Victims Try to Come to Grips With Loss in Wake of Montecito Blaze
Many evacuees, including a Santa Barbara planning commissioner, have lost their homes. Others are left to wait and wonder.
Addison Thompson is a member of the Santa Barbara Planning Commission, so it stands to reason that he had always played by the book when it came to dealing with the fire hazards surrounding his Stanwood Drive home in the foothills near Parma Park.
Just two weeks ago, for instance, he hired a crew to spend the day clearing the brush around the house.
But when the wind-driven Tea Fire came roaring into the neighborhood Thursday evening, none of that mattered.
“When things move that fast, there’s not a whole hell of a lot you can do about it,” Thompson said Friday night, speaking by phone from a friend’s house.
The Thompsons have been told they are among about 150 families who lost their homes in the Tea Fire, which ignited around 5:45 p.m. Thursday at Coyote Road and East Mountain Drive above Montecito’s Cold Spring neighborhood. Dubbed the Tea Fire because of its proximity to the famed Piranhurst Teahouse in the 700 block of East Mountain, the flames spread quickly in high winds gusting to nearly 70 mph and with temperatures in the upper 80s.
“When I was getting the car out of the garage, I could hear the fire roaring — trees were popping,” Thompson said. “I said, ‘We gotta move.’”
Throughout the day Friday, many of the fire’s 5,500 evacuees roamed the South Coast, going to grocery stores, eating at restaurants, connecting with friends — all while wondering whether they still had a home.
As with the Thompsons, many evacuees had heard from reliable sources that their homes were no more. Others had to wait and wonder.
Around noon Friday, the uncertainty came to a close for Kami and Don Fritzen, as they ate lunch in a daze at an outdoor restaurant in the Vons Shopping Center in Montecito.
An hour before, the couple, who run the California Wine Festival, had heard from a next-door neighbor that their Conejo Road home was “scorched.”
“It’s weird — you have a sense of loss, but it’s just material things,” said Don, 55. “You have this little fight going on in your head: ‘It’s just material things, it doesn’t matter.’ But it does.”
Said Kami, “We loved our bed, our pillows — the little things you start missing really fast.”
Then, of course, there’s the house, which they had moved into two years ago, shortly after getting married. The two-bedroom place had a woodsy feel; the back of it had glass French doors overlooking the rustic and rolling Parma Park, which is now a charred moonscape.
“We can rebuild, but I know what it’s going to look like,” Don said. “It’s just going to be ashes and bare mountains.”
Like the Thompsons, the Fritzens had only about 15 minutes to load their car. They grabbed photo albums, important papers, computers, the golf clubs, Don’s hole-in-one trophy, and, most important, their dog, a miniature Pincher-Italian greyhound mix named Mulligan.
With the fire raging some 300 yards away in 50 mph winds, it was difficult to think clearly.
“It was a roar like a jet engine,” Don said. “You know the sound a fireplace makes? Just amplify that a million times.”
Lost in the blaze was about $10,000 worth of Willie Mays memorabilia: autographed baseball bats, gloves, jerseys, cards and the like.
On Friday night, they planned to spend the night with close friends. “We saved a bottle of vodka and a six-pack of beer,” Don said. “We might put some damage into that.”
Meanwhile, at a storage facility in Goleta, newly homeless Coyote Road resident Melissa Marsted, a mother of two young boys, locked up the belongings she had managed to salvage during a 45-minute evacuation with her 13-year-old son.
The two had just returned from a run, only to realize they might be saying goodbye to their home forever.
Working as a team, they hauled out a wealth of sentimental items: her sons’ first soccer uniforms, their old classroom art projects and some photo albums, which Marsted, 43, had long ago placed by the door in the event of a fire. Unfortunately, they had to leave a couple large paintings created by Marsted’s artistic grandmother.
“I don’t think it has set in, because we haven’t seen it,” said Marsted, a freelance writer. “I don’t know what it’s going to feel like.”
Later Friday, the avid runner parked her car along Alston Road and ran home to take pictures. What was most distressing was that her house was the only one destroyed. “Why?” she asked, her voice trailing off.
The best-known landmark to perish in the blaze was the 60-year-old Mount Calvary Retreat House & Monastery, which had been home to seven monks, who earn their keep by selling their trademark coffee.
The retreat-house portion of the monastery contained 21 rooms, and was booked every weekend for two years by people seeking a spiritual retreat, said Nancy Bullock, the retreat-house manager.
On Thursday night, the retreat house was inhabited by members of the Center for Courage and Leadership in Santa Barbara, which, ironically, includes Janet Stanley, head of the American Red Cross-Santa Barbara County Chapter.
