Where were you when the Painted Cave Fire came roaring down the mountain on June 27, 1990. I was in St. Paul, Minnesota on vacation having lunch with my sister Valerie and her co-workers the day after the fire, when I saw the newspaper rack outside on the street. I could not believe my eyes. The headlines read Wildfire destroys hundreds on homes in Santa Barbara! When I returned from my trip, our house was covered in ashes, my brother described the apocalyptic type experience they went through. Phone service was out that day due to the fire, so they could not call me. That fire burned over 5,000 acres, destroyed 427 homes and 11 public buildings and killed a 37-year-old woman trapped by flames. If the winds would not have died down that day, only the Pacific Ocean could have stopped it after burning through Hope Ranch, Hidden Valley, the Mesa etc. In December, 2000, Leonard Ross was ordered to pay $2.75 million in damages for starting the fire, a pathetic amount considering the damage, costs of fighting the fire, and a human life! On November 9, 2002 a state appeals court upheld the civil jurys finding. Ross started the fire to burn out a neighbor in the back country above Santa Barbara, and used the insurance settlement from that fire to pay for his 40-acre property at the end of a nasty dirt road near San Marcos Pass. Unfortunately authorities were unable to gather enough evidence to file criminal charges against him, namely criminally negligent homicide aka involuntary manslaughter. That fire occurred during a long drought that made the brush very dry, so people should be very diligent given the current drought situation. Keep brush cleared and cut away from homes, regardless of the time of year!
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 05:02:33 +0000
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