Santa Barbara was once again making national news this week because of a wildfire burning in the foothills. It is kind of weird to think about but I watched this fire from its beginning on Tuesday. I was taking an athlete to an appointment when I looked up and saw smoke rising from the foothills. By Tuesday night the fire seemed to be under control and by Wednesday morning I thought it had already fizzled out. Unfortunately, as the day went on Wednesday the winds picked up and all of a sudden the wildfire had turned into a firestorm and began moving towards the city of Santa Barbara burning many homes. Sadly, one of those homes was one of our team physicians.
On Thursday everything was looking good again. The fire had calmed down and receded from populated areas. I went along with my day not really thinking about it. I played intramural volleyball that night and after our match I got a call from my friend David stating suggestively "I'm just checking in to see how you are doing?" To which I replied "I'm doing fine, is there a reason why I shouldn't be doing fine?" I told him I just got done with volleyball and hadn't yet began the drive home. He responded with "Okay, well call me later and tell how you are doing." I thought the whole interchange was weird until I got closer to home and noticed the foothills alive with flame, ash falling like a snow storm from the sky, and streets packed with cars heading in the opposite direction; everything made sense at that point.
Luckily, I signed up for reverse 911 after the last wildfire. Sadly, I didn't know if it would actually work since I never received the confirmation call that I was supposed to. A little after midnight I got the call that my neighborhood had been placed as an evacuation warning area and that I should be prepared to leave. I had already gathered some things just in case earlier in the evening, so I was prepared. I decided to stay up till 1:30am just to monitor the situation. I was minutes away from having a piece of birthday cake when I got the call saying that I was now in a mandatory evacuation and that I needed to leave immediately. I called David to see if I could crash on his couch, packed up my car, and headed to his place to ride out the evacuation. I spent Friday evening with David, his roommates, and their two pugs.
The weather began to cooperate Friday evening and throughout yesterday. The mandatory evacuation for my area was lifted Saturday afternoon and downgraded to a warning again. So, I am back home and keeping an eye on the hills, but it seems like the firefighter's have things under control right now, so I am safe and sound!
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