The inferno that won't die: How the Thomas fire became a monster

LAT ^ | 12-11-17 | Brittny Mejia, Alene Tchekmedyian, Ruben Vives and Joseph SernaContact Reporters

[G Larry]

On Friday, an army of firefighters in Ventura County hoped it was finally beginning to turn the tide on the Thomas fire.

After burning hundreds of homes, the fire was slowing as Santa Ana winds calmed down.

But over the weekend, the fire reemerged with a vengeance, pushing into Santa Barbara County and destroying more homes.

Here’s a look at the fire that has refused to die.

[G Larry]

"The last time some of the slopes and canyons burned in the mountains east of Santa Barbara was in the 1970s, when four firefighters operating bulldozers died in a rollover accident."

More SLOPPY LAT reporting. Lompoc Record >http://lompocrecord.com/news/local/honda-canyon-fire-recalled/article_239c13c6-2c79-58b6-9d67-4e711baa01ac.html< Dec. 1977, VAFB, CA Honda Canyon Fire "...killing Base Commander Col. Joseph Turner, Vandenberg Fire Chief Billy Bell and Assistant Fire Chief Eugene Cooper, and badly burning bulldozer operator Clarence McCauley, who died later."

The first 3 had been observing the fire, and ran from their car as flames approached.

I was there working a launch cycle on SLC-4E the morning it started.

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[Bubba_Leroy]

It’s Trump’s fault. Trump and those damned SUVs.

Womyn and minorities will be hardest hit.

[pfflier]

I had just PCS’d to VAFB from Malmstrom AFB. I reported in to the 394th and was immediately assigned to lead a detail of 40 to assist CDF firecrews in cleanup. We roamed the hills behind SLC 4 dousing hotspots.

[SkyDancer]

Not sure but wasn’t there an effort some time ago to clear out that underbrush and some environmentalists got into a snit and got the effort stopped?

[G Larry]

Ha!

I had been in the 394th from 72-74.
Mk 12 Re-entry Systems, Nuke Weapons.
(Was 51st MMS in 72)

Hired on w Martin Marietta as Electronics Tech in Jan. 76.

[cymbeline]

Seems like these forests which have buildings intertwined within them are catastrophes waiting to happen.

[Pollard]

How the Thomas fire became a monster?

dry+fire+wind

Case solved

[SkyDancer]

I have friends in Lompoc, CA and they’re experiencing ash and smoke already. Lompoc is about forty-five miles north of Santa Barbara.

[Jeff Chandler]

Womyn and minorities will be hardest hit.

Marginalized lesbians of color?

[Jeff Chandler]

I had a cousin who lived in Lompoc. Actually, he was IN Lompoc.

[Celtic Conservative]

I thought the insane environmental laws that don’t allow property owners and others to remove deadfall, scrub and overgrown vegetation might have something to do with it.

CC

[SkyDancer]

Well these folks I know have a forty acre ranch where they raise cattle for ranchers. They sell the calves off when they’re about four months old.

[Pajamajan]

Bookmark

[pfflier]

I was still in Montana at that time. My 394th time was 1977 -1980. Col Payne was our CO. SMSgt Helmick was our Maint Superintendent. I worked in the EMT shop.

I got out and went to work with Martin Marietta on the M-X program until we left Lompoc.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks G Larry. A friend I've not seen in years posted vids on his Facebook from where they're staying (they had to be evac'd) and they pointed out that from their distance, it looks like a volcano crater.

[OldMissileer]

I had been in the 394th from 72-74.
Mk 12 Re-entry Systems, Nuke Weapons.
(Was 51st MMS in 72)

I was in the Deuce system at Grands Forks and Launched a Minuteman III with a Mk-12A out of there in February 1987.

I later ended up being on the team responsible for the W-62 and W-78 when I was stationed with the DoD and DoE.

[surrey]

My daughter and her family live in Ojai. They have been gypsies for over a week after evacuating a week ago.