Wind-driven blaze in Santa Barbara

A luxury home on La Vista Road was destroyed in the Jesusita fire. Firefighters said the blaze was about 55% contained by Sunday morning.



  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

A charred view from La Vista Road shows a residence that was spared as thousands of residents made their way back to their homes on Sunday.



  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

Scorched manzanita and bare dirt are all that remain where hundreds of acres of brush burned near Gibraltar Road in Santa Barbara.



  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Fog hugs the burned hillside along San Marcos Pass Road, or California Highway 154.



  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Members of the Vandenberg Wildcats Hot Shot crew clear a fire line.



  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

A member of the Vandenberg Wildcats Hot Shot crew tosses a branch as they create a fire line.



  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The Fenner Canyon Conservation Camp strike team rests on a charred hillside waiting to be sent back to the front line of the Jesusita fire near Gibraltar Road in Santa Barbara.



  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Fenner Canyon Conservation Camp strike team member Steven Williams talks with his teammates.



  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

A firefighter shoots water onto hot embers in the ruins of a Mission Canyon home.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Josh Lynn stands in the field across from his home, which survived the blaze. The field was cleared just a few days before the Jesusita fire broke out. “Our place could have easily burned,” says Lynn. “We’re lucky.” The home is on Ontare Road, west of San Roque Road.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Mission Canyon residents Mike Schlagel, Jennifer Ellison and Andy Fuller, from left, survey the scene.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Coastal fog shrouds a fire-ravaged area in Mission Canyon. The worst of Santa Barbara’s Jesusita fire is probably over, but evacuation orders remain in effect for some areas.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Santa Barbara residents Karen and David Telleen-Lawton stand frustrated at the corner of Mission Canyon and Foothill roads. Police at the roadblock there denied the couple entry as they attempted to walk to their home.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

San Roque Road resident Glen Miller wipes away tears of relief after realizing that his house is safe.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Calm winds allowed firefighting teams to drop dozens of rows of flame retardant along the ridge lines above Montecito on Friday.  (Spncer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Conrad Leidall, 4, seeks comfort while with his family at an evacuation center on UC Santa Barbara campus. More than 3,500 acres had burned, and fire officials said the blaze remained unpredictable.  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Denise Cutbirth, 55, daughter Vittoria, 15, and their Australian shepherd are living out of a room at Motel 6.  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

David Salvia plays guitar as he waits out the Jesusita fire at an evacuation center at UC Santa Barbara, where rows of cots had been set up.  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Scorched earth from Santa Barbara’s Jesusita fire along Camino Cielo Road. The blaze has destroyed at least 75 homes and prompted mandatory evacuations for most of the city.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Charred structures and landscaping are all that remain of a home on Holly Drive in Santa Barbara, where the Jesusita fire destroyed several houses.  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Plumes of smoke billow from the Jesusita fire in the mountains above Santa Barbara on Friday evening. The view is looking west.  (Bryan Chan / Los Angeles Times)

A charred hillside surrounds homes unscathed by the Jesusita fire in Santa Barbara.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles TImes)

Fire retardant is dropped on the Jesusita fire in the San Marcos Pass near Santa Barbara.  (Bryan Chan / Los Angeles Times)

A spotter helicopter keeps tabs on the Jesusita fire along the San Marcos Pass.  (Bryan Chan / Los Angeles Times)

Santa Barbara’s Jesusita fire continues its destructive path, leaving only an overturned statue and smoldering ruins at this ocean-view home along upper Alamar Street.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Before sunrise today, an Orange County firefighter is surrounded by flying ash as Santa Barbara’s Jesusita fire approaches a home along Foothill Road.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Forest Service firefighter Steve Johnson stands guard as Santa Barbara’s Jesusita fire approaches a home along upper Alamar Street early today.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

A firefighting aircraft is dwarfed by plumes of smoke as the fire rages on.  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

A large smoke plume rises over Santa Barbara.  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Flames tower over a home in the Barger Canyon area in the hills above Santa Barbara.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

The Jesusita fire burns behind the Mission Santa Barbara, clouding the sky with smoke.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Smoke from Santa Barbara’s Jesusita fire darkens the sky along Holly Road above Mission Canyon. Calmer winds allowed firefighters to make progress controlling the blaze.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Tired fire crews from Tulare rest after cutting fire lines all day in the hills above Santa Barbara.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

