Riviera House Fire Was Accidental Electrical Start
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A thick column of black smoke rising straight up followed by the pungent odor of burning plastic marked a fire at 1322 Dover Road that consumed a home entirely on Saturday. Santa Barbara City Fire engines and a ladder truck were the first to respond to the fire just before 10 a.m., arriving to see “flames rolling out of nearly every window,” reported Amber Anderson with City Fire. Both Montecito and County fire crews soon arrived to keep the fire on the city’s hilly Riviera neighborhood from spreading to nearby vegetation and homes.
The damage was put at $1.8 million and was likely attributable to an accidental “electrical malfunction,” Anderson said. A single person at home at the time escaped unharmed, and no firefighters were injured.
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