••• “Firefighters reached 40% containment on a 20-acre vegetation fire that burned up TV Hill and threatened structures in Santa Barbara’s Lower Westside and Mesa neighborhoods Thursday night. Forward progress was stopped on the fire around midnight, and evacuation orders for the area were scheduled to end at 12:30 a.m.” Photo by Mike Eliason of the Santa Barbara Fire Department. —Noozhawk Update from SBFD: “Revised acreage has been changed to under 10 acres. Two homes were damaged, none destroyed. No injuries reported. Cause under investigation.” Another SBFD update: “Around midnight, City Fire Investigators noticed a suspicious subject scrambling down the lower portion of the hill and hiding in the brush between Loma Alta Drive and West Ortega Street. Investigators detained the suspect and called for immediate Police back-up. Officers, Detectives, and Fire Investigators detained Victor Hernandez (23 years old), a Santa Barbara resident. Hernandez has been a suspect in other recent arson cases within the city. Hernandez was arrested on scene for being under the influence of a controlled substance and taken to the Santa Barbara Police Department while the fire investigation continued. There, Police Detectives and Fire Investigators interviewed Hernandez and established a timeline that put him at the scene of the Loma Fire. It was determined there were five separate fires in total last night. Fire Investigators believe the Loma Fire was an act of arson.”
••• “In the face of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s sudden guidance change last week that allows for vaccinated people to go maskless in most indoor situations, Santa Barbara County will keep its mask mandate for another month longer. ‘The CDC guidance does allow for local and state governance, and based upon the Sacramento CDPH recommending that we maintain the masks indoors, we are keeping masks because we simply aren’t there yet in terms of vaccination rates,’ Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso said.” —Independent
••• “It will be another week in the Covid-19 orange tier in Santa Barbara County based on the latest data on coronavirus cases reported. With the dropping numbers, however, the less restrictive yellow tier could be reached next Tuesday.” —KEYT
••• From a press release on Edhat: “UC Santa Barbara is expanding its summer programs and introducing some new options—all of which will be available in person. Based on registration numbers to date, more than 10,000 students are expected to take courses this summer.”
••• “Santa Barbara’s three-member Ordinance Committee […] voted 3-0 to recommend to the full City Council a prohibition on anyone unlawfully sitting or laying down on the sidewalk along Milpas Street between Carpinteria and Canon Perdido streets. The exact hours have not yet been determined, but one proposal on the table is for the ordinance to apply from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.” —Noozhawk
••• This Saturday, “the community is being asked to come by the Foodbank locations in Santa Barbara and Santa Maria to drop off bags of food to make up for the cancelled [Stamp Out Hunger Letter Carriers Food Drive]. […] This year there is also a request for new or lightly used cookware. The Foodbank has found that many community members who receive food, do not have adequate cooking supplies.” But no microwaves. More info here. —KEYT
················
Never miss a post: sign up for the Siteline email newsletter.
Comment: