The wildfire that has scorched 34km² and destroyed dozens of homes in the hills above this scenic coastal city was apparently sparked by a power tool being used to clear brush, investigators said on Sunday.
Fire officials said someone, or possibly a group of people, was clearing vegetation on what appeared to be private land near a trail around the time the fire erupted last Tuesday.
“Any time you use any power tool, there’s always a possibility, especially if the conditions are right,” said Joe Waterman, the overall fire commander from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
PHOTO: AFP
Some Santa Barbara County residents recently received annual notices advising them they had until June 1 to clear potentially hazardous brush, county fire Captain Glenn Fidler said.
It was not immediately clear whether the blaze originated in an area targeted by such a notice.
Officials declined to comment further about the type of power tool that may have been used, or if anyone could face charges.
The fire has destroyed 77 homes, damaged 22 others and forced the evacuation of approximately 30,000 people to safer ground.
By late on Sunday, all but 375 residents from 145 homes had been allowed to return home and firefighters had the blaze 65 percent contained, aided by cooler, more humid weather.
Relieved to see their homes still standing, grateful residents paid tribute to firefighters by tooting car horns in their honor and posting large thank-you signs on their front lawns.
More than 4,500 firefighters worked to contain as much of the blaze as they could before the hot, dry “sundowner” winds that pushed flames on homes earlier in the week return, possibly as early as today.
Fire officials over the weekend had lauded residents’ removal of brush and fire-prone plants from their properties to bolster the defensible space needed to protect a house from a wildfire and keep firefighters safe while working in the region.
Santa Barbara County Fire Chief Tom Franklin recalled that a 1990 blaze took out 500 homes, although it did not burn across as wide a swatch of land as the 34km² covered by this week’s fire.
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