Santa Barbara Burning

movie an idyllic garden photograph we ’ve seen a hundred times : An onetime garden bench half - obscured by rambling genus Nasturtium , paint flaking from the bench ’s ironic wood onto the mossy ground below .

Now imagine discovering that the blanched flakes – some the size of a small fry ’s hand – aren’t pigment bit . They are ashes , delivered by Santa Barbara ’s blistering , ironic winds scream down from last week ’s Jesusita the pits .

As a Santa Barbara city employee , I get force in to influence logistics whenever there ’s a major exigency . At 8 a.m. last Friday , I had returned home from a graveyard shift at the operations center . My car , driveway , porch and plants were covered with a thick , bitter layer of ash . Inside my house , brown guts infiltrated upholstery , counter tops , floor , even toothbrush .

“ I ’ll just sweep the front porch and keep this dirt from track in on our shoes , ” I thought .

The next affair I knew , I was halfway down the driveway , cross as gently as I could , coaxing the pile into plantation owner beds . There was no way I was going to start hose down the pavement . body of water was postulate to fight the fire , which had use up 75 place and caused the evacuation of one - third of the community .

As I swept , a wet bandana over my smudged aspect , a thought came to me : The white flakes I was cursing were the remains of not only the rugged bush that was fueling the blaze , but probably the walls , furniture , and possessions of kin whose home were now smoldering memories .

Now it ’s Tuesday , a week after the Jesusita fervour erupted . A few statistic :

– 3,000 parking brake personnel are still put to work the fire

– 28 firefighters have been wound

– An estimated $ 12.2 million dollars have been drop to protect life and property

Statistics help oneself to measure some aspects of the fire , but how do we soak up and treat the wrenching , life changing essence ?

If you ’re interested in instruct about creating a safe landscape around your family , click through to the next installment of this blog post . You’ll learn how to create specific zones of planting that assist take the vim out of an approaching fire . I ’ve also add a few links for more elaborate information .

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