Early Morning Gap Fire Update

Certainly seems like an excellent time to approve new provision of water to developments out along the Gaviota Coast which will destroy potential ag land. Also seems like a very good time to approve scores and scores of megamansions out there too, since fire hazards seem so minimal and fighting them seems so cheap and easy. Our three brilliant North County supervisors certainly seem to think so as do their flunkies on the Planning Commission and in the Planning and Development, or should I say the Development Department, as they do very little planning, just approving.

The government of Santa Barbara County is in a state of obesity. It is fat and needs ever more food in the shape of tax money. Hence the approval of every money generating project they see. Mike Brown leads the charge in County obesity, both figuratively and metaphorically. Grazing land on the Gaviota produces no County income. Covered in mansions grazing land is coin.

Right on gaviotamilitia! Just a bunch of greed-freak pigs feeding at the trough! Mo' money, mo' money, mo'money! Climates getting hotter, water is getting scarcer, ag land is disappearing, bringing food from faraway places is getting harder. You think those super rich Orange county developers give a darn. Not likely. They'll gladly fiddle while Gaviota burns or gets totally destroyed through massive over development. We citizens will ultimately pay the bill in the form of vastly decreased quality of life. We need to write letters, show up at hearings and stop this madness.

LA Times has a good video from a heli showing the fire from above in this article:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-...

Hey, GoletaResident, another good link! Isn't it a shame we can't easily get information on the fire. The Independent is the best, but when we lost power for a few hours last night, there went all the news. I had a battery powered radio, but all the stations were just playing music - no news. It stinks that we don't have a local news radio station.

I appreciated the "reverse 911" call this morning that gave me the news on the Cathedral Oaks road closure and the possibility of other power outages. I heard helicopters at 10 last night, so I figured the fire was spreading fast. The firefighters are doing a GREAT job. Things could be worse - FEMA could be managing this emergency and then we'd really be in trouble!!!

Great Google map - thanks Ray. Now we can better communicate about exact locations of the fire.

"911 reverse call"? What time was that? We continued to watch the fire last night until 10; lot's of flames in many places. This morning we could only see smokey layers.
The fire must have reached the fire fighters on the bulldozed lines by now?

Some pics from yesterday can be found here:
http://www.rchoetzlein.com/fire

We got a "reverse 911" call at about 9:30 this morning from the city. It just said that we should stay off Cathedral Oaks from Fairview to Winchester Canyon, because the firefighters want to keep traffic down. Their headquarters is Dos Pueblos HS, but we can use the surrounding streets to get around. Also, be sure to stock up on whatever you need in the event of other power outages - flashlights, batteries, etc. And if we do need to evacuate, they will phone us with that info. Also they mentioned fire info kiosks at at the Community Center, Camino Real, etc.
If was just a helpful information call. I'm glad to know the system works.

On that note: When we first read about listening to the latest info on radio stations, we turned on the first one but only had to listen to music we do not appreciate, so I gave up on that. I thought the internet would be the best place to stay tuned, but when the power went out my laptop was still running on battery but my DSL modem was out, so we had no internet connection; so far for that idea...
Now: our telephone is also a fax and relies on electricity - so we had no telephone connection either (we don't have a cell phone)...so in the end we just packed our "evacuation bags" and continued to watch the fire "live". On the way to work we took Fairview & Cathedral Oaks and saw the road closure live; that was before the reverse 911 call.
Good thing the cars are full of gas - I believe the gas pumps won't work without eletricity either...

I think this should give county planners and Orange County developers pause about considering the viability of the proposed Naples development. Is it ethical or safe to sell homes to people in fire-prone areas that are currently not too close to Goleta fire stations? Will the costs of defending these millionaires' homes be too onerous for the county? We have to consider all of the environmental, financial, and ethical impacts of developments such as Naples. It seems to me that if the Naples developer wants to exercise his "right" to develop his property without acting on input from the surrounding community, he should be willing to assume attendant costs, such as fire protection in highly fire-prone areas, road improvements, etc. Furthermore, the rest of the county should declare this area unsafe for development, and indemnify itself of all legal responsibilities for protection, much as the county did with La Conchita. The government representing all the more responsible citizens should not have to take responsibility for other people's risky or irresponsible developments.

"Lights out Goleta?" - The sparkling stars above the flames looked beautiful last night...

