santa barbara fire

many of you i am sure have heard that there has been a nasty fire in santa barbara / montecito this week. here is an update from yesterday on the westmont fire update website (Las Barrancas is the faculty housing neighborhood where many of the Westmont professors live & Clark Halls is a dormitory for freshman and sophomores):

326 students in Gym, fires out

November 14th, 2008

8:00 am: There are no active fires on campus, no injuries, and everyone is safe.

Wesmont has 326 students remaining in the Gym; those students with transportation have been released from campus because it is safe for them to travel on area roads.

Westmont has lost eight structures, four buildings in Clark halls (F,G,M,S), the physics building, the old math building and the two quonset huts. The later three structures were scheduled for demolition soon.

Fourteen faculty homes in Las Barrancas have burned; there is damage to trees, and wooded areas on campus, but much of the formal gardens remains intact.