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Most fire evacuations in California being lifted
Thousands of residents were back home on Saturday as a blanket of cool, moist air flowing in from the Pacific Ocean tamed a wind-driven wildfire that burned 80 homes along the outskirts of town during the week.
- AP
- Published: 08:35 May 10, 2009
Santa Barbara: Thousands of residents were back home on Saturday as a blanket of cool, moist air flowing in from the Pacific Ocean tamed a wind-driven wildfire that burned 80 homes along the outskirts of town during the week.
Cheers erupted at an evacuation centre when Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown announced that mandatory evacuation orders for most areas were being downgraded to evacuation warnings, meaning residents could return but would have to remain alert.
A short distance away up a narrow canyon road, gutted homes and burned out cars awaited the return of their owners. A scorched palm tree jutted toward a clear, blue sky and a lawn chair, scorched appliances and metal filing cabinets were among the few recognisable remnants.
More than 30,000 people had been under mandatory evacuation orders dating back as far as Tuesday afternoon, when the fire erupted just above Santa Barbara on the face of steep Santa Ynez Mountains. An additional 23,000 had been on evacuation standby.
By Saturday evening, well over half of those residents were back in their homes, Santa Barbara County sheriff's Commander Darin Fotheringham said.
Notorious local winds known as "sundowners" sweeping from inland and down the face of the mountains drove the fire into outlying neighbourhoods on Wednesday afternoon, causing most of the destruction, and again late Thursday and early Friday.
A predicted sundowner failed to materialise on Friday night, and instead the normal flow of air from the Pacific Ocean pushed ashore a dense, moist marine layer that didn't let the sun peek through until nearly midday. Officials had said an onshore flow would raise humidity levels and blow the fire away from developed areas on the foothills.
The National Weather Service on Saturday dropped fire weather warnings and predicted that overnight clouds and fog would continue through Monday morning before a return of a weak-to-moderate sundowners in the Santa Ynez range Monday night and into midweek.
Firefighters were cautious but said the blaze that had covered more than 34 square kilometres was 30 per cent contained. Water-dropping helicopters continued to shuttle between reservoirs and hot spots but flames were not apparent and the huge plumes of smoke that loomed over the city for days had vanished.
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