Official info: www.countyofsb.org/ceo/dept0.aspx

Pretty good evac area map: maps.google.com/maps/ms

We live near Foothill and Alamar. We were among the first areas evacuated last Tuesday, May 5th. Luckily, I work at a local hotel and my wonderful boss allowed us to stay there for 5 days. It was myself, my wife, and one of our housemates. And about 10 crates of vinyl and our ancient, adorable cat (who was a perfect angel and used her litter box every time!) and a few other prized possessions.

We got back in yesterday. The neighborhood was covered in ash but otherwise okay. But about 1500 feet to the west looked like a war zone. The fire came almost right down to Foothill. I think the fireman drew the line right above the Wood Glen Retirement community. Also, about 1,000 feet above us, houses on Montrose and Palomino road are gone. I am grateful to the firefighters who toiled so hard for so long. I feel horrible for those who lost their homes. Time for everyone here to embrace these poor souls and help elevate their spirits. I hope we can organize some benefits and raise some cash for them. I have a feeling the insurance will not replace everything...

We're good. SO grateful that we're on the other side of town, near the Mesa. This is just heart-wrenching.

A girlfriend and I organized an acupuncture + massage area for the firefighters at Earl Warren all day Friday-Monday called The VIP Lounge. They were definitely taken care of. We told them that we were "expressing our community's gratitude with our hands and our hearts." They said they felt like Santa Barbara treated them like rock stars!!! It was awesome. We had four other girlfriends join us throughout the four days that we were there. Most of them recieved acupuncture after their treatment. We treated 150+ people!!

The organization we were representing is SBCHOP (Santa Barbara Community Health Outreach Project). If you know anyone who's a survivor of the Jesusita Fire -or- someone who's dealing with tragedy/catastrophic life changes right now -or- for a living, please direct them to www.sbchop.com . It's a community resource that's there for long-term care, to facilitate healing. We'll post pics on the site, soon.