Carpinteria and Santa Barbara Embraces Thomas Fire Evacuees

(Courtesy Photo)

Santa Barbara and Carpinteria are embracing Thomas Fire evacuees as the Carpinteria Unified School District closed on Wednesday.

An announcement was made at 6:00 a.m. by the Carpinteria District Office.

Thousands of evacuees fled to Carpinteria early Tuesday morning as the Thomas Fire grew exponentially overnight. The Casitas Pass shopping center was filled with people, belongings, and vehicles from Ventura County.

A reverse 911 call went out at 5:00 a.m. giving residents a short amount of time to leave their homes.

Residents of Santa Barbara County are pitching in to help in any way they can by donating goods, sheltering pets, and comforting evacuees.

As of Wednesday morning, the mandatory evacuation area reached Rincon Point in Santa Barbara County, the latest map is pictured below.

Click here to see the full map

Carpinteria High School is providing shelter for evacuated livestock thanks to the local FFA.

The Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club is offering shelter to all horses needing to be evacuated. They are able to shelter horses free of charge for up to one week in the designated evacuation barns. Contact Polo Academy Instructor Jeff Scheraga at (315) 256-5797 or jeff@sbpolo.com to arrange this emergency stabling.

The Polo Club also needs help feeding, watering, and mucking out the stables of the evacuated horses. Feed and barn supply donations are also appreciated to assist with the effort. Those able to help can contact the Polo Club’s Volunteer Coordinator, Shannon McGraw, at (805) 455-2400.

The Santa Barbara Humane Society is open to take in small animals by calling (805) 964-4777. They’re open as needed and are currently sheltering 21 cats, 6 dogs, 2 geese, 23 chickens and 3 turkeys.

The Santa Barbara Equine Evacuation group is also housing horses at Earl Warren Showgrounds. Camp Canine in Santa Barbara is accepting dogs who have been evacuated.

UC Santa Barbara has opened an additional evacuation center in the Santa Barbara Multi-Activity Center at 516 Ocean Road.

Read the latest updates on the Thomas Fire here.