"Santa Barbara County Inferno"

KCLU | By Lance Orozco

Published October 13, 2022 at 7:26 PM PDT

Santa Barbara County's Alisal wildfire burned from the Santa Ynez Mountains a half dozen miles down to the Pacific Ocean, closing the main north-south highway from Los Angeles to San Francisco for three days.

The Alisal Wildfire burned more than 17,000 acres of land, closed the main highway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, forced hundreds of evacuations and destroyed a dozen homes.

It was a massive inferno which started in a mountain range northwest of Santa Barbara, and propelled by 70-mile-an-hour winds, burned a half dozen miles downhill to the Pacific Ocean.

The Alisal wildfire charred some 17,000 acres of land, closed the main coastal highway from Los Angeles to San Francisco for days, destroyed a dozen homes and forced hundreds of evacuations.

The Alisal Fire burned on steep hillsides and was pushed by strong wind, making it difficult to fight during its first few days.

KCLU News was on the air within 20 minutes of the start of the blaze. The fire was 90 miles from our studios, but we provided more than 20 live, on scene reports during the critical first two days of the blaze.

This is a sampling of our live coverage which aired multiple times an hour during drive times. Instead of reporting from a parking lot command center, we provided the information from the front lines.