefighters can more easily do water drops to help fight the fire, though they did have helicopters last night with pilots wearing night goggles.
About 5,400 people have been evacuated.

The problem at night especially with high winds is that embers can fly up to a 1/4 of a mile and start new fires. So the burn areas are described as a jigsaw puzzle with some homes burnt in one area and a neighboring area the homes may not be burnt.

Impossible to say how long it will take to get the fire under control. Usually with fires like this the first night is the worst, but until the fire is totally controlled one never knows what the winds will do at night. Tonight high winds aren't predicted, so hopefully that will be the case.

No matter what the act of nature, it is always hard to lose one's home even though they can be rebuilt and things replaced. So far there have been 3 people burned bad enough to be sent to a burn center, 2 citizens and one firefighter.
Thanks for the thought and prayers for the people in this area, I know they are appreciated.

[martha24]

Just a quick update late tonight. The winds were and are almost nothing tonight, much less than expected. so no new fire problems were created. Truly an answer to prayers.
As long as they don't get anymore terrible winds and the weather people are not forecasting them, the worst should be over.
One night of the fire caused more than enough damage with an estimate of just over 100 homes burnt.