Cooler weather and light winds on Saturday gave firefighters respite in their gruelling battle against a California wildfire that has forced 30,500 people to flee their homes.
A foggy layer of marine mist from the Pacific Ocean had drifted over the coastal town early Saturday after days of sizzling temperatures and powerful local gusts which sent the fire roaring out of control.
The fire, which has destroyed 80 homes, was 10 percent contained and had burned through some 8,600 acres (3,500 hectares), according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CALFIRE).
However fire officials expressed optimism Saturday that the break in the weather would allow them to make inroads into the blaze, which was now burning away from Santa Barbara and into mountain areas.
"The fire laid down last night and that was due to the weather," Santa Barbara County fire captain Dave Sadecki told NBC4 local television.
"Yesterday we had high temperatures, low humidity and extremely windy conditions; now we have decreased temperatures, increased humidity and we've got a layer of fog. That's all good for the firefight.
"Hopefully we can have a handle on it today and get those containment numbers up," he said.
An estimated 30,500 Santa Barbara residents are under mandatory evacuation orders, while on Friday officials said an additional 29,000 people had been told to prepare to evacuate.
Sadecki said although authorities wanted to get people back into their homes as quickly as possible, no unnecessary risks would be taken.
"We don't want people to return before it's safe," he said. "We want to restore Santa Barbara back to normal but we don't want to do it prematurely."
An army of around 3,455 firefighters has been deployed to tackle the fire, while on Friday three helicopters and a retardant-dropping DC-10 plane were bombarding the fire in a sustained aerial assault.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency to help release resources to fight the blaze.
Meanwhile, evacuees from the fire gathered Friday at emergency shelters set up by the Red Cross at a local high school and at a gymnasium on the University of California's Santa Barbara campus.
"I'm a Californian and I've known about fires and earthquakes my whole life," one evacuee, Bettina Johnson, told AFP. "You accept it as part of the price of living here.
"But when you see those flames up in the hills coming towards your home, it's still terrifying. I looked outside my home on Thursday, and the sky was blue and then all of a sudden it was just a brown cloud of ash."
California is frequently hit by scorching wildfires due to its dry climate, Santa Ana winds and recent housing booms that have seen home construction spread rapidly into rural and densely forested areas.
In 2007, California suffered devastation from wildfires among the worst in its history that left eight people dead, gutted 2,000 homes, displaced 640,000 people and caused one billion dollars in damage.
Last November, at least 100 homes were destroyed by a wildfire in the celebrity enclave of Montecito near Santa Barbara.
Source: AFP American Edition
