If you’re planning a trip to the Central Coast within the next week or so, be aware that the greater Santa Barbara area is on fire right now. Now just isn’t the right time for a vacation here, even though the downtown areas, beaches, and historic sites have not yet been hit. More than 30,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in the region, many coming down toward the safer coastal area.
California has been dealing with an upsurge in wildfires for the last couple of years. In 2008, massive fires scorched thousand of acres east of San Diego in the late spring. Then a freak fall lightning storm (I was at Natural Bridges that day—it was weird) touched off a blaze in Big Sur that destroyed forest hiking trails and trailed fiery fingers down onto the property of two of my favorite resort/spas—the Ventana and the Esalen Institute. Happily, both remain open to guests and are working on restoring damaged structures.
The upshot of all this: we all need to take care with your campfires and cigarettes when you’re out in the California wilderness. One of the reasons we’re called the Golden State is that most all of our wild grasses turn “golden” by May each spring, and by September they’ll start burning at the merest hint of a spark. So please join me in using in-car ashtrays to butt out your smokes (of all types and colors) and rigorously following all fire regulations when camping or picnicking in the woods and parks.
I’ll post back here with updates on travel to the Santa Barbara region as they come up.
City Of Santa Barbara Fire Department Home Page
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