I’m a high school student applying to colleges, and my top choice is UCSB. The main thing that I am concerned about are the wildfires. I’ve seen reports of blackouts and evacuations in the Santa Barbara area, but I couldn’t find any definite answer as to whether or not I wouldn’t have my school burn down in the middle of my education. I really want to go to UCSB, I just need to know whether or not I’ll be safe. I’m not even the type to freak out over small things, I wouldn’t even have made this thread unless I thought this was a serious danger, since they are now predicting that the fires are supposed to get worse. Is it protected from the fires or should I opt for a different school?
@ScubaBoiBz - there is no place in the Golden State that is entirely safe from wildfire, especially over the period of time that covers a college education. SB is not in a high-risk area but we do get fires in low-risk areas as the fires are frequently started by morons and then get out of control. SB is an affluent area so fire protection is good but look what just happened in Malibu, sigh. After the wildfires there’s a large risk of mudslides in the burn areas. There’s also a constant ongoing risk of earthquakes throughout California. The good news is we never get blizzards and aren’t subject to annual hurricanes. I am sure there are places to go to school with fewer natural disasters than the state of CA (AZ is good) but if you are already in-state you are definitely no more at risk at UCSB than anywhere else here.
The fires usually start in the wildland/urban interface. Those are undeveloped areas of oak trees or chaparral or taller trees. The homes on the edge of that interface are the most vulnerable. The more developed land there is between a particular location and the wildland/urban interface, the less likely that location will need to evacuate. If you look at UCSB on google maps, you will see a fair amount of developed land between the interface and UCSB, thus it is easily able to be defended from fire. Even more so than Pepperdine University which sheltered in place during the Woolsey Fire and officials believed was not vulnerable to actually burning. That said, no one can promise you that the university won’t ever be evacuated or that there won’t be power outages from fires or earthquakes. Also, smoke from wildfires creates horrible air quality. Both UC Davis and UC Berkeley closed for several days this month because of smoke from the Camp Fire, which was many miles away. But I wouldn’t cross UCSB off your list for that reason unless you are prepared to eliminate any university that could potentially flood or be subject to severe weather or hit by tornadoes or any other natural disaster.
There have been destructive fires in the past that forced evacuations near UCSB and there is no reason to think it won’t happen again. That is simply the reality of life in much of California. To rule out a school because of the possiblity of fires is silly, IMO. It’s like ruling out going to school in Wisconsin due to the possibility of extreme snowfalls.
UCSB was an evacuation site for the big Ventura fire that reached into Montecito and SB last year, so it should be plenty safe. However, the air quality during those fires was terrible and finals postponed because of that last Dec. Frankly, I wouldn’t factor any of that into a decision on whether to go to UCSB or not.
Thanks for the replies, all were helpful. Sending my application in soon.