Reporting from MONTECITO — As the Thomas fire began to bear down on Montecito on Saturday morning, Darren Caesar was packing up and getting ready to flee for a beachside hotel.
After burning for almost two weeks, the flames had finally arrived in his community, just a few miles north on Cold Springs Road.
The last time he had to evacuate for a fire was the 2008 Tea fire. On Saturday, he stood off the shoulder of Highway 192 next to the Montecito Fire Station and pointed to a row of fire trucks and tankers parked about 50 yards away.
“Look at how many firefighting assets they have. I know what they’re doing. I trust that they can do everything they can to protect the structures,” he said. “But it’s the wind. Nobody can fight the wind.”
It was that kind of a morning in the upscale coastal communities in southern Santa Barbara County. For nearly a week, the monster fire had been making runs at the the towns south of Santa Barbara. Last Sunday, several homes were destroyed when winds pushed the fire into hillside communities.
On Saturday, Montecito was threatened again as the winds picked up in the morning and pushed the flames toward the town, prompting Ceasar to plan his exit and putting firefighters on edge.
An army of firefighters had spent days preparing for the siege and were on the front lines Saturday.
Missoula, Mont., firefighter Matt Kerns said what makes the Thomas fire and others like it in Southern California so difficult to combat is the combination of vegetation, weather conditions and the locations of the homes firefighters are assigned to protect.
“California seems to be at the forefront of the urban-wildland interface, [with] just homes in every nook and cranny,” said Kerns, who first arrived in the state Dec. 6 to battle the Creek fire in the foothills above Sylmar in Los Angeles County.
For days his team has been roaming the narrow residential streets that climb toward the Los Padres National Forest, performing triage on homes in the fire’s path if it hooked south, as it did Saturday morning.
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John Bain and Brandon Baker try to stop a fire from burning a stranger’s home in Ventura.
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A brush fire moving with the wind sends embers all over residential neighborhoods north of Ventura.
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A family packs up and evacuates as a brush fire gets closer to their home in Ventura.
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John Bain and his friends, all from Camarillo, came to help as brush fires move quickly through residential neighborhoods in Ventura.
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Strangers band together to help put out a palm tree on fire and stop it from burning homes.
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The Hawaiian Gardens apartments burn in Ventura.
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Residents help with the fire attack on Buena Vista Street in Ventura.
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Residents watch the Thomas fire on Prospect Street in Ventura.
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Firefighters are deployed to battle the fire in a Ventura neighborhood.
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A chimney is all that stands of a home as a brush fire continues to threaten other homes in Ventura.
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Remnants of a home as a brush fire continues to threaten other homes in Ventura.
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A home burns on a hillside overlooking Ventura.
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Palms are consumed in the Thomas fire.
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Emma Jacobson, 19, center, gets a hug from a neighbor after her family home was destroyed by fire in Ventura.
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Olivia Jacobson, 16, wipes tears as she looks at her family’s home, destroyed by the brush fire on Island View Drive in Ventura.
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Aerial view of the Thomas fire in Ventura County.
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Noah Alarcon carries a cage with the family cat while evacuating from Casitas Springs.
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Smoke from the Thomas fire crosses over Lake Casitas near Ojai.
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A Ventura County firefighter battles a blaze on Cobblestone Drive near Foothill Road in Ventura.
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Ventura County Firefighter Aaron Cohen catches his breath after fighting to save homes along Cobblestone Drive near Foothill Road in Ventura.
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Aerial view of homes burned to the ground in the Thomas fire in Ventura County.
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A home between Via Baja and Foothill Road burns in Ventura.
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Amanda Leon and husband Johnny Leon watch as firefighters fight to save homes along Cobblestone Drive near Foothill Road in Ventura.
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Chino Valley firefighters fight to save a home along Cobblestone Drive near Foothill Road in Ventura.
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Embers continue to burn at sunset Tuesday in a home on Ridgecrest Court at Scenic Way in the Clearpoint neighborhood of Ventura.
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A firefighter battles the Thomas fire along Highway 33 in Casitas Springs.
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Firefighters try to protect homes from the Thomas fire along Highway 33 in Casitas Springs.
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A firefighter battles the Thomas fire along Highway 33 in Casitas Springs.
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Edward Aguilar runs through the flames of the Thomas Fire to save his cats at his mobile home along Highway 33 in Casitas Springs in Ventura County.
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Jeff Lipscomb, left, Gabriel Lipscomb, 17, center, and Rachel Lipscomb, 11, look for items to recover from their burned home in Ventura.
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A traffic collision temporarily clogged lanes on the northbound 101 Freeway between Solimar and Faria Beaches as the Thomas fire burned in the hills.
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The Thomas fire burns towards the 101 Freeway and homes between Solimar and Faria Beaches.
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Fire personnel keep an eye on the Thomas fire on Toland Road near Santa Paula.
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A train on the Rincon coast passes a burning hillside from the Thomas fire.
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The Thomas fire burns along the 101 Freeway north of Ventura on Wednesday evening.
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A firefighter battles the Thomas fire in the town of La Conchita early Thursday.
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A resident cries as the Thomas fire approaches the town of La Conchita early Thursday.
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Burned palm trees are left standing between the 101 Freeway and Faria Beach as the Thomas fire reaches the Pacific Ocean.
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Firefighters battle Thursday to protect the resort city of Ojai from encroaching flames.
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Casey Rodriquez helps a friend move belongings after the Thomas Fire destroyed most of an apartment building on North Kalarama in Ventura.
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A burnt-out bus near Maripoca Highway.
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The Thomas fire burns in the Los Padres National Forest, near Ojai.
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A huge plume of smoke rises north of Ventura as seen Sunday afternoon from the Ventura pier, as the Thomas fire threatens parts of Carpenteria and Montecito.
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The Thomas Fire burns in the Los Padres National Forest, near Ojai, Calif. on Friday.
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Residents react as they watch the Thomas Fire burn in the hills above La Conchita at 5 am Thursday moning.
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Mary McEwen and husband Dan Bellaart prepare to evacuate their home on Toro Canyon Road in Montecito as the Thomas fire burns.
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Carpenteria resident Chris Gayner, right, photographs a plane in the hills of Carpenteria.
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From left, residents Michael Desjardins, his neighbor Patty Rodriguez, daughter Mikayla, wife Veronica, mother in law Amanda Buzin, and son Mikey keep an eye on the Thomas fire in Carpenteria.
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Mary McEwen cheers as she sees fire crews make their way up a hill past her home on Toro Canyon Rd. in Montecito.
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Dan Bellaart and wife Mary McEwen comfort each other in the backyard of their home that includes an avocado ranch on 9 acres of land on Toro Canyon Road in Montecito, as the Thomas fire burns in the background.
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Carpinteria resident Jay Molnar, 55, mouth and nose protected against the smoke, views flames glowing in the hills above the city on Dec. 11, 2017.
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Sacramento firefighters battle a blaze in Toro Canyon in Carpenteria at dusk Tuesday.
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Josh Acosta, superintendent with Fulton Hotshots looks for ways to fight fire consuming a structure threatening two homes high up Toro Canyon in Carpenteria at dusk Tuesday.
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A motorcade passes on tHighway 126 carrying the body of a Cal Fire engineer Cory Iverson, who died Thursday morning while battling the Thomas Fire.
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Santa Paula City officials, Police and Firefighters salute from a bridge as a motorcade passes on the Santa Paula Freeway 126 carrying the body of a Cal Fire engineer Cory Iverson.
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Forest Service crews cut and clear dense brush for contingency lines off of East Camino Cielo in the Santa Ynez Mountains above Montecito and Santa Barbara to help stop the Thomas fire from advancing.
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A hotshot crew from Ojai marches towards their assignment to protect structures on East Mountain Drive in Montecito.
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Firefighters monitor the flames Saturday from a staging area near Parma Park in Montecito.
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Flames slowly make their way down a valley behind a home in Montecito.
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Flames whip around power lines as they move through Sycamore Canyon on Saturday, threatening structures in Montecito.
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Smoke billows over Santa Barbara as the Thomas Fire continues to threaten the area on Saturday.
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Bill Shubin, deputy fire chief of the Santa Rosa Fire Department checks on flames burning near homes north of East Mountain Drive in Montecito.
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A fire truck pulls responds to fires burning near homes on East Mountain Drive in Montecito.
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Brian Good, from US Forest Service, leans forward against the wind, and holds up a Kestrel to measure wind speeds up to 50 mph on Gibraltar Road in Montecito.
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A plume of smoke moves south as winds as high as 50 mph blow down Gibraltar Road on the west fork of Cold Spring Trail in Montecito.
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Flames and a big plume of smoke threaten homes on Gibraltar Road near Gibraltar Rock, outside Montecito.
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The sun rises as fire crews prepare for another day of fighting the Thomas Fire, in Montecito, Calif., on Sunday.
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An aircraft makes a water drop over a hot spot up in the mountain range at Gibraltar Rock near Montecito, Calif. on Sunday.
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Humboldt County firefighters Bobby Gray, left, hoses down smoldering flames inside a destroyed home, as Kellee Stoehr, right looks on, after the Thomas Fire burned in Montecito, Calif. on Sunday.
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A home on Park Hill Lane was destroyed by the Thomas fire in Montecito, Calif.
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Humboldt County firefighters Lonnie Risling, left, and Jimmy McHaffie, right, spray down smoldering fire underneath the rubble of a home that was destroyed by the Thomas Fire, in Montecito, Calif., Sunday.
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Fire crews help the Behrman family retrieve their family’s personal belongings out of their burned home, in Montecito, Calif., on Sunday.
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In the foreground of the ridges that were burned by the Thomas Fire, Rusty Smith stands outside his home that survived the flames that were kicked up by Saturday’s wind event and threatened his home in Flores Flats on Gibraltar Road, near Montecito.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) They and hundreds of other crews have assessed which are defensible and which are not and where their water supplies are, if they have one. Kern said he and his Montana crew saved two homes that began to burn Saturday morning off Ashley Lane.
“That right there was pretty good,” he said, streaks of ash and grit staining his skin and gear.
In Montana, the fires are more predictable, he said. It’s mostly tempered forest and grassland there.
Not so with these wealthy California beach enclaves. “The manzanita, the actual fuels, are really oily and volatile,” he said. “We’re trying to wrap our heads around just the fuels that we have here.”
