Zaca Fire heading towards Santa Barbara

I live in Santa Barbara (in the foothills of the Santa Ynez mountains) and the Zaca Fire is starting to get dangerously close to burning our community. Just my luck. We've had to pack emergency bags, food, dog supplies and important documents and get ready to evacuate. Just north of us they have already begun evacuations. Paradise Road and San Marcos Pass Road (Hwy 154) remain closed.

I grew up on the East Coast so this is the first major forest fire I've encountered. I went up the pass today to take photos but was turned back by firefighters. The smoke is now hanging over northern Santa Barbara. As I write this, I'm breathing in smoke from our open windows. Kinda gives you a headache after a while. Now I know what it's like to live in a tipi.

For a month this fire has been dropping ash onto us. Every morning my truck is blanketed in ash, as is the house. Luckily, it's ash, not flying embers. 70,000 acres of Los Padres National Forest has burned. The historic cabins are charcoal. We're hoping it won't cross Camino Cielo. If it does, we've been told to evacuate. I've been here for eight months and now there's a real possibility we could lose our home.

At times, the smoke gets so dense it hides our view of Cathedral Peak, a 4,000 foot peak in the Santa Ynez range. Even worse, there's only one road out of our community. This whole experience has been surreal.

Governor Schwarzenegger aka 'The Governator' has declared the fire a state emergency so there are tons of brave firefighting crews battling the blaze. I keep seeing DC10's and choppers flying overhead, dropping ten tons of fire retardant. The elderly people in my community are getting nervous. 600 homes are already threatened. Today we had westerly winds so it blew the fire east rather than south.

It has been the worst drought for 100 years here in Santa Barbara County. It rained once in February and that was more of a brief sprinkle - it hasn't rained since. There's no chance of rain.

Santa Barbara Independent photographer Ray Ford should get a Pulitzer for his photos of the fire.

Here's the latest Google map of the fire