About 6 p.m., all of the lodgers and the monks had to leave. The monks took up residence at St. Mary’s Retreat House on Los Olivos Street. Standing on the steps, they could see their old home burn.
While firefighters were able to rescue a surprising number of religious relics, the monastery lost a lot of art and the monks were not able to grab many of their few possessions.
“One of them left without his hearing aids,” Bullock said. Another packed his Bible, but didn’t bring extra clothes.
“We want to rebuild,” she said. “We feel like we are a meaningful resource in the community.”
At San Marcos High, where the school gymnasium had been converted into an American Red Cross-Santa Barbara County Chapter emergency shelter lined with 200 cots, Geneva Cheves and her mother, Roxanne, were the only ones in the auditorium Friday afternoon.
A neighbor had told them it was time to evacuate their East Viscaino Road home on the Riviera, in which Geneva has lived since she was a child, more than 50 years ago.
In one Christmas photo they salvaged, Geneva is an 8-year-old girl in pajamas, staring up into the chimney looking for Santa Claus.
The women, whose family has a generations-long hand in the manufacturing of Chivas Regal Scotch, had heard nothing on the status of their home.
Still, they were able to tell rueful jokes.
Asked whether their home would be covered by insurance, they said yes, but Roxanne intimated that that might not spare them from financial harm.
“It’s been my experience that insurance companies figure everybody has deep pockets,” she said, staring at the roof of the gymnasium while lying on her cot. “But when it comes to the insurance companies, they only have watch pockets.”
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» wrote on 11/15/08 @ 01:55 PM
Prudential California Realty at 3868 State St. is offering its offices (computers, phones, fax) for fire victims’ use. They also have lists of rentals and moving, hauling, and storage services. Hours are Sat/Sun 10 -3 and Mon/Fri 8:30 - 5:30. Also those who have rentals, rooms for rent, or places that can take pets, please email .
» wrote on 11/15/08 @ 04:01 PM
Rob Kuznia is an excellent reporter, but…
regarding the photo of occupants of the Red Cross shelter.
THAT MAY BE A PUBLIC school building at the time, but it is functioning as a private place because those evacuees have no other place to call home at the time.
NO PHOTOS or other recording IN the occupied shelters. Just interview people outside. No one should have an expectation of privacy in a public space, but as the designated shelter for evacuees, the school gym no longer is public.
KNBC-TV from LA-LA-land was really bad last night with their video camera zooming on poor souls trying to sleep on the cots.
[Editor’s note: Thank you for the ethics lecture. Did it occur to you that we may have had permission?]
» wrote on 11/16/08 @ 01:03 AM
Editor: are you representing KNBC-TV as well now as their ethicist? My comment was generic about the situation how many photo and video journalists get caught up in the zeal of covering a wildfire and the tale of tragedy.
Some also like to poke through the personal remains in a burnt out home, which still is trespassing even when wearing a fake Nomex yellow jacket.
[Editor’s note: Huh? Not following the logic of your comments. This is Noozhawk; maybe you should be over at knbc.com?]
» wrote on 11/16/08 @ 06:36 AM
the mayan calendar ends in 2013
this is natures the answer to waco
» wrote on 11/16/08 @ 07:28 AM
Editor,
Yes, you may have had permission. But did you actually ask for and receive permission?
[Editor’s note: Noozhawk stands by its reporting, and I am proud of our reporters’ professionalism.]
» wrote on 11/16/08 @ 10:16 AM
Mr. Pritchett’s posts make no sense. He starts out complaining about Noozhawk and then pretends he was complaining about TV News all along. The other poster is just as inane. I thought the article was great, very touching and respectful. Good job!
» wrote on 11/16/08 @ 02:29 PM
Thank you for your fine reporting here. No ethics lecture needed, particularly from Mr. Pritchett who recently needed to be reminded of his own ethical duties when it comes to the Brown Act. Blessings to all in these difficult times.
» wrote on 11/16/08 @ 06:21 PM
Art, you’re right now. Seems Mr. Pritchett just needs something to complain about… The Noozhawk has done a beautiful job in keeping the community up to date of this horrible disaster. Good job!
PS. if there was an ‘issue’ with you or any other news agency taking photos or video, the Red Cross would not have allowed access to their shelter. I’ve worked at their shelters, and they are very responsible and protective of their charges!
» wrote on 11/24/08 @ 09:15 AM
It is certainly a tragedy for these people who lose homes every year due to horrible fires in California. It especially hits close to home this time as Kami and Don are my relatives! I just wonder when the California Forestry Service will wise up and allow selective logging to prevent these fires. You hardly ever hear of this in the Rockies because they don’t allow the forests to get so overgrown to the point where there is no way to fight a fire when it does occur. “Tree huggers” are saving trees momentarily only to lose them to fires such as this one.