A crew makes fire breaks on the hillside in an effort to control the Jesusita fire.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Santa Barbara firefighter Jack Franklin walks past a home in his neighborhood that burned down. Franklin and his neighbor Ken Jones stayed behind to watch their homes and others in the area.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Al and Barbara Lindemann talk about a harrowing evening spent in their home where they hunkered-down during the firestorm in the Mission Canyon area of Santa Barbara. The Lindemanns and their son took many measures, including the use of a fire retardant and metal shutters to fend off the flames that surrounded their home.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Paso Robles firefighter Joel Platter applies foam to the smoldering remains of a home off Tunnel Road in the Mission Canyon area of Santa Barbara, where nearly two dozen homes have burned.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

A religious statue stands over the burned garden at a home site on Tunnel Road in the Mission Canyon area of Santa Barbara.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

The Jesusita fire continues to burn in the hills above Santa Barbara, displacing thousands of residents from their hillside homes.  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

A home is engulfed in flames as the Jesusita fire burns in the foothills near Santa Barbara.  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

The Jesusita fire claimed dozens of Santa Barbara-area homes, though some were spared.  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gets a briefing from incident commander Ed Locke regarding Santa Barbara’s Jesusita fire.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

A Los Angeles City firefighter puts out a hot spot on the north end of Tunnel Road near Santa Barbara.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles City firefighters return to a home on Holly Road where a battalion chief’s truck was scorched Wednesday by flames in Santa Barbara’s Mission Canyon area.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

A burning home on Holly Road in the Mission Canyon area above Santa Barbara.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Flames lick at what’s left of a home on Holly Road in the Mission Canyon area above Santa Barbara.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Flames finish off a home in Santa Barbara.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Smoke blows toward the ocean as a wildfire burns through hillside neighborhoods of Santa Barbara.  (Luis SInco / Los Angeles Times)

Flames eat away at a sprawling, multi-level home on a Santa Barbara hillside.  (Luis SInco / Los Angeles Times)

Smoke stretches across a hillside neighborhood in Santa Barbara.  (Luis SInco / Los Angeles Times)

Flames ravage a home on San Roque Road in Santa Barbara.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

A crew douses burned firewood near a home damaged by the Jesusita fire.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

A power line touches Mission Canyon Road amid the smoky devastation of the fire.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

A helicopter douses flames going up the hillside toward a home.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Flames loom behind a home on San Roque Road in Santa Barbara.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Smoke partly obscures the view of homes on San Roque Road in Santa Barbara.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

A California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection tanker drops a load of retardant on the Jesusita fire in the hills of Santa Barbara.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Two crew members from the Salinas Fire Department stand watch over a home as it burns in Santa Barbara.  (Dan Steinberg / Associated Press)

Flames engulf a home in Santa Barbara.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

A plane fights the fire from the air.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Smoke from the fire roils above De La Guerra Plaza in downtown Santa Barbara.  (Rafael Maldonado / Associated Press)

A Beverly Hills firefighter on structure protection duty observes the fire.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Flames soar above homes in the hills of Santa Barbara.  (Mark Ralston / AFP/Getty Images)

Two people on Stearns Wharf observe the fire, which is fueled by Sundowner winds.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Stable hand Tony Jimenez cleans up at the Earl Warren Showground in Santa Barbara, where some of the more than 40 horses evacuated because of the wildfire are being sheltered.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Cherie Topper checks in on her evacuated llama, Oreo, at the Earl Warren Showground in Santa Barbara.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

A helicopter stirs up a flurry of embers while making a nighttime water drop at the site of the Jesusita fire in Santa Barbara’s Mission Canyon.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Seldon Edner watches the fire burn in the hills above his home in the Mission Canyon area.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

The Jesusita fire burns in the foothills above Santa Barbara.  (Keith Cullom / Associated Press)

Ranch hands work together to evacuate a herd of goats.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Water-dropping helicopters try to stop the fire from spreading. Ground crews were also battling the blaze.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Homeowner Patty Bryant loads some of her belongings into a truck as she prepares to evacuate.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)