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44-722: One day after the wind-swept "Tea Fire" destroyed more than 200 homes in Montecito and Santa Barbara , the Sayre Fire was reported in the 13000 block of Sayre Street in Sylmar, just north of the Foothill Freeway (Route 210) near Veterans Memorial County Park . It spread rapidly, fanned by strong Santa Ana winds with near hurricane-force gusts estimated at between 50 mph (80 km/h) and 80 mph (130 km/h). California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called

88-554: A Mar Y Cel historic structure called the "Tea House" above Mountain Drive, giving the fire its name. Spreading rapidly, it was fanned by offshore winds, known as Sundowner winds , that blow down the Santa Ynez Mountains , gusting up to 85 mph (137 km/h). These winds caused the fire to spread into the city of Santa Barbara . The fire was 40% contained on the 15th, 75% on the 16th, and by November 17, 2008, it

132-435: A cactus garden. On November 15, 2008, the organizers of the first Pasadena marathon were forced to cancel the event due to the heavy smoke in the air. A rally protesting the passage of a ballot initiative banning gay marriage had been expected to draw 40,000 protesters to Downtown Los Angeles on November 15, 2008, but drew only 8,000, which some attributed to the evacuations, freeway closures, and traffic jams resulting from

176-537: A mobile home or an estate, it's devastating. We can't even begin to weigh their loss." In the pre-dawn hours on November 15, 2008, the fire devastated the Oakridge Mobile Home Park, destroying 480 of the park's 600 mobile homes. Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Steve Ruda described the scene as "an absolute firestorm" with 50-foot (15 m) high flames and added, "Hoses were melting into

220-425: A review of fire retardancy standards applicable to mobile homes and mobile home parks. Shortly after 1:00 a.m. PDT on November 15, 2008, flames from the Sayre Fire threatened Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar. The Los Angeles Times reported that, around midnight, "tall walls of flames quickly surrounded Olive View Medical Center," as "embers blew down streets, catching trees and shrubs on fire around

264-490: A sign of hope and bravery for firefighters. The flag was presented by Los Angeles Fire Department Acting Fire Chief Emile Mack to Oakridge Mobile Home Park manager Jinny Harmon. It was later framed and hung in the new clubhouse at Oakridge, where it can still be seen today. In a press briefing on November 16, 2008, Governor Schwarzenegger noted that the homes in the Oakridge community had ignited "like matches," and called for

308-605: A state of emergency in the city, and Governor Schwarzenegger issued a state of emergency declaration later in the morning. On November 18, 2008, President George W. Bush declared the area struck by November 2008 California wildfires a federal disaster area, freeing up federal aid for reconstruction efforts. County fire officials reported on November 19, 2008 that the Sayre Fire had destroyed more than 600 structures, including 480 mobile homes, nine single-family homes, 104 outbuildings and 10 commercial buildings. The Los Angeles Times called it "the worst loss of homes due to fire in

352-480: A statement noting that "nine of the ten individuals identified as allegedly responsible for the Tea Fire have been confirmed as Santa Barbara City College students." That same day, Dr. Gayle Beebe, president of Westmont College, noted in a press release the college's relief to learn that none of the ten was enrolled at Westmont. Although the individuals were found guilty of trespassing and holding an illegal bonfire,

396-481: A statement that he was "making all state resources available to the fire commanders and was requesting assistance from the federal government as well." On November 14, 2008, 1,141 personnel were on the scene, including 260 from CalFire, and 25 fire crews. They were supported by 193 engines, 7 dozers, and 1 watertender. Resources were expanded on November 15 to include 2,235 firefighters and 9 helicopters with cost estimates of $ 3.5 million, which increased to $ 3.9 million

440-487: Is also a rotation site for medical students at UCLA. The hospital was founded on October 27, 1920, as a tuberculosis (TB) sanatorium to relieve overcrowding at County General Hospital , and when it was no longer needed for TB treatment, the facilities became an acute care hospital in 1970. In 1962, Olive View Hospital performed the first open heart surgery successfully in the San Fernando Valley, and one of

