Environment

Santa Barbara Jesusita fire under control, but 1200 evacuated

by Amy Judd | May 6, 2009 at 10:10 am

5420 views | 48 Recommendations | 5 comments

Firefighters worked through the night, dropping water from helicopters and battling the blaze on the ground, to hold back the California wildfires that forced the evacuation of 1,200 homes. About 2,000 homes were in danger of being caught in the blaze that started north of Santa Barbara.

"Things are pretty stable from where they were last night," Santa Barbara County fire spokeswoman Pat Wheatley said.

According to the National Weather Service however, winds are expected to pick up later today so that could mean the fires could get worse again. 196 acres of brush have been burned already, and although no buildings have been lost, some are very close to being burned.

Today, water dropping airplanes are also helping out with the fire fighting process and evacuations all took place within a 2 and a half miles radius of the outside of the fire. Five schools in the area are closed today.

The cause of the fire is unknown at this point.

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albertacowpoke

at 10:28 on May 6th, 2009

Those fires are terrible. I think 90% of them are caused by humans and 10% by mother nature. Let's hope they keep them under control.

SeanTrek

at 12:17 on May 6th, 2009

Noticed fire burning in the Santa Barbara foothills just after 2pm on May 5th, 2009.

SeanTrek has contributed a photo to this story.

Amy Judd

at 13:28 on May 6th, 2009

Thank you for sharing your photos.

kcorbett1982

at 12:56 on May 6th, 2009

I was called back to duty with the Santa Barbara City Fire Dept. I took these photos over the Lauro Reservoir where the Helicopters were filling up for water drops. Fire activity now is minimal, 2pm. High winds are affecting the aircraft efforts. Multiple resources from the area are here to assist. 196 acres, no structures lost, over 1000 residences evacuated, and over 900 personnel assigned to the incident.

kcorbett1982 has contributed a photo to this story.