Friends, family help kickstart Alisal Fire recovery with GoFundMe pages
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. -Â Â The Alisal Fire, which started on Monday, Oct. 11, tore through ranch properties most people never knew existed, except those who live and work in areas such as Refugio, Arroyo Hondo and upper El Capitan Canyons.
Within minutes of starting on the mountain top along the Gaviota Coast, the fire wildly spread into drainages and made it to the ocean.
It ended up burning an estimated 17,000 acres and several structures, some for living in and some for storage.
Many were rustic homes.
Many of the people who lost property or came back to damaged property were not owners. And some of the buildings were not originally built to be homes.
The efforts to rebuild will be in the hands of the property owners and some tenants, but many have friends and family members asking the community for donations to help those impacted by the loss of their homes and belongings.
" I was able to get a few things out my mom came up, she grabbed the foraging tools I got a handful of books out of here, some DVD's, some clothing," said Cade Franks while looking at the ashes of his former home. "I was able to salvage some tools, I found some old coins that were just about everything."
Cade lived here down a path from his parents' place which did not go down in flames. Some important papers were protected there but his other possessions were in his converted cowboy quarters that had stood on the property for about 40 years.
It is part of the Circle Bar B Ranch where he works on trail tours.
"Just about everything that was in here was burnt to cinder ash. The only thing that did survive was the metal tools that I had," said Franks.
The fire started a couple of canyons over but it moved incredibly fast.Â
"They had a sudden shift of winds and it brought it right over to this side," he said.
That's when a lookout said they were out of time.
"They had a big fire truck back up into the driveway here and they had their big lines going up into the canyon," he said. "They had another fireman get on the radio and said they had a fire coming up the hill about 80 miles and hour and they had to get out of this canyon right now so they hopped in their truck and they ended up getting out."
Walking through the ashes and looking at both sides of what was his home Franks said, "This section right here used to be a desk with a washbasin in it to wash your face. I had a sofa set up right here and right here this is where my mattress used to set."
Power, water lines and phone service were still being restored Tuesday afternoon.
Edison and Hot Line crews were installing new poles, and in some cases, bringing them in with helicopters.
Cade wants to make sure his parent's house is safe, then he will figure out his spot, and some donations will help him rebuild.
"Make sure their house is nice and clean and repaired from all that smoke damage and come back through and buy the materials rebuild this place again," he said.
As for his belongings, "There's no replacing it at all. Treasure what you have and try to hold on to your memories."
Some of the pages can be found on GoFundMe.com or here:
