With cooler temperatures, overcast skies and more than 30,000 residents displaced by the 5-day-old Jesusita Fire, authorities acted quickly Saturday to get many of them back into their homes.
In a staged re-entry designed to ensure the orderly repopulation of a significant portion of the mandatory evacuation area, authorities at 11 a.m. opened the Mission Canyon and eastern San Roque neighborhoods south of Foothlll Road/Highway 192 west to San Roque Road. Also reopened were the neighborhoods south of Cathedral Oaks Road/Highway 192 between Turnpike Road and Patterson Avenue.
At 11:30 a.m., the mandatory evacuation was lifted for neighborhoods below Foothill west to Hope Avenue and below Cathedral Oaks between Turnpike and Highway 154.
At noon, the mandatory evacuation was lifted for the remaining neighborhoods below Foothill, between Hope and Highway 154.
Later in the afternoon, officials reopened the area roughly between Mission Canyon and Sycamore Canyon roads south of Highway 192. Areas south of Foothill Road, Stanwood Drive and Highway 192 are still under an evacuation warning, however.
Mandatory evacuation orders remain in effect for the areas north of Highway 192 between Hot Springs Road on the east and Patterson on the west. Officials emphasized that the newly repopulated neighborhoods are under an evacuation warning and asked residents to remain alert to changing conditions with the still-active Jesusita Fire.
Foothill Road, Cathedral Oaks Road to Patterson Avenue, and Highway 154 remain closed to all but emergency vehicle traffic.
At a morning news conference, officials gave no hint that any re-entries were imminent, but said repopulation was a priority and would be undertaken as soon as it was safe.
“During the next few hours we’ll be meeting with fire officials to assess the safety of returning some residents into some of the closure areas,” Santa Barbara County Undersheriff Ken Shemwell said.
“It’s our goal and intention to allow residents back in as soon as possible, but certainly we’ll have to wait until the weather and the fire conditions dictate that that’s the proper thing to do.”
As of Saturday morning, the 8,733-acre fire was said to be 40 percent contained, with full containment expected by Wednesday. Officials said a full accounting was still being compiled, but estimated 31 homes destroyed, 47 homes have been damaged and two outbuildings damaged. Click here for photojournalist Isaac Hernandez’s pictorial chronicle of the Jesusita Fire, including an unofficial, house by house, catalog of many streets in the burn area.
Saturday’s heavy marine layer cheered residents and provided firefighters what CALFIRE spokesman Mike Carr said was “an important window of opportunity.” The marine layer and cooler temperatures were expected through Monday but the National Weather Service forecasts a return of sundowner winds and temperatures near 90 on Monday.
Montecito Fire Chief Kevin Walsh said the change in the weather will allow crews to go on offense against the fire’s eastern flank, which currently is burning in the west fork of upper Cold Spring Canyon.
“Now we’re going to start chasing the fire and not have it chase us,” he said.
The Montecito end of the blaze had been a chief cause of concern Friday as another night of fierce sundowner winds, extreme heat and low humidity had been expected. Those conditions failed to materialize, however, and Montecito instead found relief in chilly, clammy temperatures. By 11 p.m. Friday, the marine layer was thick enough to mask the persistent red glow that had been visible throughout much of the community.
Fire aircraft were operating through the night, officials said, and Saturday’s aerial assault will include 14 air tankers and 13 helicopters, as well as the massive DC-10 air tanker that had flown several retardant-bombing runs Friday. The converted airliner has a 12,000-gallon payload that can be dropped in as little as 8 seconds.
On the ground, Carr said, Saturday’s priority for the more than 4,000 deployed fire personnel was the blaze’s southern edge, in the San Roque-Mission Canyon area, but he said hand crews were taking advantage of the marine layer to step up their attacks on the east and west fronts.
“We expect to make a significant amount of progress today,” he said.
Despite the optimism, county Deputy Fire Chief Chris Hahn noted the South Coast’s “fickle” weather patterns and asked for the public’s continued patience and cooperation as firefighters stabilized the burn areas while simultaneously trying to keep the fire from spreading.
“We’re doing everything we can to get people back into their homes,” he said. “It’s a big concern to us and one of the major priorities.
“The thing that trumps that is their safety. We will get them in as soon as possible.”
Carr said fire officials would be meeting throughout the day Saturday and as soon as they felt it was safe to repopulate the area, they would give the green light.
Shemwell said that when the time came, authorities would utilize “a staged re-entry,” a reverse of the phased evacuation undertaken in the fire’s first few days.
“It’s not possible for 30,000 people to return home all at once,” he said.
The cause of the Jesusita Fire is still under investigation, Carr said. The blaze ignited just before 2 p.m. Tuesday in the Cathedral Peak area of upper San Roque Canyon, an area also known as Inspiration Point. Investigators are requesting the public’s help with information about activities on or near the Jesusita or Tunnel hiking trails in the San Roque and Tunnel roads areas Monday and Tuesday. Information can be reported by calling 805.686.5074 or by e-mail at sbctip@sbcfire.com.
To date, firefighting costs are estimated at $6.8 million. While 13 firefighters have been injured in the battle, just three suffered serious burns. Two of those firefighters remain hospitalized in good condition; the third returned home Friday.
View Evacuation Areas 05/07 8:30pm in a larger map
Responding to Saturday’s easing of evacuation orders, the American Red Cross-Santa Barbara County Chapter will begin bulk distribution of free cleanup kits, dust masks and water for those affected by the fire. The kits will be available between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Sunday in the rear parking lot of the organization’s headquarters, 2707 State St.
The Red Cross put its emergency shelter at Dos Pueblos High School, 7266 Alameda Ave., on standby status. The Red Cross said in a statement that anyone needing shelter assistance should go its facility at the UCSB Multiactivity Center at Mesa and Ocean roads on campus. Click here for more information or call 805.687.1331.
A large animal evacuation center remains open at Earl Warren Showgrounds, 3400 Calle Real. Small animals should be taken to the county Animal Shelter, 5473 Overpass Road. As of Thursday, the Santa Barbara Humane Society shelter, 5399 Overpass Road, was full.
Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, at Pueblo and Bath streets, and Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, 351 S. Patterson Ave., were operating normally and are unaffected by the fire or the evacuation orders.
The city of Santa Barbara has set up public information kiosks at four locations:
» Loreto Plaza, State Street and Las Positas Road
» Scolari’s Market, 222 N. Milpas St.
» Lazy Acres, 302 Meigs Road
A fifth kiosk is located at 1400 East Valley Road in Montecito.
Click here for additional information from the InciWeb Incident Information System.
Click here to sign up for Noozhawk’s free daily e-Bulletin.
Click here for a live Jesusita Fire video feed from Make It Work.
Click here for running citizen reports from City2.0 or click here for additional information from sbparent.com.
If you have fire photos to share with Noozhawk, e-mail them to news@noozhawk.com. Click here for a related Noozhawk slide show from the first day of the Jesusita Fire. Click here for a Noozhawk slide show from the second day of the fire. Click here for a Noozhawk slide show from the third day of the fire. Click here for a Noozhawk slide show from the fourth day of the fire.
— Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen can be reached at wmacfadyen@noozhawk.com.
