Wild Fire at Santa Barbara Mountains

Hello Everyone,

This weekend was very interesting for my family along with few of our friends.  Our friend Alan L. decided to do some camping in the mountains of Santa Barbara California.  He has a private membership in Rancho Oso which is about 12 miles east of Santa Barbara.  At around 6 pm yesterday (June 30, 2006) while my family and friends were getting out of the swimming pool and heading back to our cabin to have some BBQ for diner.  While on our way back, we noticed some smoke about 100 yards away.  Initially my friends thought it was just charcoal smoke from the BBQ.  However, after 10 minutes, the little smoke became an uncontrollable wild fire spreading from the base of the mountain to the top.  The heat and smoke filled the sky within minutes.  We heard fire trucks quickly arriving.  However due to the deep grade of the mountain, fire fighters were ineffective.  Few minutes later, the whole valley were filled with dark smoke.  Our camp site was about 100 yards away. 

Thank God for the wind.  It was blowing in the south west direction and away from our camp site.  The flame was spreading rapidly from one mountain to another.  Minutes later 3-4 helicopters were dropping water and 3-4 air planes were dropping other anti-fire chemicals.  Needless to say, we heard about 100 fire fighters were at the scene.  We heard chain saws were going on right below our camp site.  They were chopping down the trees and clearing the bushes.  The fire fighters from few different cities restlessly cutting trees all night long to prevent fire from crossing into our camp site.

Needless to say there were three barriers saving our camp site.  The first barrier would a small road that runs between our side of the hill and the other.  Secondly, there was a small creek that divide the two mountain.  The last and the most important would be the wind.  The wind was blowing away us, so the fire and smoke did not affect our camp site much.  At one point the fire was getting so bad we started to pack our personal belongings and start to head out.  However, the road was blocked so no traffic can get in or out of the mountain.  Our camp site was put on high alert but the fire did not pose any immediate danger.

Here are some pictures of the fire.

We thank God for blowing the wind away from our direction.  Otherwise it would take 10 minutes for the fire to destroy our site and people in it.  Amen!  Just to update on this fire.  When we were leaving the camp site I noticed the fire jump the road and the creek.  So the fire was very close to our camp site and only one way in and only one way out.  We were very lucky......