SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The wildfire that has scorched 13 square miles and destroyed dozens of homes was apparently sparked by a power tool being used to clear brush, investigators said Sunday.
Fire officials said someone, or possibly a group of people, was clearing vegetation on what appeared to be private land near the trail around the time the fire erupted Tuesday.
Some Santa Barbara County residents recently received annual notices advising them they had until June 1 to clear potentially hazardous brush, county fire Capt. Glenn Fidler said. It was not immediately clear whether the blaze originated in an area targeted by such a notice.
Officials declined to comment further about the type of power tool that may have been used, or if anyone could face charges.
The fire has destroyed 77 homes, damaged 22 others and forced the evacuation of about 30,000 people to safer ground.
All but evacuees from about 500 homes had been allowed to return home Sunday, as firefighters had the blaze 65 percent contained, aided by cooler, more humid weather.
Last SLA inmate released
The last captured member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the radical 1970s-era group notorious for bank robberies, killings and the kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst, was released from prison Sunday, a corrections official said. James William Kilgore, 61, was paroled from High Desert State Prison after serving a six-year sentence for his role in the murder of housewife Myrna Opsahl during an April 1975 bank robbery. Kilgore was one of five SLA members to serve time for the murder of Opsahl’s mother.
D.C.: Military gay policy said to be under review
President Barack Obama’s national security adviser said allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military is in the early discussions. But retired Marine Gen. James Jones said it’s very preliminary in a very busy administration. Jones said Sunday he’s not sure if the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy would be overturned, although Obama has said he wants it eliminated. To change the Clinton-era policy, Obama would need Congress’ approval.
Texas: Firefighters hurt
Authorities said six firefighters in San Antonio have been hospitalized after being exposed to chlorine gas while battling a blaze at a cemetery. Assistant fire chief David Coatney said the firefighters experienced burning skin and some had trouble breathing after dealing with the blaze early Sunday. The fire was in a shed, which contained chlorine cylinders, at Mission Park Burial Park North, next to a golf course.
Sri Lanka: 378 civilians dead
An unrelenting hail of artillery in Sri Lanka’s war zone killed at least 378 civilians, according to a government doctor who survived the attack as shells flew near the makeshift hospital. More than 100 of the victims were children, the U.N. said Sunday. A rebel-linked Web site blamed the attack on the government, while the military accused the beleaguered Tamil Tigers of shelling their own territory to gain international sympathy and force a cease-fire. The attack marked the bloodiest assault on ethnic Tamil civilians since the civil war flared again more than three years ago. Health officials said a hospital in the war zone was overwhelmed by casualties, and the death toll was expected to rise.
Brazil: Homeless after floods
Floodwaters receded some in inundated towns across northern Brazil on Sunday, but the number of homeless rose above 300,000 and two people were missing after an overloaded canoe overturned in swift waters. Forty deaths had been confirmed in northern Brazil’s worst flooding in decades, fed by two months of unusually heavy rains in a zone stretching from deep in the Amazon to normally arid areas near the Atlantic coast.
From Herald news services
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