Santa Barbara watches TV Hill anxiously as storm system approaches Loma fire burn scar
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Santa Barbara’s Downtown and Westside glowed bright orange on May 20. Normally the city glows orange due to the city’s streetlights. On that evening it was due to a fire racing up TV Hill.
The howling wind turned a small flame into a hillside inferno in a matter of minutes. Firefighters from across Santa Barbara County and Ventura raced to battle the blaze. Some firefighters found themselves extinguishing a fire in a kitchen with a wall of flames on their backs.
In less than an hour, the big flames were out, four properties were damaged, but mostly survived. The next morning the sun showed a hillside covered in ash and smoke, which used to be thick with brush and trees. The original threat was over.
Seven months later there’s a new threat at the Loma Alta burn scar, rain. City officials have blocked off Loma Alta Drive below the burn scare and have set up k-rails in case of mudslides.
Santa Barbara streets operations and infrastructure manager, Jim Dewey, said the city has reviewed models of what could happen during a rain event. They’re hoping the models are correct showing limited threat. But the City of Santa Barbara will find out when inches of rainfall on it Monday into Tuesday.
