An air tanker drops fire retardant close to homes along a West Camino Cielo Road community in Goleta on Friday afternoon.
Sean McGaughey cheers as an air tanker drops fire retardant near his home on West Camino Cielo Road on Friday afternoon.
A firefighter is dwarfed by smoke from fire burning along West Camino Cielo Road in Goleta on Friday afternoon.
An air tanker makes a drop of fire retardant on the Gap fire that is advancing south toward Goleta.
Complete gallery:
Gap fire - Los Angeles Times
Also, the Santa Barbara Indepdendent has some great fire coverage and photos here:
The Santa Barbara Independent Update From Friday Afternoon Gap Fire Press Conference
Last two nights were a little hectic as it looked like we were going to be evacuated (in fact if we lived less than a mile inland we would have been). Ironic thing is, the evacuation shelter is literally across the street
But, if the order comes, we're ready: The girlfriend (she's hot), the dog, the guns, the clothes, and the food.
Everyone's a little on edge because though the Gap fire's pretty small as far as wildfires go (last year the Zaca fire burned more than 240,000 acres over 7 weeks, whereas this one's at 6400) it's much closer to densely-populated areas.
The 1990 Painted Cave fire went from the Santa Ynez mountains to the ocean in 40 minutes. I think people's memories of that have them a little nervous too.
Supposedly the fire started at a rock formation known as Lizard's Mouth. Some idiot teenagers set a phone book on fire, freaked, and threw it into some bushes. Dumbasses
Fire is incredible. Last few nights I've been going over to a parking structure on the UCSB campus which is probably ~5 miles from the nearest fires, and you can distinctly see huge walls of flames snaking through the air. Some must be at least 100 feet high.
Both of our shooting ranges have been burned down, but so far no homes have been lost and by far the most important, no lives have been lost either. The firefighters have been incredible. I've been considering going into reserve LE, but this really makes me want to go into volunteer firefighting instead.