Most Santa Barbara Fire Evacuations Lifted
With Weather Improved And Wildfire 30% Contained, Most Evacuees Will Be Allowed Back Home In Stages
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Play CBS Video Video Wildfire Relief In Calif. Southern California residents are relieved today as wildfires in the Santa Barbara region have been nearly extinguished by local officials with the aid of Mother Nature. Ben Tracy reports.
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Video Fires Rage In Santa Barbara Firefighters and state officials in California are trying to contain wild blazes throughout the Santa Barbara area which have left many homes destroyed in the region. Ben Tracy reports.
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Video Calif. Fires Claim Homes The weather in Santa Barbara, Calif. turned against firefighters, fueling wildfires and taking homes, reports Ben Tracy. Harry Smith talks to Capt. David Sadecki from the Santa Barbara Cty. Fire Dept.
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A thick marine layer mixes with smoke from smoldering hot spots of the Jesusita Wildfire in the hills above Highway 154 on Saturday, May 9, 2009, in Santa Barbara, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Parsons)
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A DC-10 aerial tanker makes a retardant drop on an unburned area as efforts to fight the Jesusita fire continue in the mountains above Santa Barbara, Calif., Friday, May 8, 2009. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
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Photo Essay California Wildfires The Jesusita wildfire threatening Santa Barbara homes has grown to 400 acres.
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Interactive Wildfires Photo essays, the worst U.S. fires, facts on fire science and health issues.
Cheers broke out Saturday as Sheriff Bill Brown announced that mandatory evacuation orders were being downgraded to evacuation warnings for the bulk of populated areas threatened by the fire since Tuesday.
The blaze, which has burned across more than 13 square miles, had burned 80 homes and forced 30,000 people to flee.
The evacuation orders are being lifted in stages over several hours to avoid traffic jams.
After days of torrid temperatures and ferocious wind, morning fog gave some relief Saturday to firefighters battling the wildfire that has burned 80 homes and forced 30,000 people to flee.
The 8,700-acre blaze was 30 percent contained, Santa Barbara County Deputy Fire Chief Chris Hahn said.
Hahn warned, however, that the cooler weather may not last.
"The weather tends to be a little fickle around here ... so our guard is up," he said at a morning news conference.
City Fire Chief Andrew DiMizio said the wildfire remained a "sleeping giant" along its eastern flank.
Some of the 30,000 people who have been under mandatory evacuation orders have been living in shelters for days. An additional 23,000 people had been warned to remain ready to leave at a moment's notice.
Authorities want to get people back into their homes as soon as possible but safety comes first, Hahn said.
"Sundowners," fierce local winds that sweep down the mountain slopes from north to south and out to sea, were blamed for stoking what had been a small wildfire into a savage inferno that destroyed homes, some of them multimillion-dollar mansions in canyons and ridges.
The National Weather Service said the sharp north-to-south difference in atmospheric pressure creating the wind was expected to weaken but remain strong enough to produce gusts through Saturday, and possibly until Sunday morning.
About 4,000 firefighters were battling the blaze along a five-mile front, aided by fleets of aircrafts that included a DC-10 jumbo tanker capable of dumping huge loads of retardant.
Thirteen firefighters had been injured, including three whose engine was overrun by flames on Wednesday.
The cause of the blaze, which broke out Tuesday, remained under investigation.
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