Jesusita Fire: Information, Please.

Please follow this link to the full-sized photo.  It’s as close as you’re likely to get to the fire.  This photo gives me goose bumps.  Gratitude.

I’ve labored to re-create two comments on dkos, and suddenly I realize I haven’t used my diary yet today here.  So, perhaps there are some people here from Santa Barbara who can send us some news?  The main question, what will the winds do tonight?

Anyway, here are pretty much a repeat of two comments:

From Twitter an hour ago, maybe.  [How long does it take to copy the same two comments twice?  Teeth grinding.]

Sundowner winds did not happen today (as they did yesterday) – Fire Chief. #jesusita #jesusitafire

Yet GlowNZ on dkos just said:

too soon to tell

no sun setting yet.

No sundowners would be great news.  Growing up, I would have called it the grace of God.  May each firefighter, law abiding and merely courageous, make it through this night with NO MORE BURNS.  If it looks bad, get the hell out of there and come back and rake up the ashes.  We don’t have to win every battle.  Remember firefighters, from now on—–ZERO BURNS—–Zero.  No more.  Three firefighters hospitalized, two with burns from the radiant heat of the fire, and one with smoke inhalation.  Were in serious condition, not critical, according to a single source.

Thank you firefighters.  And thank you neighbors.

I loved this twitter from Mike Elgan’s thread from last night when it was completely up to chance what happened to Santa Barbara, as it will be again tonight. I’ll quote from memory:

Eyes on the road, Santa Barbara.  It’s not like you haven’t seen fire before.

Look at this scary one from four hours ago:

Santa Barbara update: Fire is officially 0% contained. 4,715 homes evacuated. Fire headed toward city center. #jesusita#jesusitafire

This one twitter is the only source of this.  Come on, Santa Barbara, check in.  Did the winds not rise up in hot fury this night?  Or did the firefighters have a chance to really get at it?

And here is Independent how reporter Nick Welsh opened his http://www.independent.com/new… article] earlier today.  (My daughter idolizes Mike Welsh as a writer and reporter.  She worked with him, and she knows excellence when she sees it.)

 Here’s how Nick opened his article four hours ago:

Anticipating a repeat performance of yesterday afternoon’s explosion of wind and flame, Jesusita Fire incident commanders have doubled the number of helicopters they’re sending into the fray, tripled the number of fixed-wing aerial tankers, and increased the number of firefighters by 400. That brings the number of planes to 12, the number of helicopters to 10, and the total number of firefighters to 1,394-up from the previous high of 850 firefighters on Wednesday, May 6.

By emergency decree, Santa Maria airport was opened to air tankers at 1 p.m. on Wednesday-nearly 24 hours after the fire was initially reported.

The last sentence refers to an issue Nick has been on top of–a change in the contract between the Forest Service and an operator at Santa Maria airport.  The change was to on-demand service, which was supposed to have a short response time.  The actual response time, which was forced by decree, was 24 hours.