484-463: Is provided with three additional doctors at a cost to the county of $ 9,000 a month. The 2008 Sayre Fire caused damage to several outbuildings, and led to an evacuation of the intensive care patients from the hospital. Before the 1973 demolition, the hospital served as a filming location, where it played itself in a 1973 episode of the Emergency! television show. It also served as the set for

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528-657: The American Red Cross , Santa Barbara County Chapter. Earl Warren Showgrounds was opened for large animal evacuees, while small animals could be brought to the Santa Barbara Humane Society in Goleta . 34°27′27″N 119°39′24″W  /  34.4574°N 119.6566°W  / 34.4574; -119.6566 Olive View-UCLA Medical Center Olive View–UCLA Medical Center is a hospital , funded by Los Angeles County , located in

572-630: The Montecito Tea Fire , was a wildfire that began on November 13, 2008, destroying 210 homes in the cities of Montecito and Santa Barbara, California , in the United States of America. It was the first of several November 2008 wildfires that burned hundreds of homes from November 13–15, 2008. The Tea Fire ignited in the Cold Springs section of Montecito at approximately 17:50 PST on November 13, 2008. The fire started at

616-602: The Order of the Holy Cross , was also destroyed. "My family and I have come many, many times to the Santa Barbara area. We think it’s the most beautiful area. But the area we walked around today looked like hell". (Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, November 15, 2008) California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for Santa Barbara County due to the Tea Fire. Schwarzenegger issued

660-529: The Sylmar neighborhood of Los Angeles, California . It is one of the primary healthcare delivery systems in the north San Fernando Valley , serving the area's large working-class population. Olive View is also the closest county hospital serving the Antelope Valley after High Desert Hospital was converted to an urgent care clinic in 2003. The 355-bed replacement facility built on the old Sylmar site

704-571: The DA's office felt there was not enough evidence to convict them of starting the blaze. "After a months-long investigation by several agencies, the District Attorney’s Office decided it could only charge the group with the misdemeanor crimes, the DA felt as though she would be unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the campfire they had started — and, according to group members, extinguished — more than 12 hours earlier had led to

748-499: The Sayre Fire. Mayor Villaraigosa attended the rally between news conferences at the Sayre Fire site. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power ("DWP") had a major converter station in Sylmar and was forced to impose rolling blackouts, temporarily cutting off electricity to residents in Sherman Oaks, Mid City, Crenshaw, and other areas for about 25 minutes. In the early morning hours of November 15, 2008, officials ordered

792-983: The Simi Valley-San Fernando Valley Freeway ( California State Route 118 ), the San Diego Freeway ( Interstate 405 ) at Route 118 and the Antelope Valley Freeway ( California State Route 14 ) from south Santa Clarita to the Newhall Pass. By the late afternoon on November 15, 2008, the California Highway Patrol announced the re-opening of the freeways closed due to the Sayre fire. 34°20′N 118°28′W  /  34.333°N 118.467°W  / 34.333; -118.467 Montecito Tea Fire The Tea Fire , also known as

836-492: The Sylmar hills late Friday and early Saturday, featured a putting green, an Olympic-size swimming pool and tennis courts. 'It wasn't just a mobile home (park),' said Linda Pogacnik, 63, whose home was destroyed. 'It was the Beverly Hills of mobile homes.' After the effort in Oakridge, a firefighter produced a burned U.S. flag on a broken stick taken from a home that was destroyed in Oakridge. The firefighter offered it as

880-460: The Tea Fire." Santa Barbara County officials stated that they had reports of 13 persons injured, including 10 who were treated for smoke inhalation and three with burn injuries, one of whom was critical. There is a foundation for two burn victims of the fire, Lance & Carla Hoffman. Information on this foundation including benefits and donations can be found on Facebook's group "Tea Fire Survivors: Lance and Karla Hoffman". The fire resulted in

