Well, that didn’t last long. After 24 hours in first place, the defending world champion Los Angeles Dodgers promptly coughed it up. Or maybe they just choked on it, I don’t know.
Here’s something you should know, however: Noozhawk is launching a fall crowdfunding campaign to help us hire a new local sports reporter and additional sports contributors.
Since all high school sports resumed — all at once — earlier this year, sports editor Barry Punzal has been working overtime. We recently added legendary local sports writer Mark Patton, but Barry, Mark and our small team of freelance writers and photographers still need help.
Just as important, your vibrant local sports community deserves more coverage — more high school, youth, college and recreation coverage.
We’re aiming to raise $45,000 to hire a new reporter and additional sports contributors to expand and deepen our coverage with more in-depth articles and features on local athletes, coaches, officials, supporters and fans. It won’t cover all of our sports operation’s needs, but it will make a significant difference.
Will you help us grow our local sports team with a financial commitment to our Hawks Club today?
Thank you for your enthusiasm and support.
According to our Google Analytics, Noozhawk had an audience of 121,982 readers this past week. What follows is my take on the Top 5 stories you were reading during the period.
In case you get the wrong idea, this is my opinion column, not a news story.
1. Vegetation Fire Leads to Evacuations Near Los Olivos in Santa Ynez Valley
A brush fire burning on the outskirts of Los Olivos forced the evacuation of nearby residents for several hours Sept. 6, but firefighters were able to get the upper hand on the 69½-acre wildfire before it could damage any homes.
As our Janene Scully first reported, the Labor Day blaze was called in at 2:30 p.m. in the 3300 block of Caballo Lane, about 1½ miles east of Los Olivos.
Mandatory evacuations were ordered for Caballo Lane, Avenida Caballo, Canada Este Road, Calzada Road and Old Calzada Road in and around the Woodstock Ranch neighborhood.
Santa Barbara County firefighters converged on the area, and were joined by crews from Los Padres National Forest and the Lompoc, Santa Maria and Vandenberg Space Force Base fire departments. Fire retardant- and water-dropping airplanes and helicopters hit the flames from above.
Mike Eliason, a county Fire Department spokesman, said the fire’s forward progress was stopped around 5 p.m. The evacuation order was lifted about an hour later.
Although one barn was damaged by the blaze, Eliason credited residents’ attention to good defensible space around their houses and outbuildings for the minimal destruction.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, but authorities say it was fueled in part by abnormally dry vegetation and 15 mph winds. Temperatures in the mid-90s made conditions all the more challenging.
2. Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha Rocket Explodes During Inaugural Launch
Less than 2½ minutes into its first-ever orbital test flight on Sept. 2, Firefly Aerospace experienced a catastrophic anomaly with an engine on its Alpha rocket and the vehicle and its payload were destroyed.
As our Janene Scully first reported, the two-stage, 95-foot-tall rocket was launched at 6:59 p.m. from Space Launch Complex-2 at Vandenberg Space Force Base.
Officials with Austin, Texas-based Firefly said that one of the rocket’s four engines shut down almost immediately. Although the remaining three kept the flight climbing, the lack of thrust from the missing engine left it without enough power to reach supersonic flight.
The rocket tumbled out of control as it slowed, even executing a spectacular flip.
Western Range crews at Vandenberg issued the command to terminate the $15 million flight, causing a dramatic explosion seen all over the Central Coast.
That wasn’t the end of it, though. Debris from the destroyed rocket landed in Lake Marie Estates and Orcutt, where a Solvang mountain biker had to dodge falling fragments on a trail near Orcutt Hill.
“I looked to the right toward Vandenberg, and all of a sudden I see a big thing in the sky floating down,” Mike Hecker told Janene. “It looked like a Volkswagen.”
He said the debris wasn’t in one big cluster, but he took cover under a tree just in case.
“It wasn’t smoking,” Hecker said. “It wasn’t glowing.”
He took photos of some of the pieces, which appeared to be black carbon fiber material, and reported his finds to a hotline that Firefly set up for witnesses.
3. 78-Unit Apartment Project Moves Forward in Downtown Santa Barbara
A four-story, 78-unit rental apartment complex proposed in downtown Santa Barbara was back in front of the Historic Landmarks Commission, where it received generally favorable feedback for its in-progress review.
The project — proposed by developer Peter Lewis and designed by architect Brian Cearnal, a partner in the Cearnal Collective — is going in at what is now a parking lot at 27 E. Gutierrez St. between the former Staples store on State Street and Reid’s Appliances at 409 Anacapa St.
Although the commission granted design approval in January, our Josh Molina reported that Lewis and Cearnal returned last week to provide an update on a range of changes for, among other things, second-floor balcony railings, awnings, a secondary garage, the bike and trash rooms, the rooftop mechanical equipment layout and a rooftop restroom.
The 52-foot-tall building will contain 42 studios and 18 one-bedroom and 18 two-bedroom units, all rentals. The complex’s 89 parking spaces are a combination of surface spots and stacked parking lifts.
4. Hard-to-Access Fire Burning in Los Padres National Forest North of Zaca Lake
A possible downed power line was being explored as the cause of a Sept. 4 backcountry wildfire north of Zaca Lake in the Santa Ynez Valley.
As our Janene Scully first reported, Santa Barbara County and U.S. Forest Service firefighters were dispatched to the scene just after 5 p.m.
County Fire Department spokesman Mike Eliason said the fire was burning in light brush across rugged hilltop terrain, in Los Padres National Forest about 10 miles northeast of Los Olivos.
No structures were threatened but precautionary evacuations reportedly were being made around the lake.
Vandenberg Space Force Base firefighters joined the operation later that night, and the fire — dubbed the Peak Fire — eventually was corralled at an estimated 7½ acres.
The cause of the fire was under investigation, but emergency radio traffic indicated that a downed power line may have sparked it.
5. Pedestrian Struck, Killed by Amtrak Train Near Gaviota
A Goleta man was killed the afternoon of Aug. 5 when he was struck by a train as he walked on the railroad tracks along the Gaviota coast.
Our Tom Bolton first reported that the man was hit by a northbound Amtrak Coast Starlight passenger train around 1 p.m., about a mile east of Mariposa Reina.
He was declared dead at the scene.
On Sept. 7, Santa Barbara County sheriff’s Coroner’s Bureau spokeswoman Raquel Zick identified the dead man as 67-year-old William Pattenaude.
The circumstances of his death remain under investigation.
Funeral services are pending.
• • •
Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? Motorcyclist Killed in Collision on Cathedral Oaks Road in Goleta.
• • •
Americans Held Hostage: Day 10
It’s now 10 days past the Aug. 31 “deadline” to leave Afghanistan, and there are still hundreds — perhaps thousands — of Americans and green-card holders we’ve abandoned to the Taliban there.
• • •
Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
Thanks, China: How TikTok Serves Up Sex and Drug Videos to Minors.
• • •
Best of Bill’s Instagram
A Rancho Cucamonga freeway tribute to our 13 U.S. heroes killed in the Afghanistan fiasco and @sadiethealaskanmalamute’s birthday pose were mega hits in my Instagram feed this past week.
• • •
Watch It
When your donkey has a big-ass ear — and appreciation — for music.
(The Dodo video)
• • •
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— Bill Macfadyen is Noozhawk’s founder and publisher. Contact him at wmacfadyen@noozhawk.com, follow him on Instagram: @bill.macfadyen, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
