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California fire: Neighborhood looks like 'war zone,' resident says - CNN
www.cnn.com/2017/12/17/us/california-fires/index.html
4 hours ago - (CNN)Jeannette Frescas was not concerned about the Thomas Fire until the massive blaze reached her neighborhood in Ventura, California.
California fire: Resident says neighborhood looks like 'war zone' | fox8 ...
fox8.com/2017/12/.../california-fire-resident-says-neighborhood-looks-like-war-zone/
California fire: Resident says neighborhood looks like 'war zone'
Story highlights
- Thomas Fire is the third-largest wildfire in California history
- It has burned 269,000 acres and is still growing
(CNN)Jeannette
Frescas was not concerned about the Thomas Fire until the massive blaze
reached her neighborhood in Ventura, California.
"At midnight, I woke up with a flashlight in my face," Frescas told CNN affiliate KEYT. "I looked out my window and there were flames that were like, a hundred feet, all around us."
Like
many residents, Frescas was caught off guard by the fire that has
roared across Southern California for 13 days. She's one of tens of
thousands of residents who piled into cars and fled as ferocious winds
drove the third-largest blaze in modern state history through Ventura
and Santa Barbara counties.
"What
was once a paradise was like a war zone," Frescas said of her apartment
complex, which was destroyed by the blaze. "It's the scariest thing
I've been through in my entire life."
Ventura
resident Patricia Rye woke up to her son-in-law pounding on her door.
She didn't get a chance to pack any valuables, and fled her home of 17
years in the dead of the night.
"I
didn't have time to take anything," Rye told the affiliate. "My
wallet, or any of my personal things. I literally left with the clothes
on my back. If I had been thinking I would have got into my car, but I
wasn't thinking so my car was there."
Thousands of Santa Barbara
residents threatened by the blaze are under mandatory and voluntary
evacuations while others like Frescas were allowed back in their homes
or what was left of them.
The fire
is so massive that more than 8,400 firefighters are working around the
clock to save lives and contain it. It's bigger in acreage than New York
City, and has turned neighborhoods to piles of soot and concrete as it
churns through the area.
Latest developments
• Cause of death: Firefighter
Cory David Iverson, 32, died of "thermal injuries and smoke
inhalation," according to autopsy results from the Ventura County
medical examiner's office. A funeral procession was underway Sunday for
Iverson, who lost his life battling the Thomas Fire on Thursday. A
total of two people have been killed since the fire started.
• Hefty price tag: About $110 million has been spent fighting the massive blaze, fire officials said. It was 40% contained Saturday night.
• Improving weather conditions: Santa
Ana winds did not immediately materialize on Sunday morning, though
firefighters had been expecting the worst. Red-flag warnings were in
effect for a large swath of Southern California through late Sunday,
with wind gusts of up to 55 mph expected overnight, according to CNN
meteorologist Gene Norman.
• In the record books: The
Thomas Fire, which grew by 1,500 acres overnight, has charred 269,000
acres and is 40% contained. It is now the third-largest wildfire in
modern California history and the seventh-most destructive in structure
loss.
Evacuations
Twelve
thousand people were evacuated in Santa Barbara County, with animals at
the local zoo threatened as well. Santa Barbara Zoo closed Saturday and
many animals were placed into cages in case of possible evacuations,
zoo officials said.
Only the endangered
California condors and griffon vultures were taken to the Los Angeles
Zoo, according to officials. The zoo had kept most animals indoors, away
from smoke.
Oprah Winfrey, who has a home in Montecito, one of the areas under evacuation orders, tweeted about the fire Saturday.
"Still
praying for our little town," she said. "Winds picked up this morning
creating a perfect storm of bad for firefighters," she said.
Meanwhile, residents who had
evacuated their homes in Ventura County -- where the fire began -- were
allowed to return Saturday.
Jim Holden considers himself lucky that firefighters saved his home and items.
"They
put a water screen between my house and the house next door that was
burning in an attempt to save it, but they didn't think they were going
to be successful," he told CNN affiliate KABC. "They broke in and they saved my family photos and my computer, and things that they thought would be important to me."
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