924-680: The afternoon of November 16, 2008, all of the evacuation centers except for Sylmar High School had been closed. Large animal evacuation centers were established at Pierce College and at the Hansen Dam Equestrian Center. The fire resulted in temporary closures of several of the San Fernando Valley's major freeways, including the Golden State Freeway ( Interstate 5 ) at the Newhall Pass, the Foothill Freeway ( Interstate 210 ) from I-5 through Sylmar,

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968-485: The car, pulled out of the driveway and the entire mountain behind was flames 200 feet high — shooting into the air. Embers were raining down, they were in our shirts and in our hair, and the wind was easily 70 mile per hour ... it was an Armageddon !" (Rob Lowe, November 14, 2008) The Tea Fire resulted in the destruction of 210 homes in Montecito and Santa Barbara. Of the destroyed homes, 106 were in

1012-600: The causative factors a "perfect storm"—strong winds, low humidity, high temperatures, and dry brush. In the pre-dawn hours on November 15, 2008, over 600 firefighters battled the Sayre Fire, the number on site increasing to 1,100 by midday. Fire officials said winds of “near hurricane force” grounded some of their water-dropping aircraft. The fire moved west from Sylmar and threatened the luxury planned community of Knollwood in Granada Hills. On November 15, 2008, at 8:00 a.m. PDT, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa declared

1056-429: The cement and concrete. That's how hot the fire was." Firefighters rescued several individuals from their mobile homes, and four civilians rescued a 300-pound disabled woman, who was trapped in her mobile home, as fire was breaking the glass. Though Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton initially expressed concern that some elderly residents might have perished at the mobile home park, cadaver-sniffing dogs searched

1100-476: The city of Los Angeles" and reported that it "appeared to be the largest number of housing units lost to fire in the city of Los Angeles, surpassing the 484 residences destroyed in the 1961 Bel Air fire ." Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky , a lifelong city resident, noted: "This is as bad a fire as I can remember since the Bel-Air Fire. The human devastation that's involved, whether you live in

1144-597: The city of Santa Barbara, and the remainder were in Montecito. One of the homes destroyed in the fire belonged to actor Christopher Lloyd (best known for playing "Doc" Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy ). The campus of Westmont College was heavily damaged, though no injuries were reported on the campus. The college's planning for a shelter-in-place was credited with this favorable human outcome. 800 people (students, employees, visitors and neighbors) hunkered down in

1188-648: The collapse of the four stairwell wings, as well as the parking structure. The first floor columns of the five-story main structure nearly failed as well, shifting the entire building 18 inches off center to the north, which nearly brought down the entire structure. The building was damaged beyond repair, and subsequently vacated, abandoned, and demolished by implosion on May 31, 1973. For the next sixteen years, Olive View served its patients through an interim facility at MidValley in Van Nuys. On March 9, 1975, Department of Health Services Security Officer Murray F. Olsen

1232-480: The end, more than 40 buildings on the Olive View campus were damaged in the fire, and the child care center was totally destroyed. Ash from the Sayre Fire also resulted in the death of Los Angeles County's mosquito-killing fish, which were bred in ponds located in Sylmar. The fish, Gambusia affinis , eat mosquito larvae and are distributed throughout the county from the Sylmar ponds as part of an effort to battle

1276-475: The evacuation of 5,400 homes with 15,000 residents. Approximately 2,700 evacuees were back home by the November 16, 2008. There was one fatality amongst the evacuees, a 98-year-old man, though the county sheriff-coroner had not ascertained yet if the death was due to the fire or his many medical problems. "My wife called and said 'Montecito is on fire — get out'. And I thought she was kidding. We got in

1320-525: The fire was caused by a group of ten men and women, age 18 to 22, college students, who went to the abandoned Tea House on the night of Wednesday, November 12, and held a bonfire party at the location, through the early morning hours of Thursday, November 13. The students told investigators they had put the fire out, but authorities believe the fire smoldered until the heavy winds ignited the fire on Thursday afternoon. On November 20, 2008, Dr. Andreea M. Serban, President of Santa Barbara City College , issued

