Tea Fire Morning Update

Is there any news about Cleveland School? Is the fire on Guiterrez Street? The sight from up here off the pass last night was unbelievable!

Thank you, Indie, for keeping us so informed. You do the best job of all.

Grateful thanks to the Independent once again for excellent fire coverage. Those of us keeping tabs from out of town take comfort in being able to get news and in the knowledge that our loved ones have access to up-to-date information. Thank you.

Our best wishes go out to everyone involved... be safe, be strong. Thank you firefighters!

Been trying to call the official information number for two hours, continually busy. Any information about the area around the old Sheffield Reservoir? Has the fire moved west from Stanwood? Did it burn up Stanwood? Any info would be really helpful. I'd love to go back and get some things, also a vehicle that we had to leave last night, if it's possible to get into this area.

Thanks so much, Indy, as usual you are the best source of info.

Good luck to everyone.

Has Lotusland been affected?

As someone who lost my home last night, I believe I am entitled to ask how Santa Barbara could have been so ill prepared for this fire? After repeatedly reassuring everyone that the city learned the lessons of the Sycamore Canyon Fire and knowing that at some point, it was almost a certainty that there would be another fire in that same area and under similar conditions, I was shocked to see how ill-prepared and frankly how slow to react the city was. No reverse 911 call, despite the drill we participated in on the Riviera awhile back, no one telling us when to evacuate - we fled on our own when we saw the fire coming dangerously close - and not a firefighter to be seen as we watched our house burn to the ground - this on a major street, not in remote or difficult to reach terrain. All the new hydrants added after the Sycamore Canyon fire and all the water pressure problems solved are of no value if there aren't fire fighters there to use them. So you will excuse me if I find all the self-congratulatory blather being exchanged about what a great job every body did just plain offensive.

I'm sincerely sorry Justice, that you lost your home.

You have every right to be angry and upset.

I wish you peace and comfort, to the others as well, as everyone at the very least, deserves it.

Justice - I've been wondering the same thing, although from a distance.

1) Information infrastructure is clearly poor - both at the beginning of the fire and throughout the fire. Only basic information (where to go to evacuate) has been available, very little on the actual behavior of the fire.

2) People keep saying the houses losts were in "inaccessible" areas, which is wrong. Many homes were lost early on when they were near hydrants, the response was slow - my belief is that the firefighters needed extra time to group themselves, due to the enormity of the fire, which is understandable - but clearly, a different kind of planning is needed. Since they were incapable of responding to so many house fires at once, they seem to have been hamstrung until they developed a different kind of plan. The planning agencies/city managers were so certain (apparently) that this kind of thing "could not happen" that they weren't ready for it.

3. There may be no solution, longterm, especially given budget constraints. But if that is true, people who live anywhere near parks, tree belts, foothills, grasslands and anyplace else where fire can move rapidly and get to more than one house at a time, should NOT be told they are "safe." Instead, they should be told they are risking a lot to live there. This would drive insurance costs up (and housing prices down) and I think a lot of people have been unwilling to face that, and the city ends up telling people what they want to hear - and what seems to generate income/keep the budget under control in the first place.

4. In some parts of fire-prone California, residents have spent very large sums of money building their own automated fire responses (pools with automatic pumps, sprinklers on top of the roofs and sidewalls) and kept to very stringent landscaping/building ordinances. If steel and concrete buildings are safer, people need to know that. If cinder block firewalls work, people need to use them - there are ways of making them attractive. But people need ASSISTANCE and KNOWLEDGE in figuring out how to do this. The local community college should have classes in fireproofing one's home. There are new techniques that none of us regular folks know anything about - the word needs to get out.

Best of luck in rebuilding your house - learn as much as you can about keeping it safe, don't rely on what the city says, you'll get through this and things will be good again. I wish there was a way to donate directly to homeowners like yourself to help with costs and replacement of much-needed wardrobe and other personal items (yes - I'd donate to help someone replace their IPOD or other "frivolous" things - because that's what helps people get through something like this).

Maybe someone will start such a thing.

All the best.

When I lived in Goleta, my parents had our roof redone. They had contemplated using the Wood Shingles, like as before but my Mother was involved with Neighborhood Watch and had contacts to the Fire Department. The Fire Department advised my parents to use Asphalt Tiles, in place of wood shingles, due to there fire retardant qualities. Not long after and during the winter, our neighbors had a fire going in their fireplace and the embers from the top of the chimney lit their roof afire. Those same embers had landed on our roof but on like the neighbors the fire had NO fuel to burn with and we were saved. The next year the nieghbors house was rebuilt and this time with a Asphalt roof.
Melisande, is right about the roof sprinklers. I had a classmate who's family back in the early 80's, had their home in the upper La. Patera area fixed with sprinklers on their roof and tall sprinklers at the corners on their yard. Those sprinklers were fed by the pool's pumps when the threat of fire was near. We all laughed but they were prepared.
Good luck on the re-build.