I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Noozhawk excels in disasters.
The 4-day-old Thomas Fire may be burning Ventura County and threatening Santa Barbara County, but it’s no match for executive editor Tom Bolton, managing editor Giana Magnoli, wildfire writer Ray Ford, North County editor Janene Scully and reporters Brooke Holland and Josh Molina. Of equal talent is our team of photographers: Ray, Peter Hartmann of the Urban Hikers, Ryan Cullom, Diego Topete and Zack Warburg.
Our 24/7 coverage has been first rate, accurate and reliable, in spite of the fire footprint being outside our typical coverage area.
Of course, we’d like to make Ventura County part of Noozhawk’s coverage area or, more likely, start a separate Noozhawk there. If any VC folks are up for it, click here to contact me, as well as Will Macfadyen, our development and special projects manager. You know you need us.
There were a staggering 262,416 of you reading Noozhawk this past week, according to our Google Analytics, making it the best seven-day period of the year, racing past the 244,085 readers we had during the Alamo and Whittier fires in July. In addition, the 65,650 readers we logged Dec. 6 made that our biggest day of the year, topping the 62,571 we had on July 9.
Given the magnitude of the Thomas Fire, and its devastation, it’s not surprising that it swept the Top 5. This is my take on that quintet.
Please understand … Jeffrey … this is not a news story, but my opinion column. That means it contains my opinions.
1. 300 Carpinteria-Area Residents Evacuated as Thomas Fire Grows to 96,000 Acres
Santa Barbara County has confronted bigger wildfire threats than the Thomas Fire, much bigger. But the blaze currently burning in Ventura County — uncomfortably close to Carpinteria — has captured our attention like few others in recent memory.
The fire erupted about 6:20 p.m. Dec. 4 in Santa Paula, less than a mile from the campus of Thomas Aquinas College, a small Roman Catholic liberal arts school at 1000 Ojai Road. The cause has not yet been determined.
At first, the blaze seemed hardly a menace to us; Santa Barbara is some 40-odd miles from Santa Paula — as the hawk flies.
Very quickly, however, powerful santa ana winds whipped the fire into a frenzy. Suddenly, it had burned 2,500 acres. Homes had been destroyed. A woman may have died while fleeing the flames.
And then the lights went out.
On a good day, Southern California Edison’s infrastructure can be unreliable, one of many reasons why the company is installing upgrades around town. This time it wasn’t an irritating inconvenience but a full-blown blackout of the entire South Coast, along with almost all of western Ventura County — nearly a quarter-million customers total.
I’ve lived in Santa Barbara for most of my life, and I’ve never experienced that.
While Edison was keeping us in the dark, more houses were burning down in Santa Paula and neighboring Ventura. One of the first counts was 150; the latest has risen to around 450, and now includes Ojai casualties.
Tens of thousands of Ventura County residents commute to Santa Barbara County every day so chances are good that you know one of the Thomas Fire victims. I do.
By the night of Dec. 7, the out-of-control wildfire encompassed 115,000 acres — nearly 180 square miles! Not only is the blaze a mere 5 percent contained, it actually has several fierce fronts active around its perimeter and foiling firefighting efforts.
The smoke and ash from this fire have been particularly severe. Our Tom Bolton and I were speculating that because the air is colder this time of year, perhaps it’s preventing the smoke from rising and dissipating. Whatever the reason, I’m choking, and respirator masks have become almost as ubiquitous here as they are in China.
Schools have canceled classes through the end of the week, companies have curtailed employee activities, evacuations have been ordered and warned, and more and more people are keeping a wary eye on the eastern horizon and wondering just how far we’re going to take the Thomas Fire.
My old friend, Ventura County Fire Chief Mark Lorenzen, says it could be burning through Christmas. I hope he’s wrong.
Our prayers go out to the tens of thousands of victims of this fire. Next week, once the immediate danger has passed and the community has had a chance to mobilize properly, Noozhawk will have a more comprehensive story on how you can help. For now, click here to make an online donation via the American Red Cross of Central California – Ventura County Chapter.
2. Thomas Fire Grows to 65,000 Acres Overnight, Burns Down to Highway 101 West of Ventura
As the Thomas Fire burned into its second day on Dec. 5, the wildfire’s size jumped to 65,000 acres — 20,000 more than the day before.
Hundreds of houses may have been destroyed, but a lot of the public’s attention that night was riveted on the steep, chaparral-covered hillsides along Highway 101 west of Ventura. There, persistent flames gobbled up brush on a relentless, but spectacular, march down the slope above Mondo’s, Faria and Solimar beaches.
The blaze jumped Highway 101, and crews tried to keep it corralled between the freeway and Old Coast Highway, and away from the long line of high-end beachfront homes there.
Coincidentally, the area was the scene of the 2015 Solimar Fire, which burned 1,388 acres the night of Christmas Day.
3. Massive Power Outage Blacks Out Santa Barbara County’s South Coast
Less than three hours after the Thomas Fire ignited near Santa Paula the night of Dec. 4, a sweeping power outage abruptly turned out the lights — and just about everything else — for more than 230,000 Southern California Edison customers in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
Edison officials said the blackout included Camarillo, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Santa Paula and Ventura in Ventura County, and Carpinteria, Summerland, Montecito, Santa Barbara and Goleta in Santa Barbara County.
