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Firefighters overwhelmed by raging Calif. wildfire

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-15 14:20

Among those worried about their homes was talk show host Winfrey. During a taping Friday morning, she said the fire was about two miles from her house. Homes of her friends and neighbors were destroyed.

A home burns in Santa Barbara, California November 14, 2008. A huge wildfire fanned by strong winds destroyed at least 70 multimillion-dollar homes in the celebrity enclave of Montecito, northwest of Los Angeles, officials said. [Agencies]

"It's not a good morning for us," she said. "Some of my friends left their homes with only their dogs last night as I was calling, 'Are you all right? Are you all right?' They said, 'We have the dogs and the kids aren't here, so we're OK.'"

Evacuee Tom Bain relived the hellish scene after fleeing his home in five minutes with his three cats, some work files and a computer. On the way out, he saw at least six mansions on the ridge above his home explode in flames.

"I saw $15 million in houses burn, without a doubt," said the 54-year-old electrician. "They were just blowing up. It was really, intensely hot."

About 200 people spent the night at an evacuation center at a high school in nearby Goleta, but rest was out of the question for Ed Naha, a 58-year-old writer who feared he lost his home in the hills above Santa Barbara.

"We are used to seeing smoke because we do have fires up here, but I've never seen that reddish, hellish glow that close," Naha said. "I was waiting for Dante and Virgil to show up."

Flames had licked at the home of Gwen Dandridge, 61, and her husband Joshua Schimel, 51, but it was still standing when they returned Friday morning, something the couple attributed to lots of weed-whacking to clear the brush around the home.

"We have a house! We have a house!" Dandridge shouted said as she first spied the home.

Montecito, a quiet community known for its balmy climate and charming Spanish colonial homes, has long attracted celebrities.

The landmark Montecito Inn was built in the 1920s by Charlie Chaplin, and the nearby San Ysidro Ranch was the honeymoon site of John F. Kennedy in 1953.

Montecito suffered a major fire in 1977, when more than 200 homes burned. A fire in 1964 burned about 67,000 acres and damaged 150 houses and buildings.

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