Woman, 37, Killed Trying to Flee Santa Barbara Fire

The first fatality was discovered this morning as a force of 1,700 firefighters finally began gaining the upper hand over the most destructive fire to hit Southern California in 30 years.

The firefighters said they found the body of Andrea Gurka, 37, in a creek bed behind her home on Old San Marcos Pass Road. They said she apparently was trapped there while trying to outrun an inferno advancing down a mountainside Wednesday night.

Her little house was among 524 homes destroyed in the blaze, which fire officials say was started by an arsonist.

For many residents of those homes, this morning was a time to begin picking through the ruins and reassembling the lives torn asunder after the flames--driven by hot winds gusting at up to 60 m.p.h.--marched down the slopes of the Santa Ynez Mountains to invade the coastal residential districts below.

On the other hand, for some residents of the beleaguered mountainside community of Painted Cave, whose homes survived despite a two-day, around-the-clock assault by the fire, it was time to cheer.

“We still have our homes!” Dave Hardy yelled with glee as he surveyed the charred landscape surrounding his house and realized that for the first time since Wednesday afternoon, the home was not in danger.

“It seems to really be over,” Hardy said.

Well, it wasn’t entirely over. Not yet.

Flames still burned along a mountain ridge above the community, and fire officials said it should be noon Saturday before the 4,000-acre fire is fully contained.

The primary concern this morning was keeping the moist, onshore breezes that sprang up during the night from pushing the fire over the top of San Marcos Pass and into the dry brushlands of the Santa Ynez Valley on the other side.

But the dank overcast and thermometer readings in the 60s gave officials new optimism.

“The temperatures are coming down. The humidity is up,” San Barbara County Fire Marshal William Bennett said. “That’s good news for us firefighters.”

In Painted Cave, the power and phone lines were still down this morning, but Biff Cooke, who has a gasoline-powered generator, issued an open invitation to anyone to stop by, charge up the batteries on their portable phones and enjoy a cold beer from one of the last refrigerators still working in town.

Down the hill a piece, at actress Jane Fonda’s summer camp for children, employees dished up chicken burritos, fruit salad and brownies to begrimed firefighters.

“It’s pretty calm out there,” said Robert Ooley, a spokesman for the county Fire Department. “It’s still smoldering somewhat, but it’s nothing like before.

“It’s certainly on the downside now.”