Firefighters Burned in Santa Barbara Wildfires

What started as a meandering fire across 200 acres in coastal Southern California has turned into a fast-moving blaze that has consumed homes and threatened the safety of firefighters who are trying desperately to prevent more damage.

It’s unclear how many homes have burned in the Santa Barbara area, because the thick, choking smoke prevents authorities from getting an accurate tally. In at least one case, firefighters were forced to drop their hoses on the spot and flee in their truck when the fire came too fast and furious for them to battle.

The Associated Press reported today that three Ventura County firefighters were injured when their engine was overtaken by flames as they tried to protect a structure, their department said in a statement.

They were airlifted to a Los Angeles burn center, where two were treated for moderate burns and a third was treated for smoke inhalation, according to center spokesman Roy Forbes.

The winds fueling the flames, some upward of 40 to 60 mph, are a phenomenon called “sundowners.” As the heat builds in the valleys, the late afternoon winds dry the surrounding hills. Combined with unseasonably hot temperatures, the weather has created a perfect storm for a raging wildfire.

“We have temperatures of about 102 degrees with very low humidity,” Santa Barbara County fire Capt. David Sadecki said. “All of those factors combined, you can see what the results are.”

Police have gone door to door telling people to get out immediately. There are now at least 2,000 homes under mandatory evacuation.

“They were doing a great job, and things can change just in the snap of a finger, and … all of a sudden a situation that looks like it’s stabilized becomes extremely dangerous,” resident Andy Winchester told “Good Morning America” today.

Residents left their homes dragging suitcases down the street and packing as many possessions as they could into their cars.

“It’s very much the luck of the draw,” Winchester said. “You hope your house survives, you hope every house survives, but you know it is a challenge of the conditions and the firefighters are out there doing a great job and, hopefully, it all works out.”

The fire has so far burned about 500 acres, according to ABC affiliate KABC, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Santa Barbara County.

The Associated Press reported that more than 800 firefighters were on the lines, and 20 more strike teams totaling about 1,300 firefighters were requested.

“The firefighters are picking houses and seeing if they can make a stand,” Sadecki told the AP.

The blaze bore down on the city at frightening speed, said Chad Jenson, a food server at Giovanni’s Pizza. “The sky is just deep orange and black, pretty much our whole hillside is going down,” Jenson said.

Residents told KABC that the brush in the Santa Barbara foothills hasn’t burned in more than 40 years.

“We haven’t had a fire in this canyon since 1964, so we’re due,” Kathleen Galbraith, a Santa Barbara resident, said. “We always have everything at the ready to load up all the animals, and we have a sprinkler hooked up to the well to make sure we have it on the house, and then we leave.”

Specter And The Future Of The GOP

The announcement by Arlen Specter last week that he is now a Democrat in name as well as principle has some once again asking the question, “What’s next for the GOP?” - yet if we’re going to effectively answer that question, it’s important to dispense with the notion that Senator Specter’s party switch represents some sort of setback for the conservative movement at large. 

Specter first won his Senate seat in 1980, riding into D.C. on the back of the Reagan Revolution, and I’d suspect we’d find few who disagree that Reagan’s GOP of the 1980’s was more conservative than today’s iteration. To that end, I think one could reasonably argue that contrary to the storyline Specter and his allies on the left would have us believe - that it was the GOP who left Specter - the Senator’s decision was based on the simple fact that he couldn’t win a Republican primary. 

What Specter’s defection really underscores is an allegiance by many to the ‘Party of Incumbency’ rather than to the Party they claim to represent, be it Republican or Democrat. It’s this kind of soulless pragmatism that turns people off to politics and helps perpetuate a ruling class more loyal to themselves than to the people who elected them. 

That same allegiance to power over principle is what has been largely responsible for devastating the Republican brand, and until more in our Party start governing like they campaign, it is my belief we will have great difficulty regaining the trust of the American electorate. With that thought in mind, I’d humbly suggest the following prescriptions for what ails the Republican Party 

First, get back to the principle of saying what you mean and meaning what you say. Voters have seen many Republicans who have campaigned on the conservative themes of lower taxes, less government and more freedom, and consistently failed to govern that way. Americans didn’t turn away from conservatism; they instead turned away from those who faked it. 

Second, our loyalties need to be to ideas, not to individuals. While I do indeed believe in the importance of a big GOP tent, that tent must be built upon a shared agreement on the essentials - including expanding liberty, encouraging entrepreneurship and limiting the reach of government in people’s everyday lives. 

In this regard, the tent cannot be so big as to include political franchisees who don’t act on the core tenets of conservatism - and as a consequence harm the brand and undermine others’ work on it. 

Finally, we must avoid the temptation that comes with Minority status to simply be the party of “no.” While it’s important to argue against that with which we disagree, the American people will in the end respond to policies that make a tangible difference in their lives. Conservatives need to articulate meaningful alternatives to having the government take over a much, much larger sphere of our lives. No matter the issue, we cannot accede to the notion that conservatives don’t have a solution. 

In the end, Arlen Specter becoming a Democrat of course creates some short-term practical problems. On issues like the upcoming Supreme Court fight the lack of a filibuster threat will likely embolden the President to move further leftward than he otherwise may have done.

The Nation’s Weather

Scattered showers and thunderstorms, some of them severe, were expected across the eastern U.S. on Thursday.

In the East, numerous bands of precipitation were expected across New England, while scattered showers and thunderstorms stretched across the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. Severe weather was possible.

Light to moderate showers and thunderstorms were expected to develop across the Great Lakes through the mid-Mississippi Valley. Large hail and damaging winds were possible with the stronger thunderstorms.

In the West, precipitation over the Pacific Northwest and the Northern Rockies was to continue. Snowfall was to drop only in the highest elevations. Pleasant weather was expected over California and the Great Basin.

Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Wednesday ranged from a low of 29 degrees at Yellowstone Lake, Wyo., to a high of 107 degrees at Laredo, Texas.

• Weather Underground: http://www.wunderground.com
• National Weather Service: http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov
• Intellicast: http://www.intellicast.com

Search is on for jail inmate mistakenly released

CLEARWATER, Fla. – The search is on for a Pinellas County Jail inmate who was mistakenly released.

The sheriff’s office said it was looking Thursday for 26-year-old Auddis Chicandi Mouzon. He was last seen wearing a black hat, T-shirt and shorts. He’s described as five feet eight inches tall, about 160 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.

Mouzon has an arrest history in Pinellas County on drug charges, theft, and domestic violence related charges.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 727-582-6200 or call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-TIPS.

The mistake was being investigated by the agency.