<p>Westmont College is being evucuated due to fire. It is not a school you hear much about on CC but there might be some families who have friends or family attending.
Westmont is a small Christian school located in Montecito Ca (Santa Barbara)
Also I think there might be a few CC families living in the fire area. Hope everyone is safe.</p>
<p>The students are in the gym which is cinder block and should be fire proof. They have food and water available for two nights. This according to the local news. Fire is burning on parts of the campus and surrounding area.</p>
<p>Scary. The Santa Anas are back. I hope they get this fire under control tonight.</p>
<p>I saw this on the news and wondered why they didn't evacuate those kids! Sitting in a building in the middle of a massive fire would not be my first choice. My sister and her family were evacuated from their Montecito home...this looks bad.</p>
<p>My cousin and his family were evacuated and they have no idea if their home is still there or not.</p>
<p>How awful.</p>
<p>I hope everyone is okay. Praying for everyone being effected (affected?).</p>
<p>Westmont Update: All students have been accounted for and are safe. However, they have lost their physics building, a dorm and some other buildings.</p>
<p>Over 100 homes have been lost and there are 12 injuries.</p>
<p>My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone up there.</p>
<p>What we are hearing locally is that they did not evacuate because there wasn't time. You cannot imagine how quickly these fires move unless you have seen it with your own eyes.
Thankfully everyone is safe. Lots of buildings lost and lots more in danger still.</p>
<p>Update via Westmont website-
14 faculty homes lost, 9 structures including some dorms. 40-50 students have lost their housing. There were 140 prospective students on campus for classes and a dorm overnight. They were sheltered with the other students.
The students and faculty were sheltered in place at the advice of the fire dept in a fire safe building. They felt this was safer then having them out on the roadways. All the students have now been moved out into the community until the campus is safe to return.
Hope tonight is a calmer night.
In the community a minimum 100 of homes lost.</p>
<p>Are you in SB mom60?</p>
<p>Yes, on the other side of town. We have lots of friends and my children have many classmates who live in the fire area. We are keeping our fingers crossed. School was closed today for my D.
Just found out that a good friend of my son lost his home. The father, sons and a few friends tried to fight off the fire and save their home but it was not enough.
Has anyone heard from SBMom today?</p>
<p>I live in Goleta, North or SB. In July we had a big fire "The Gap" fire. I know what evacuation can feel like. So scary. My heart goes out to everyone in Monticito who is going through that. Friends of ours who are on the faculty at Westmont have lost their home. Others are on alert for evacuation. Last night I took in 4 rabbits from one evacuee. I'm a volunteer with a local rabbit rescue group. Many Westmont students are from the local communty and have gone home to their families until further notice.</p>
<p>We live just south of SB and heard on the local news tonight that the college implemented an emergency plan that had been approved several years ago by the fire department. The gym is fire proof because it's cinder block and away from foliage that would burn. The fire department said it would be much safer for students and staff not to try to evacuate during a fire and to just wait it out. They did, and it worked.</p>
<p>My sister and her family's home is OK for now. They know this because the media keeps reporting that Oprah's home is OK, and they're close by. My heart is with all of you in and near SB, it's heartbreaking to imagine that beautiful community torn up.</p>
<p>Just heard from another friend who lost their home. Not all the homes lost were mansions and not all the homeowners wealthy.</p>
<p>whoa. I hadn't read this thread because I thought it was someone looking for info about Westmont College. Thanks for the updates. </p>
<p>Um, please consider this a polite request to put "campus fire" in the thread title if there are any similar postings for other colleges.</p>
<p>These losses are so sad.</p>
<p>Even sadder because they are so preventable. </p>
<p>I lived in SB in the 1970s when they had the first of a series of major fires. In the analysis after the first two back then (where hundreds of homes were lost in each), it became clear that using fireproof roof materials, proper brush control and proper foundation landscaping could prevent most fires.</p>
<p>So why do the losses continue? Because folks don't like the look? Don't know. Maybe some of the current SB residents can comment.</p>
<p>A student from my son's hs was attending the prospective student overnite program when the fire hit the campus and he was quickly moved into the gym. He reported feeling like everyone would suffocate in the building, but realized there was no better option. Our local paper put him and his comments on the front page this morning. Turns out a neighborhood kid (I never met her or the family) is a jr at Westmont and was in class when the orders came to move fast to the gym. She said there were 1,400 people in that building. She said good things about the staff and firefighter's response to this disaster, and found it wise that they choose to send home those with cars, shelter those left behind, and then defend dorms and classrooms over the facility housing. Without the planning and immediate efforts it would have been much worse.
Her parents scooped her up this morning to bring her home until the school re-opens.</p>
<p>Homes are now built around here with fireproof roofing, inside automatic sprinkler systems and most are built with little or no exterior wood while brush and dry grass is to be cleared back 100' before a permit to occupy is issued. A friend has a 2,400 sq. ft house under construction up a narrow road in a dry canyon here and despite the metal roof, all stucco exterior and auto sprinklers the best quote for fire insurance so far is just under 5K per year.</p>
<p>Several wildfires around here last summer had the the CDF visiting rural homes and evaluating the "defendability". Homeowners were told if you don't clear the brush, when the fire moves through they will choose other homes to defend... People were chopping and hacking for weeks. </p>
<p>I've seen homes burned from the inside out because a hot wind stoked grassfire approaching a house causes a tremendous heat buildup in seconds under the overhanging eaves, hot enough for the curtains or shutters INSIDE of the windows burst into flames, then spreads to interior ceiling, walls and furnishings in minutes. </p>
<p>Soon, I hope, winter rains will come and the focus will shift to mudslides... Ahhh California.</p>
<p>I think the local community has made huge strides in making their homes and neighborhoods safer in event of a fire. Many homes were lost but it many more homes were saved due to efforts by homeowners and fire officials. Some of the homes lost this time were not in areas that are especially rural or narrow canyons. Also there was no loss of life and few injuries.
One of the houses I know of had done all that they could. The house was built with fire in mind. They had on hand tools to fight fire. They had brush around the property cleared.
Many of the areas burned had not burned in years. Many yrs of brush buildup and drought conditions plus the wind made for ideal fire conditions.
I live closer to the ocean but our area could still burn. Our house has a fire free shingle roof, fire sprinklers. We clear all the brush around our home. The fire dept each yr patrols the area reminding homeowners to cut back weeds and brush from their property. We do have some trees above our property that could catch on fire but we have trimmed them to make them safer.
When homes are rebuilt they will have to rebuild with fire in mind. There will always be the argument as to whether people should be able to rebuild in certain areas.</p>
<p>I went into Google Earth to look at the college. Google Earth has a label on Westmont College Evacuated over a square building which I assume is the gym. Looks like a sprawling campus with a lot of trees.</p>
<p>A friend of mine just posted about his experience in the LA area driving about 90 miles. He said that it looked like an atomic bomb had gone off 30 miles from where he was - he saw a mushroom cloud over Yorba Linda or thereabouts. He said that a lot of highways were closed making for a lot of traffic and that he had burning eyes driving through the haze (he was on a motorcycle).</p>