Santa Barbara: A Hellish Night Of Terror

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - It was unnervingly hot for early evening on the coast - still over 100 degrees - when a fire crew driving south on San Marcos Pass Road saw the smoke.

The crew wheeled off the highway at Painted Cave Road. A patch of grass was on fire in the clump of homes known as the San Marcos Trout Club, the firefighters reported. No more than half an acre was involved.

But five minutes later, their call was more frantic. Desertlike winds whipping over the ridge of the Santa Ynez Mountains had blown the flames into a canyon. The canyon pointed almost due south, toward several neighborhoods and finally the ocean.

Five miles down the canyon at the Santa Barbara County fire headquarters, Michael Bennett stepped outside. He and a co-worker began driving toward the smoke, but didn't get far.

``As we looked, and we're talking about three to five minutes from the first report, it was apparent to us that we had a major fire . . . that could be almost impossible to control,'' Bennett said.

From Wednesday evening to sunrise yesterday, the fire had burned down hundreds of homes. Dozens more were overrun by the wall of flames but spared. For thousands of people who found themselves in the fire's path, it will be remembered as a night of terror.

Wednesday, 6:20 p.m.: In the Trout Club area, a thick canopy of trees gave the fire all the fuel it needed. About a dozen homes, a mix of old and new but all high-priced, were consumed. But the most fearsome activity was in the San Antonio Creek gorge, a steep overgrown canyon. Fire Capt. Charlie Johnson said the brush there hadn't burned since 1955, so it was dense, and four years of no rain and the hot winds made stopping the advance impossible. The flames were sweeping down the canyon faster than the lone fire crew could drive.

6:30: The wall of intense heat hit the Park Highlands neighborhood. The fire quickly jumped from one tree-lined street to another as the houses with shingle-shake roofs erupted.

People ran screaming from their houses. Cars sped down the hilly streets, but Sally Kinney tried to stay calm. She drove out with her two dogs and a haphazard pile of possessions. When asked what she had taken, she said, ``I don't know. I just grabbed things.''

6:41: Fire units reported that the neighborhood was fully involved. Marian Burdick stood at the bottom of Via Los Santos Road, watching the homes burn. ``Have you heard whether they got my husband and son out?'' she asked. ``They were up there fighting the fire. Our house was on fire.''

7 p.m.: Gusts up to 60 miles an hour propelled the wall of fire downhill into neighborhoods north of Goleta. A Ventura County fire strike team pulled into the Tuckers Grove area with five pumper trucks to make a stand. By chance, they found a hydrant that still had water pressure. With water cannons blowing ahead of them, they managed to save about a dozen homes on Via Regina.

7:30: Gerry Hon, a 60-year-old retired truck driver, was watching a TV news report on fires elsewhere in the state when his mother smelled smoke.

While his mother and sister fled, Hon clambered up on the roof with a hose. ``I thought I had a chance. I thought I could save it,'' Hon said later. ``They wanted me to leave but I refused to.''

The flames burned his garage and came right up to the house. But he stayed on. ``There are a lifetime of mementos in there,'' he said. ``I just couldn't let them all go without a fight. . . .

``My T-shirt caught fire and I had to turn the hose on myself to put the fire out. I ended up slipping off the roof but I was OK so I climbed back on.''

7:45 p.m.: Residents along Modoc Road in Goleta saw the leaping flames jump U.S. 101, the busy freeway up the coast, and race toward their homes. The fire quickly engulfed the Philadelphia House restaurant, according to resident Kathy Guerin.

About this time, five emergency Red Cross relocation centers were opened and churches also opened shelters. A radio station broadcast the locations of all-night restaurants as possible havens.

9:30 p.m.: James Anderson, 40, was trying to return to his family in Goleta. He got only as far as Goleta State Beach, where the city had set up sleeping bags and food. He spent the night there.

At the First United Methodist Church in downtown Santa Barbara, seven boys - ages 10 and 11 - checked in. They had been hitting baseballs at a batting cage and couldn't get home. ``I'm just kind of confused. I'm really worried about my parents,'' Nicholas Purheiser, 10, said.

11 p.m.: The fire's march nearly to the sea was complete, but hot spots still swirled in the wind.

Capt. Robert Vatter of the Santa Barbara County fire department said: ``There were firestorms out there, flames jumping in tornado-type currents a half-mile into the air.''

Forty-four miles of U.S. 101 were closed because power lines were down on the road.

11:45: First reports of looting were broadcast on police radios.

3 a.m.: Winds finally calmed down, giving firefighters a rest.

Hon, the retired truck driver who had been wetting down his roof since 7:30, declared victory. The wall of flame had moved on. Most of his neighborhood was gone, but his house stood. He grabbed a small American flag he kept in the back yard.

``I felt I was out of danger,'' Hon said. ``I got the flag, climbed back on the roof and put it on top of the house. . . . I just felt the need to see something flying.''

6 a.m.: Victims begin driving back into the neighborhoods beneath San Antonio Creek canyon, hoping it wouldn't be as bad as they feared. But most found it was worse. Entire streets of homes were wiped out.

Margaret and Lawrence Lovig recalled that they had been cooking supper when their back yard went up in flames.

They stood in front of the remains on San Antonio Creek Road yesterday. Only the chimney, the patio and melted home appliances poked through the ashes.

Margaret Lovig said she told her husband: ``I don't believe in capital punishment, but I guess this morning I do,'' for the suspected arsonist who set the fire.

On the same road, Jack Novak and a friend combed through the embers of his parents' bedroom, fishing out melted jewelry.

Novak held up a nugget of ash, saying, ``The pearls exploded. Jesus . . .'' He looked at the charred canyon below. ``This place is going to be a disaster area for a long time. It's never going to be the same, man. It's never going to be the same.''

Today: Milder winds and temperatures gave firefighters the upper hand in the wildfire that so far has engulfed 524 homes and businesses in Santa Barbara County, and in blazes that burned more than 90 homes elsewhere in Southern California.

Two Californians died - a state prisoner serving as a firefighter and a Santa Barbara woman, 37, found near the wreckage of her home, authorities said.