The Beast Continues to Grow . . .

Thomas Fire Nearly Destroys Cate's Rival, Thacher

On Friday morning we awoke to the news that the Thomas Fire had spread to the campus of Thacher School in Ojai on the fire's Northeastern edge. It was only due to the valiant effort of a contingent of firefighters that the campus was spared. The fire burned all around the campus. Here's a shot of Thacher's Head of School, Michael Mulligan, standing on the edge of campus on the morning of December 8th:

The Thomas Fire was burning in two different directions and on one side was Thacher School and on the other side, Cate School, was now directly in the fire's path.

We took the rest of the boys who were with us to the airport mid morning on that Friday. The smoke was getting worse in Santa Barbara and we were hearing that the fire was, unbelievably, approaching Carpinteria. We got word from Cate that the school was now under a mandatory evacuation and the fire department was preparing to use the school as a staging area to fight the fire.

Here's another shot of our front yard as the smoke continued to grow in Montecito:

Here's a shot of the athletic field at Cate looking to the east where the fire was approaching from:

On Saturday morning, December 9th we got word that the fire's progress had slowed somewhat and that Cate was still safe. At this point the fire's southwest front was burning near Rincon point at the edge of Carpinteria and into the hills above highway 150 -- also on the edge of Carpinteria. We went to bed on Saturday night feeling somewhat less concerned and hopeful that the firefighters were gaining the upper hand . . .