Tag archives: Thomas Fire

At this month’s Montecito Association Board Meeting, the board heard from Jon Frye of Santa Barbara County Flood Control, who gave a photographic update on the Randall Road Debris Basin, which began construction in May.  Following the Thomas Fire and 1/9 Debris Flow in 2018, the debris basin project was proposed along Randall Road in […]

After a long 18 months of attempting to execute a follow-up event to its widely successful Kick Ash Bash following the Thomas Fire and 1/9 Debris Flow, local nonprofit One805 has announced a smaller scale donor appreciation event, slated for September 18. The special event, which is limited to 350 people, will be held at […]

Ready to rock ‘n’ roll for a good cause? Join The Santa Barbara Firefighters Alliance and One805, the local nonprofit that brought us the 2018 Kick Ash Bash, for a donor appreciation event to support our First Responders currently on the frontlines of California’s wildfires. Special guests include Robby Krieger of The Doors and top […]

Fire season across the West is off and running, already setting records and causing people to put their evacuation plans into action as flames threaten their homes. With your help, it’s a reality we are optimistic we can prevent in Montecito. Yet, we all must stay on guard for the possibility of wildfire in our […]

I came to the Montecito Association in September of 2018, brought over from the Coast Village Association by then-president Charlene Nagel. The Montecito community was hard hit by the first giga-fire in California – Thomas — and resultant Debris Flow. I had disaster recovery experience, from finding my missing parents in the aftermath of Hurricane […]

Am I the only one noticing the dangerous speeds that e-bikes and riders who push them to their limits pose to drivers and themselves in and around Montecito? They seem to zip around as fast as motorcycles, yet no special license is required. It’s great that more people are getting outdoors and traveling farther afield […]

For a relatively large and well-established nonprofit organization in our community, United Way of Santa Barbara County over the last few years has demonstrated the ability to respond quickly to current circumstances — not so much as an about face or even a course correction, but more of an adapting to changing needs to meet […]

La Casa de Maria has stayed dormant since the Montecito Debris Flow. The organization has chosen to learn more about the land before redeveloping. More than three years later, it has a plan and a potential reopening date. Cindy Faith Swain peeks through a chain-linked fence that was once completely unnecessary, as separation from San Ysidro […]

On Monday, government officials, staff, contractors, and community partners broke ground at the future site of the Randall Road Debris Basin; a project outlined at length two weeks ago in the Montecito Journal.  “It’s amazing we’ve gotten to this point,” said County Public Works Deputy Director Tom Fayram. “A project like this can often take […]

Excavation of a new debris basin along Randall Road and San Ysidro Creek in Montecito will begin in early May, officials said this week, more than three years after a river of mud and boulders jumped the banks on January 9, 2018, destroying six out of seven homes in the 600 block of Randall Road […]

I’m sure anyone who lived here in 2018 feels a wave of relief as they drive by the soon-to-be active construction site at East Valley Road and Randall Road – where a (once) tranquil neighborhood is about to be transformed into a debris basin. It’s also bittersweet because many of us knew Randall Road residents […]

Late last week customers at Read ‘N Post were surprised to learn that the Montecito retail landmark, located in Montecito Country Mart, shared plans to close at the end of April. In business in Montecito for nearly 40 years, Read ‘N Post is a favorite among locals who go to peruse the extensive collection of […]

Everybody in town likely knows about One805. Sure, they’re the organization who three years ago created the “Kick Ash Bash,” mounting the massive benefit concert as a way of thanking both the firefighters whose brave stand against the Thomas Fire in December 2017 saved untold homes in Montecito, as well as honoring the already weary […]

I’ve lived in Montecito – in the same house – for over 35 years and find it necessary to point out to folks just moving here that while we live in a beautiful place, ensconced as we are between the 4,000-ft Figueroa Mountains and the deep blue Pacific Ocean, it isn’t perfect. Add a near-ideal […]

As our community approaches the third anniversary of the 1/9 Thomas Fire Debris Flow, we find ourselves in the third consecutive disaster we’ve faced as a community, and this time it’s a global pandemic. This Saturday, we’d love to gather everyone, come together as a community, and remember those we lost in the early morning […]

Also at MPC last week, County planner Joe Dargel gave an update on the rebuilding following the Thomas Fire and 1/9 debris flow, nearly two years after the debris flow damaged or destroyed 631 structures in Montecito, and took the lives of 23 members of our community.  When the County first took stock of the […]

Also happening at MFPD, Montecito Fire Division Chief of Operations, Alan Widling, is set to retire on December 30. The #2 in command at MFPD, Chief Widling has worked the last 31 years of his life in the service of others.  Widling was hired as a full-time firefighter by the Montecito Fire Department in September […]

This Thursday, December 17, the Montecito Fire Department, in partnership with the Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management (OEM), the Carpinteria Summerland Fire Protection District, and First District Supervisor Das Williams will host a virtual community meeting to provide winter preparedness information and to publicly release the updated Interactive Storm Impact Consideration Risk Map. […]

In a unanimous vote last week, the Montecito Planning Commission extended the permits for several Swiss-built flexible steel debris nets that were installed above town after the tragic mudslides that occurred in the wake of the Thomas Fire nearly three years ago. Thanks to a multi-million-dollar fundraising effort by The Partnership for Resilient Communities (TPRC), […]

What Makes Montecito Stand Out for You? Montecito Union School was a great fit for our son during his elementary years, and Coast Village Road and the Upper Village have been quaint yet perfectly suited to our lifestyle and needs. But there was some bad to come before it got better. There were fires, then […]