Fire Halted After It Jumps Freeway Near UC Santa Barbara
Whipped by hot, dry “sundowner” winds gusting at more than 20 m.p.h., a fast-moving brush fire jumped a freeway, leapfrogged over a business park and burned across an airport runway toward the UC Santa Barbara campus before it was controlled Monday night.
Fire officials said the blaze traveled more than 2 1/2 miles in less than six hours.
The fire apparently started in a grassy area on the north side of U.S. 101, about seven miles west of downtown Santa Barbara, said Robert Hofmann, a spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.
The flames headed south toward the sea, driven by winds similar to Santa Anas.
Hofmann said firefighters had hoped to stop the blaze, first at the freeway and then at the business park, but embers flew over both the highway and the commercial complex and kept the fire moving south.
Burning across a runway at the west end of Santa Barbara Municipal Airport, the fire forced the evacuation of a police facility on Mesa Road before firefighters were able to halt its advance.
“There was a brief threat to some married-student housing on the west side of the campus,” Hofmann said, “but the fire never got that far.”
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