Jeannette Frescas was not concerned about the Thomas Fire until the massive blaze inched toward her neighborhood in Southern California. “At midnight, I woke up with flashlight in my face,” Frescas said. “I looked out my window and there were flames that were about 100 feet all around us.”
Like many residents, Frescas was caught off guard by the fire that has roared through Southern California for 13 days. She’s one of the tens of thousands of residents who piled into cars and fled as ferocious winds drove the third-largest blaze in the state toward Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
“Once a paradise, was like a war zone,” Frescas said of her Ventura apartment complex that was destroyed by the blaze. Ventura resident Particia Rye woke up her son-in-law pounding on her door. She didn’t get a chance to pack any valuables, and fled her home of 17 years.
“I didn’t have time to take anything,” Rye said “My wallet, or any of my personal things. I literally left my house with the clothes on my back. If I had been thinking I would’ve got in my car, but I wasn’t thinking so my car was there.”
Thousands of residents in Santa Barbara threatened by the blaze are under mandatory and voluntary evacuation while others like Frescas were aloud back in their homes. The fire is so massive, 8,400 firefighters are working around the clock to save lives and contain it. It’s bigger than New York City, and has left neighborhoods in piles of soot and concrete as it rapidly moves through the area.
Like many residents, Frescas was caught off guard by the fire that has roared through Southern California for 13 days. She’s one of the tens of thousands of residents who piled into cars and fled as ferocious winds drove the third-largest blaze in the state toward Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
“Once a paradise, was like a war zone,” Frescas said of her Ventura apartment complex that was destroyed by the blaze. Ventura resident Particia Rye woke up her son-in-law pounding on her door. She didn’t get a chance to pack any valuables, and fled her home of 17 years.
“I didn’t have time to take anything,” Rye said “My wallet, or any of my personal things. I literally left my house with the clothes on my back. If I had been thinking I would’ve got in my car, but I wasn’t thinking so my car was there.”
Thousands of residents in Santa Barbara threatened by the blaze are under mandatory and voluntary evacuation while others like Frescas were aloud back in their homes. The fire is so massive, 8,400 firefighters are working around the clock to save lives and contain it. It’s bigger than New York City, and has left neighborhoods in piles of soot and concrete as it rapidly moves through the area.