Montecito Fire Caused By A Bonfire

Over 200 homes were lost due to young people's bonfire. They had a good time and left the area thinking their fire was out. Hours later the Montecito fire became a reality. It sounds like this was just an evening fire, not a campfire.

This is the second Santa Barbara area fire started by young people.

I used to go camping a lot. We had large fires in our LEGAL fire pit in campgrounds. These campsites were next the to same type of hills and brush that burned in Montecito. Lots of campers have fires while camping.

From what I observed, very few campers put out their fires before going to bed. Our policy was to DROWN a fire and be sure it did not smoke or sizzle when water was poured over the coals.

I hope campers and others think about the losses in these Souther California fires when they light a campfire.