Usually a ghost town during the sleepy summer vacation, Dos Pueblos High School is now a bustling city, a temporary home to the 1,612 firefighters, U.S. Forest Service managers, and supporting personnel working to extinguish the Whittier Fire. The eight-day-old fire, which is 38 percent contained, has consumed 17,364 acres in the Santa Ynez Mountains west of Goleta, joining 12 other large fires burning in California at press time.
Last Thursday evening, The Santa Barbara Independent toured the base camp as firefighters prepared for the 12-hour night shift ahead of them. Under a mostly clear sky, men and women milled around the high school’s parking lot, now called Main Street. “It’s got all the logistical parts you would need in a city,” explained Fire Information Officer Mike Theune, pointing to a radio information-tech trailer and a tool shop, where firefighters can have their saws repaired and sharpened at the end of a shift.
Next door to the shower facilities and a long line of porta-potties, a female firefighter picked up a bag of clean clothes from a trailer packed with washers and driers. Like many of the companies contracted to provide base-camp services, the mobile laundromat service kicks into gear during fire season. “We’re capable of washing 1,500 pounds per day,” boasted an employee. Last week he was washing the sweat and soot out of fire gear at Big Bear before heading west to Santa Barbara.