The holiday weekend saw Santa Barbara County firefighters putting out a blaze caused by fireworks on the Fourth and two fires along Highway 101.
Fireworks shows were canceled up and down the South Coast, but Santa Barbara resounded with booms and sky-lit sparkles from dusk onward on Saturday. One landed on a carport on Westmoreland Place in Goleta, not far from Cathedral Oaks and Carlo Drive, resulting in calls to the fire department around 9:50 p.m. An aggressive attack on the burning carport kept the fire in check, said Captain Daniel Bertucelli, and prevented it from spreading to the attached house and attic where it was headed.
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Earlier the evening of July 4, a single vehicle rolled over into the brush off the northbound 101, just west of Tajiguas on the Gaviota Coast. The brush was alight after the SUV caught fire around 6 p.m., and two engine companies, a truck crew, and a battalion chief responded. The driver was able to get out of the car, and Bertucelli reported the individual had minor injuries. Crews kept the fire to a half acre.
Highway traffic slowed and stopped for several hours on July 3 when a vegetation fire at Fairview Avenue jumped from the south to the north side at 3 p.m. Flames were first spotted in the trees along the southbound 101 at the Fairview on-ramp, County Fire spokesperson Mike Eliason reported, and embers then flew across the four-lane highway and began burning in the vegetation on the northbound side. The fire is under investigation and appears to have begun near homeless camps on the south side of the highway.
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