My friends house survived the Santa Barbara Jesusita Fire!

The intensity and rapid spread of growth of the fire, fueled by down canyon "Sundowner or Santa Ana" winds took out dozens of multi-million dollar homes.

In the direct pathway was a very close friends house, affectionately called "Rancho Relaxo". Now that the fire has moved West, North and East... and still moving, not much is left but ruin and getting any kind of information right now is close to impossible.

During the past twenty plus years, we have had many discussions about how to provide fire protection for his house and the property. I was able to share principles of defensible space, fire retardant construction, fire protection, foam systems, standpipes and on and on...

Well, they listened and were able to calmly remove valuables from the house, point cars in the right direction (pointing out) and then foam the house... and then say goodbye, driving away not knowing if the house survived...

This morning, a friend was able to get access to the property and snapped these pix... The foaming operation worked, at least on the front of the structure. No word on the back side of the house... The carport and Jeep Cherokee took a hit... nothing around the house survived in intense heat and ferocity of this fire.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on May 11, 2009 at 2:50am

Ben said, "Now remind me...WHY do you want to live in the home of massive wildfires, earthquakes, mudslides, and etc.??? :-)"

Ben, Did I mention that our pool is 84˚F (we use solar panels) and there is a blender on standby for Margueritas and we have the lemon and lime trees in the backyard! What's a little wildland urban interrface fire, earthquake, swine flu, mudslides, or tsunami's compared to dealing with SNOW and COLD... : )