The Associated Press
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Firefighters struggled Friday to get ahead of a raging wildfire that has moved dangerously close to heavily populated areas around this idyllic coastal city and forced the evacuation of an roughly 30,000 people.
Mobile home parks and neighborhoods of multimillion-dollar mansions were like ghost towns, bathed in the eerie orange glow of the growing blaze as billows of smoke wafted over the blackened mountains.
Santa Barbara County spokeswoman Jodi Dyck said the fire had grown since Thursday night, when it measured roughly 2,700 acres, or 4 square miles. But she did not have precise estimates of the size of the charred areas.
“It really got going during the night. Some areas have 45-year fuel. The wind is all over the place,” fire Capt. Mike De Pont said Friday. “For this time of year, this activity is unusual.”
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The blaze jumped a highway and pushed west toward neighboring Goleta and east toward tony Montecito, and evacuation orders more than doubled in less than a day.
A statement from the fire joint information center at late morning Friday estimated that more than 12,000 properties were under mandatory evacuation orders, affecting 30,500 people. It said more than 9,000 properties were under warning for potential evacuation, affecting 23,000 people.
Oscar Funez, 39, his wife, Patricia, 42, and their son, Augustin, 4, were watching the fire on television Thursday night when they noticed other tenants leaving their Santa Barbara apartment building. They packed a suitcase and fled, too.
“It’s our fourth fire in Santa Barbara. We know we have to have everything — paperwork, clothes, everything — ready to go,” Oscar Funez said.
The family spent the night on cots in a recreation center at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Authorities said more than 800 people were in evacuation shelters.
“Right now, if you’re not evacuated in the Santa Barbara area, you are sheltering evacuees,” DiMizio said.
More than 2,300 firefighters, aided by 14 air tankers and 15 helicopters, were fighting the blaze. Containment was estimated at 10 percent and the cause was under investigation.
Santa Barbara and adjacent communities, pinched between the coast on the south and the rugged mountains on the north, are subject to fierce local winds known as “sundowners” that sweep down from the slopes over this coastal city of about 90,000. In November, a wind-driven fire burned 200 houses in the area.
Santa Barbara County Fire Chief Tom Franklin predicted Friday would be a copy of Thursday’s fire conditions, including low humidity and winds gusting to 50 mph or more.
Highs could hover around 100 degrees. A National Weather Service “red flag” forecast for extreme fire conditions continued.
The fire was burning along steep slopes in brush that is unusually dry so early in the fire season, Franklin said.
When the wind isn’t blowing, the fire is being driven by terrain, authorities said.
Officials requested a DC-10 jumbo jet tanker capable of carrying much larger loads of retardant or water than helicopters or other aircraft, said assistant incident commander Kelley Gouette of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Officials said 11 firefighters had been injured to date, including three who were burned in a firestorm Wednesday.
They were reported in good condition at a Los Angeles burn center, but two will need skin grafts and surgery. Other injuries ranged from smoke inhalation to sprained ankles.
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Associated Press writer Jeff Wilson contributed to this report.