The Thomas Fire Strikes Back

It was a day few in Santa Barbara will ever forget. Early in the morning on Saturday, December 16, as howling winds developed overnight, the Thomas Fire roared through the canyons above Summerland and Montecito, cresting ridges toward Westmont College, Parma Park, and dozens of small neighborhoods tucked away along narrow mountain roads.

By then, the Thomas Fire was already 12 days old, sparking to life around 6:20 p.m. on Monday, December 4, in Ventura County, near Thomas Aquinas College. By then, the out-of-control wildfire had already destroyed hundreds of Ventura homes and forced thousands to evacuate. By then, a class-action lawsuit had already been filed, alleging its cause was connected to a Southern California Edison project. By then, it had already jumped Highway 33 and the Ventura River and burned right down to Highway 101 at Faria Beach Park. By then, the Thomas Fire had already killed two: 70-year-old Virginia Pesola, who died in a car crash while evacuating near Santa Paula; and 32-year-old firefighter Cory Iverson, who died working the inferno’s southeastern edge, outside Fillmore.

Needless to say, Santa Barbara firefighters saw this thing coming. As the fire jumped Highway 150 and landed in the backcountry north of Carpinteria, hand crews and dozers were opening up long-established fuel breaks from the county line westward. Then they got a big break. While relative humidity remained at dangerously low, single-digit levels, weather forecasters predicted four days of calm wind, a welcome reprieve after more than a week straight of unseasonal Santa Anas.