Please point out to me a place on the California coast that is not subject to fire, floods and earthquakes. Please point out to me a place on the Florida coast that is not subject to floods and hurricanes.
Mother Nature's reality is that no place is safe. It is simply a matter of mitigating (to the extent possible), the hazards of any area.
Santa Barbara, Naples and Gaviota are no different.
I am sure that people who moved to SB in the 1950 were upset about the newbees that arrived in the 1960s. That the 1960 crowd was upset about the 1970's crowd ...
Grow up. The population of the US is growing, and new housing is being built everywhere. McManions (as they are called on the east coast) are a reality. However in Naples and Goviota - there will be no McManions. McManions are large houses on a tiny slip of land. The proposed developments have LARGE lot sizes. So why are you upset?
Growth is inevitable, especially when SB will not allow new housing or real change to any existing house. New housing is inevitable, because people of means want modern housing and they have as much right to live in the area as anyone. This is a free country.
Let's force the developers to take responsibility for the proper infrastructure, but we also need to accept that SB cannot hide in the 1960s. CA is suppose to be a place of innovation, new ideas and tolerance - do we meet that test?

newbee, you can't really reason with these people. They complain about development all the time, yet all their houses in Goleta massacred what was once a beautiful open coastal area. I guess they believe that their destruction of the land is OK, but it isn't OK for others.

Amen Goleta Sue -
I sent an email to KTMS 990 programming director Keith Royer after a worrisome night of no power and the only source of news being KTMS 990 with the internet down and the TV not functioning - KTMS was playing their usual programming as if nothing was happening while we watched 50 foot flames in our back yard. We had to drive around to get our own news, something their reporters are apparently too lazy to do - all they gave out once in while if at all was the same stale canned stuff anyone can get from the official services- assuming they have power! We should not even be forced to drive around as this hampers evacuation and emergency efforts.
Keith called me directly and had the nerve to defensively and arrogantly proclaim he was proud of the service they provided and he was sorry that I was not satisfied, as if I was the only one affected or dissatisfied! If this was something to be proud of, the news staff snoozing during the most critical hours with no power, then I guess we should expect no improvement from our only local news station. I was impressed that he was concerned enough to make a personal call, but his concern was obviously for the reputation of his station instead of for me or the community. I would have been much happier with a humble apology and a commitment to do better than with the self satisfied false pride accusatory attitude he presented. Shameful and disgusting approach to community responsibility, especially being the only game in town, which may be the problem. We had no idea if we should pack or stay - where the fire was exactly, where it was headed, what homes if any are threatened or burning, what to expect in terms of weather, which of our friends or family might be affected and just to be safe we spent hours in the dark panicking and packing as we watched the flames approach with not even the radio which is the only possible source of information being any help whatsoever! I hate to think of what will happen next time if the conditions were worse. Fortunately we were lucky enough to be able to make it on our own this time using our own eyes and ears. Thanks for nothing KTMS! I am happy you are so proud.

That's the impression we got from last year's Zaca fire - those news and 'official' stations are good for "the after" - to report on "historic events"... Reminds me of that old TV sports commercial: "When you want the weather - look out of the window".
How true!

Develop it, call it "Newbeeville." The magic word here is WATER!, We never had it and never will, dry Lima beans ruled!

From Goleta it looks like the firefighters got the western part of the fire stopped from spreading; instead the fire is now moving east and uphill north, towards West Camino Cielo and 154 (evacuation order in effect there).
A lot of smoke!

I take that back - large flames again are running south towards the Fairview area and what's going on along Glen Annie west is not visible from here.

Dear Newbee,

Growth is NOT inevitable. Many people in this country, and in other cultures, know how to live sustainably. There is no edict or axiom that states that the population needs to grow -- people could choose to have 2 children and the population would not (Google Zero Population Growth to find more on this). Similarly, it says nothing in the Bible, Constitution, or any other source of "truth" that people need to have houses larger than their parents' and neighbors', or buy larger cars, or consume more gas driving from a distant development into a city. Population growth and consumer growth is a choice, and I have been brought up to understand that people must be responsible for their choices. Given that we are all seeing what happens to houses in the hills and in dry grasslands, we must all question the responsibility of building more houses in such locations.

P.S. I'm not sure how rc251 defines "reason," but this argument has both a sound premise (i.e. houses in the hills and in open space are at increased risk of burning) and sound conclusion (i.e. therefore we should avoid building more of them). This is the way that logic (and its related concept "reason") are generally defined.

I wanted to thank the Independent and their writers for the excellent coverage. We appreciate it!

Once again, illuminating and clear coverage by Ben Preston - keep up the good work! And thanks to those who "looked out the window" taking to the streets to get the latest info and taking the time to post it here - kudos to the Independent for providing this forum.