While spending some time back in Southern California, we've been close to the massive Thomas wildfire. This fire has now become the largest single wildfire in California since records for fire sizes began in the 1930s. This fire was the result of a "perfect storm" of conditions, including no measurable rain in over 240 days, large amounts of very dry fuels (some of which had not burned in decades), extremely low relative humidity levels (as low as 1%), higher than normal temperatures and strong and gusty off-shore winds.
We were in the Cachuma Lake campground a few days after the fire began and the smoke and ash became fairly heavy.
Smoke covered sun.
Looking towards the Santa Ynez Mountain range
By December 28th, the main fire activity was well away from the populated coastal areas and road closures and evacuation orders had been lifted. We decided to drive around to look at how close it had come to Santa Barbara County coastal communities and to view the aftermath of the fire.
Palm trees at Faria Beach
Foothills behind Carpinteria
Foothills behind Montecito
A close call...
...and a very grateful homeowner
Some areas had Phos-Chek fire retardant sprayed from trucks.
A Phos-Chek line dropped by aircraft
Overall, an army of firefighting crews did an amazing job of saving structures. Only a few homes in the Carpinteria/Montecito areas were lost. Unfortunately, many homes were lost in Ventura in the first day of the fire.
