Smoke from Thomas Fire chokes off the sun over Cambria

North Coast residents and visitors — along with others throughout San Luis Obispo County — awoke Sunday, Dec. 10, to a hazy, dark orange-brown sky caused by smoke from the Thomas Fire burning more than 100 miles away. For a time, the heavy blanket of smoke blocked out the sun, and the sunshine that broke through the smoke later was tinted gold.

Clear, dry weather conditions and the wind pattern had pulled the thick smoke this way, Cal Fire said.

The Thomas Fire started Dec. 4 north of Santa Paula and marched through sections of Ojai, Ventura and areas to the north. By Tuesday morning, the fire had roared through more than 234,000 acres, destroying 889 structures, including 695 homes, and threatening 18,000 more. Containment was listed at 20 percent, with the fire continuing its relentless march toward and through various areas of Santa Barbara County.

Sunday, people reported seeing heavy smoke in Cambria, San Simeon, Piedras Blancas, Cayucos, Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo and even Big Sur and beyond. Ash was reported to have fallen in Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo and Arroyo Grande.

Many locals took to social media with smoke-related comments, questions and eerie-looking photos. Some called the scene “apocalyptic” looking, and one woman said she kept expecting Rod Serling of “Twilight Zone” to show up.

No smoke-related changes were made to Hearst Castle tours, according to State Park district Superintendent Dan Falat.

Some schools affected

Cambria school officials didn’t make any schedule or activity changes in response to the smoke, according to representatives at each campus, but some outdoor activities at Santa Lucia Middle School were relocated to the gym.

Some school districts in the Santa Maria and Santa Barbara areas canceled classes for varying lengths of time. Officials in the heavily impacted Santa Barbara districts opted to close schools there through the end of the year.

That may affect the North Coast, according to Dan Falat, superintendent of state parks’ San Luis Obispo Coast District. He estimated that local parks and communities “might see a bit more of a recreational push, now that they (the students) have four weeks off instead of two weeks.”

By Monday, the smoke layer was thinner, but the smell of smoke was more obvious to many at ground level. By Tuesday, that had mostly waned on the North Coast.

Evacuees and others

In the meantime, some evacuees and others flocked to the North Coast seeking refuge from the danger, bad air, disruption of services and stress produced by the huge fire. According to various phone and Internet interviews, people fleeing here from affected areas stayed with friends, visited for a day or opted to stay in area motels, vacation-rental homes or campgrounds.

Emma Hamilton Malina was with about eight other families staying at the Cavalier Resort in San Simeon on Friday and Saturday nights, but “when the smoke started rolling in on Sunday, we bailed and went inland to Paso.”

Mary Anne Anderson hosted a family of six people from the fire zone for a week, some of whom were teachers at the Cate School.

Dan Field said a friend had “stayed in a motel on Moonstone (Beach), which was full — because of evacuees — on a night they would normally have been empty.” Castle Inn on Moonstone reportedly also had quite a few guests who were fleeing from the fire. Heidi Huff said some fire-affected visitors were staying in properties managed by her Cambria Vacation Rentals.

Musician Bob Benjamin said he’d met a number of evacuating families during his restaurant gigs over the weekend. “Some looked like they only had the clothes on their backs.”

Area businesses have served lots of evacuees, including Soto’s Market, according to business co-owner Marcella Ponce.

Tammy Hall, who works at the Old Cambria Marketplace, said she’d had “quite a few customers come in and say they are trying to get away from the smoke.” Some evacuees stopped at 927 Beer’s tap room and other shops.

Linda McDonald said she talked Sunday “to a handful of people” who were in the area “escaping the smoke from Ventura, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria and Pismo.”

Consuelo Macedo of the Cambria Historical Society said, “We had visitors at the museum … from Santa Barbara, including a whole family. They were cautiously optimistic.”

In response to the Thomas Fire, Amtrak suspended its service between Oxnard and San Luis Obispo, which triggered some hasty travel changes for North Coast residents. Some of them delayed their trips, while others opted to take Interstate 5 into Los Angeles, rather than risk confronting the flames while driving down Highway 101 along the coast.

The smoke

SLO County residents can find updates on air quality conditions at www.slocleanair.org. Updates from the county Public Health Department can be found by calling its information line at 805-788-2903.

Although the recommended N95 masks are being distributed in Santa Barbara County, the Public Health Department said that level of protection was not necessary for SLO County residents at that time.

The Health Department said smoke particles Sunday were largely contained in the upper atmosphere and did not pose a health risk, although they added that could change based on weather, wind and the fire’s progress.

La Niña

The so-called La Niña-style weather pattern is the engine behind the fire’s rage and smoke. La Niña can deflect storms and produce warmer-than-usual conditions, often with lots of wind.

However, despite all the tragedy, pain and destruction from the Thomas Fire and others throughout the state, there are a couple of benefits from the warm, sunny December weather that has made fighting the fire so difficult.

Visitors love sunny days at year’s end.

And the lack of rain is a boon to Caltrans contractors trying to rebuild Highway 1 at Mud Creek, north of the San Luis Obispo/Monterey county line. Travelers haven’t been able to traverse the entire Cambria-to-Carmel highway stretch for about a year, because of massive mudslides and a bridge failure last winter.

Fire danger

Officials ask everybody to be especially vigilant and careful.

And, as always, if you see something, say something.

Firefighters say they would much rather check on something that looks like a fire — but turns out to be fog or smoke from someone’s fireplace or barbecue — instead of being alerted too late about a small blaze that could quickly develop into an uncontrollable conflagration.

Make the call to 911: People’s homes and lives could be at stake.

This story was originally published December 12, 2017 at 3:37 PM with the headline "Smoke from Thomas Fire chokes off the sun over Cambria."