After a nearly five-hour outage, power began coming back on just after 2 a.m. Dec. 5. Scattered disruptions were reported throughout the day.
SCE spokeswoman Susan Cox told our Giana Magnoli that the Thomas Fire had affected a transmission line in its vicinity. The next day, SCE acknowledged it had turned off its own transmission system — which runs roughly parallel to the coast, through Ventura County to the end of the line west of Goleta — to prevent further problems from the fire threat.
I can’t be alone in finding it utterly ridiculous that here we are — in 2017 — with an archaic electrical delivery system that might be the envy of North Korea but that would be sneered at in every other country, including war-ravaged Syria.
California politicians boast incessantly that the Golden State would have the world’s sixth largest economy if only it were a nation. If true, my question to them is … what the hell have you been doing with the money?!
Of course, when there’s no electricity, it can be a challenge to access the Internet and cell phone service. If you’re with AT&T Wireless like me, you wonder if North Koreans have more customer satisfaction with their one choice.
Fortunately for our readers, Giana, our managing editor, and executive editor Tom Bolton are Verizon Wireless customers, and North County editor Janene Scully is in Santa Maria, PG&E country. They kept Noozhawk updated throughout the night.
Literally powerless, I drove through the darkened city to Noozhawk World HQ next to the Arlington Theatre, only to discover there was no cell signal there either. So I went home.
But not before I meandered to take in the nonsights of something I suspect we may not see again. A few traffic signals were working, the lights were on at Fire Station 1, I was surprised there were so many cars on the streets.
High up on the Riviera, one house had a generator. The freeway was eerie; I knew Milpas Street was there but that stretch of Highway 101 could have just as easily been somewhere south of Los Alamos.
Back in Montecito, another generator droned in the distance, the stars appeared brighter than usual and lower in the sky, and the glow from the Thomas Fire was easily visible — at the time, 40-something miles away. It all seems so long ago now.
4. Wind-Whipped Thomas Fire Raging in Ventura County; 45,000 Acres Burned
In the story that started this all, a wildfire erupted the evening of Dec. 4 near the campus of Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula.
Within hours, it had exploded. Propelled by powerful santa ana winds, the fire spread rapidly in nearly every direction.
Unimaginatively dubbed the Thomas Fire, apparently because of its origin’s proximity to the college named for St. Thomas Aquinas, the wildfire ruthlessly chewed up territory.
Before dawn the next day, it had destroyed 150 homes, most of them in neighboring Ventura.
An estimated 27,000 people were forced to evacuate, including a woman who crashed her car on Wheeler Canyon Road in Santa Paula. Authorities say she died of her injuries.
The cause of the wildfire has not yet been determined.
5. No End in Sight as Firefighters Battle 115,000-Acre Thomas Fire on Several Fronts
Four nights into the Thomas Fire, the blaze continued to rage out of control at several points along its sprawling footprint. Through Dec. 7, authorities said, the wind-whipped, 115,000-acre fire was just 5 percent contained.
Around 450 structures have been destroyed and another 85 damaged in the fire, which broke out the night of Dec. 4 in Santa Paula. Most of the damage was in Ventura, but Ojai and Santa Paula were not spared.
As the fire’s western flank marched toward Carpinteria, with various evacuations having been ordered and revised, anxiety was growing among residents along Santa Barbara County’s South Coast. The night of Dec. 7, fire officials held a town hall at Carpinteria High School to address conditions and concerns.
At the time of the meeting, the flames had not crossed the county line. Rincon Point and La Conchita, which are just inside Ventura County, were evacuated as the wildfire roared closer. The night before, the blaze had jumped Highway 33 near Ojai then proceeded to cover nine miles in just 12 hours as it raced west.
The wildfire’s northwest flank is the most threatening right now. Burning in rugged backcountry northeast of Carpinteria, it appears to be headed toward 4,710-foot Divide Peak. Should it reach the area of Murietta Divide, the fire would be just seven miles north of the city.
At that point, the risk becomes the possible emergence of strong north winds pushing the flames over the mountain ridge and straight down the canyons to the sea.
Carpinteria already smells like a skunk massacre; can you imagine what would happen if all of those marijuana grows went up in smoke? We’ll all be looking for Dave, but Dave’s not here.
» Click here for the latest Thomas Fire information from the Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management.
» Click here to make an online donation to help fire victims via the American Red Cross of Central California – Ventura County Chapter.
» Click here to sign up for Noozhawk’s free breaking news text alerts to your cell phone.
» Click here to become a member of our Hawks Club, and help us cover even more of our community.
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Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? Pilot Dies in Ultralight Crash at Goleta Apartment Complex.
• • •
Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
Uh, oh. I rarely actually visit my Facebook page (all those posts are fed from my social media accounts), but my family knows I’m on Instagram all the livelong day: 21 Things Science Says Your Facebook and Instagram Feeds Reveal About You.
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Watch It
Given all the devastation and catastrophe of the last week … what could bring more cheer than a video of babies and dogs?
(Dog Loves Baby video)
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— Bill Macfadyen is Noozhawk’s founder and publisher. Contact him at wmacfadyen@noozhawk.com, follow him on Twitter: @noozhawk, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.