More on the Fire

1,940 acres burned
100% contained
231 residences destroyed: 151 City of Santa Barbara, 80 County of Santa Barbara;
9 residences damaged
Damage assessment is continuing
319 parcels currently remain under evacuation
756 firefighters and support personnel
23 injuries from smoke inhalation
3 burn injuries
Estimated firefighting cost to date $5,700,000

The firemen were able to keep the fires under control, so they didn't spread any further than where they were the first couple days.

The people started returning to their homes on Monday. Very sad to hear about the devisation out there. I heard one lady talking about her dad's car...it was caught in the fire, & the metal melted down into the street. now the car is fused to the street!

I think i mentioned before, that the fire was in a *very* wealthy part of town, so a lot of expensive property was completely lost. One man had museum pieces in his home!


But the fire is contained, and now begins the recovery process.

Westmont, the local college was hit hard. about 50 college kids are needing a place tostay, because some of the dorms were burned (we've offered to house a couple of girls). Tons of faculty lost their homes. One of the worst hit was a family with a little 4 y/o boy, and she's 6 months pregnant. They lost EVERYTHING. the fire grew so qickly that they just had to run out as fast as they could. so they had no clothes, no toys for their child, no baby supplies for the next... So our church adopted them & is trying to gather things together for them. We're planning to throw a baby shower later, for her.