Tag archives: fire
I chose to write this letter even at the hesitation of the people I am writing it for… I am a past resident of Montecito, where I grew up. I attended Mt. Carmel School as well as Bishop Diego. I moved away after college, yet continue to visit my parents and sister who are still […]
It was a double whammy. First the fire, and then came the flood. And, in this case, it wasn’t so much a “flood” as a debris-laden runoff from the denuded hills above Montecito. The flow of boulders, mud, and timber that came crashing down, crafted a direct route from the burn area to the ocean, […]
(photos courtesy MFPD chief Chip Hickman) Most in Montecito have no idea how close we came to community decimation two weeks before Christmas. At 6 am Saturday, December 16, 2017, sundowner winds of 30 mph, gusting up to 60 mph, drove the Thomas wildfire, the largest in California history, past the firefighter containment lines on […]
Westmont began spring semester as scheduled on January 8, while preparing campus for rain late that afternoon and the following day. The college was not in Santa Barbara County’s evacuation zone that included many areas below the Thomas Fire burn scar, but public safety officers kept a 24-hour watch for flooding. In the first chapel […]
As another year passes, we reflect on notable events in the Montecito community. From California’s largest wildfire, progress on development and new businesses, school happenings, retirements, and more, 2017 was a busy year in Montecito. While far from all-inclusive, here is a snapshot of our community’s happenings in 2017. Thomas Fire Without a doubt, […]
“You’ve got a big-ass fire headed straight your way,” was the salty salutation I heard when answering the phone. The caller was William J. Myers, a lifelong family friend and veteran retired firefighter known more familiarly as Bill. I was a bit perplexed, as the only fire I had heard about at the time was […]
It was just before 6:30 pm, December 4 – which happens to be Feast Day for the beloved Saint Barbara, the Patroness of Fire and Lightning – when what turned out to be the largest wildfire in California’s recorded history started to burn. The Thomas Fire started just north of Santa Paula. That same night, […]
I have a couple ideas to help our local economy in regards to the recent tragic Thomas Fire. My suggestion is to have a Holiday Re-Do on February 25. This gives all the businesses, companies, nonprofits, clubs, and individuals an opportunity to re-do their parties and events that were canceled due to the Thomas Fire. This […]
We only had a little over an hour with Montecito Fire chief Chip Hickman, as he had to escort some of the people who’d lost their homes back to their property, but we made the most of our time. No Montecito firefighters were lost or even hurt throughout the ordeal. There was one death, that […]
What a ride this has been for us all. While we are not yet out of the woods of what will probably turn out to be the worst wildfire in California’s history, I write this letter with a cautious sense of optimism. There are still over 8,000 firefighters on this fire. On 12-hour shifts, there […]
Last edition, the cover of Montecito Journal boasted the line “Saving Montecito”, with a photo of a Montecito fire truck at Station 1 on San Ysidro Road. Little did we know that roughly 48 hours after the newspaper hit stands, Montecito firefighters – along with thousands of others from across at least seven states – […]
Dealing with the Thomas Fire likely has been stressful, at the least for those in Montecito and environs who have been lucky enough not to have suffered more physical losses. The mandatory evacuation of such spiritual retreat centers as La Casa de Maria, Vedanta temple, and the MacVeagh House at the Museum of Natural History […]
At 10 am on Tuesday, December 12, dozens of Montecito firefighters and personnel gathered at Fire Station 1 for a morning briefing on the Thomas Fire, which, as of press time, had burned 234,200 acres and was 20 percent contained. For more than a week, MFPD has been operating in an “all-hands-on-deck” mode, meaning 24-hour […]
Like most of the region, people at Westmont learned about the Thomas Fire following the massive power outage December 4 that thrust the entire campus and 1,200 students into darkness. The disruption continued into the morning hours as officials scrambled to fix infrastructure that crippled the college’s website and email servers. Smoke from the blaze […]
