A wildfire in Santa Barbara has grown to 4,000 acres overnight, putting about 140 homes at risk and closing down major freeways, according to federal officials.
The fire started on Wednesday afternoon on coastal hills north of Santa Barbara. It had moved through overgrown hillsides and canyons that have not been burned in over 60 years because of the hot and dry weather and notorious "sundowner" winds.
Sundowners, similar to Santa Ana winds, fuel many of the fires in the Santa Barbara County.
Highway 101 was temporarily shut down along the Gaviota Coast, for the second night in a row, on Thursday and was reopened around 5 a.m. on Friday.
There has been a mandatory evacuation order for several areas as the homes and ranches were still potentially at risk depending on the direction of the winds.
By 7 a.m. on Friday morning, Unified Command reported that 5 percent of the fire has been contained and is expecting full containment of the fire by next Wednesday.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff said that one of the department's jail buses was sent to Refugio campground to pick up about 30 campers who had no transportation.
Parks and campgrounds have evacuated hundreds of people after the first eruption of fire and have cancelled all appointments through next Friday.
Charlie and Elizabeth Hatten were out camping at El Capitan State Beach when the fire had erupted. Charlie told the Los Angeles Times, "The flames looked so close, you couldn't see the moon anymore." Both Charlie and Elizabeth were awoken by a park ranger and moved to a shelter.
Although the fire had "bumped" into the oil and gas processing facility in La Flores Canyon, there were no structural damages, according to Santa Barbara County Fire Chief Eric Peterson.
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department and the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control district issued Air Quality Warnings due to the smoke from the fire burning in the Refugio Canyon area. People are advised to stay indoors and keep windows and doors closed.
The forecast for the weekend in Southern California puts firefighters on high alert as it is expected to reach triple-digit temperatures until Monday and will heighten the risk for fires.
