December 4th marks a painful anniversary in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties.
It was three years ago that the Thomas Wildfire started in Ventura County.
The 280,000 acre inferno killed two people, destroyed more than a thousand structures and caused an estimated $2.2 billion dollars in damage.
It also stripped some mountain slopes above Montecito bare, setting the stage for the January 2018 Montecito debris flow which killed 23 people, and destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes.
nvestigators later determined that issues with some Southern California Edison power lines during a Santa Ana wind event caused two brushfires which merged into the Thomas Fire.
