Residents have clambered into their cars and fled burning downtown Santa Barbara into "a ghost town" as surging winds drove one of the biggest fires in California's history toward the city and the nearby wealthy enclave of Montecito.
The mandatory evacuations around Montecito and neighbouring Summerland came as winds that had eased a day earlier roared back at around 30mph, with gusts to about 60mph.
Firefighters sprayed water on to hot spots sparked by wind-blown embers. Firefighters also drove to the historic San Ysidro Ranch in yellow fire trucks as heavy smoke rose from the coastal hills, blotting out the blue skies.
The 404-square-mile Thomas Fire was moving rapidly westward and crested Montecito Peak, just north of Montecito.
Known for its star power, the enclave boasts the mansions of Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres and many other celebrities.
A portion of Santa Barbara was under mandatory evacuation. At the city's zoo, workers began putting some animals into crates and kennels, to ready them for possible evacuation.
Downtown, Maya Schoop-Rutten, owner of Chocolate Maya, said she saw through the window of her chocolate shop smoke suddenly appear after strong winds blew through.
"It was absolutely incredible," she said. "There was a huge mushroom of smoke that happened in just a matter of a few minutes."
Restaurants and small stores on normally bustling State Street were shuttered.
"It's a ghost town. Everything is shut down," Ms Schoop-Rutten said. "It's very, very eerie."
The 404-square-mile Thomas Fire was moving rapidly westward and crested Montecito Peak, just north of Montecito. Known for its star power, the enclave boasts the mansions of Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Patrick Stewart and many other celebrities.
"It is right above the homes," fire spokesman Jude Olivas said.
Winfrey expressed her dismay on her Twitter account.
"Still praying for our little town. Winds picked up this morning creating a perfect storm of bad for firefighters," Winfrey tweeted. It was not clear if the former talk show host was in Montecito.
Pierre Henry, owner of the Bree'osh Bakery in Montecito, said he got a text to evacuate on Saturday morning as the fire approached homes.
"The worst was the smoke," Mr Henry said. "You couldn't breathe at all and it became worse when the wind started. All the ashes and the dust on the street were in the air. It was very, very frightening."
The morning passed with no homes damaged or destroyed as firefighters dealt with "extreme and erratic" fire behavior, Mr Olivas said.
There was a spot of good news down the coast. Emergency officials announced that the same fire that was burning about 25 miles south-east of Montecito was 40 per cent contained. Evacuation orders for the city of Ventura were lifted.
As the northerly "sundowner" wind was driving the fire south and west, firefighters could only hope it would calm back down.
"When the sundowners surface in that area and the fire starts running down slopes, you are not going to stop it," Mark Brown, of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told a news conference. "And we are not going to stand in front of it and put firefighters in untenable situations."
Mr Olivas said 400 fire engines were sent to protect homes in the area. The fire is now the third-largest in California history. It has burned more than 700 homes and killed a state firefighter.
Cory Iverson, 32, died Thursday from burns and smoke inhalation, according to autopsy results announced on Saturday.
Since the fire began on December 4, about 95,000 people have been placed under mandatory evacuation. The evacuation zone near Santa Barbara on Saturday was 17 miles long and up to five miles wide and the new expansion encompassed about 3,300 people.
The fire is the third-largest in California history. It has burned more than 700 homes and killed a state firefighter.
Cory Iverson, 32, died on Thursday from burns and smoke inhalation, according to post-mortem results announced by Ventura County medical examiner's office. Details of his death were not released.
Cory Iverson, 32, died yesterday from burns and smoke inhalation, according to post-mortem results announced by Ventura County medical examiner's office. Details of his death were not released.
Since the fire began on December 4, about 95,000 people have been placed under mandatory evacuation.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here