1364-499: The fire was with loss of homes, the Sayre fire also caused extensive damage to nine parks, including Stetson Ranch , El Cariso and Wilson Canyon Park in Sylmar, Placerita Canyon Nature Center , Whitney Canyon Park and Elsmere Canyon in Newhall, and O'Melveny Park in Granada Hills. Veterans Memorial Park in Sylmar suffered severe fire damage, including destruction of a 2,000-square-foot (190 m) administration building and

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1408-485: The fire, and imposed a curfew for young people. A homeowner in Porter Ranch found two women taking property from his home, "stacking his property outside the house and carrying them to a green four-door Infiniti." The two women, one from North Hollywood and the other from Sherman Oaks , were arrested, and police believe the women may have burglarized other homes in the area. While the immediate concern following

1452-623: The fireworks sent area residents "running outside in alarm." One resident was quoted in the Times as saying that, with the local hotels filled with evacuees, "It was a really an inappropriate display. This was not the time to shoot off fireworks." A mall spokesperson said the fireworks could not be rescheduled and added, "We weren't trying to be insensitive." On November 15, 2008, the Los Angeles Police Department arrested five individuals for looting in areas evacuated due to

1496-644: The first in Southern California. The hospital was known as Olive View Hospital before it became affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles's School of Medicine in 1970. Olive View Hospital became Olive View Medical Center, a teaching hospital and a new 888-bed hospital was dedicated in December, 1970. The hospital was severely damaged six weeks after it opened during the 1971 San Fernando earthquake on February 9, 1971, which caused

1540-544: The following day. Staffed from 8 a.m. to midnight, a public information call center was established to provide updates and status reports. Information was made available on the County Government-access television (GATV) cable television station, as well as specific AM and FM radios that provided Emergency Public Information. CSBTV Channel 20 ran a live video stream . San Marcos High School in Santa Barbara became an emergency shelter , operated by

1584-667: The ground next to his vehicle; he had been stabbed and then shot with his own weapon. His official cause of death was "contusion of spinal cord, gunshot wound to face, multiple stab wounds" per the Coroner's report. The suspect was shot and killed by police later that day. The rebuilt Olive View–UCLA Medical Center was opened in 1987. In June 1992, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved postgraduate physicians from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to work at Olive View–UCLA Medical Center. Physicians can now receive training not available at Cedars-Sinai. Olive View–UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar

1628-630: The gymnasium as the fire burned to within ten feet. The Physics Lab, Psychology Building, Math Building, and 15 of the faculty homes were destroyed. Two of the residence hall buildings in Clark residence hall were completely gutted, along with the RD cottage. With the recovery phase initiated over the weekend, faculty and staff were allowed back on campus November 17, but the school was scheduled to remain closed to students until December 1. The Mount Calvary Retreat House and Monastery in Santa Barbara, part of

1672-474: The hospital," and "before long, the hospital was surrounded on all sides by fire." Some 200 patients were sheltered in place as firefighters fought the flames outside the hospital. The hospital lost power, generators failed to work, and the smell of smoke filled darkened hallways, as staff tended to patients with flashlights, and critical patients were kept alive with hand-powered ventilators. A number of infants and critical patients were evacuated in ambulances. In

1716-420: The mandatory evacuation of residents north of the 210 Freeway in the Sylmar area. The evacuation area was expanded to cover more than 10,000 people, living in the far north end of the San Fernando Valley from Sylmar in the east to Granada Hills in the west. Evacuation centers and shelters were established at Sylmar High School , San Fernando High School , Chatsworth High School and Kennedy High School . By

1760-420: The ruins and found no evidence of any fatalities. The San Fernando Valley based Daily News described the Oakridge park, parts of which were also burned after the 1994 Northridge earthquake , as follows: "With 600 households, well-manicured lawns and luxury amenities, Oakridge Mobile Home Park was no trailer park. The gated community, most of which was reduced to ash by a roaring wildfire that swept through

1804-481: The spread of the West Nile virus . The Sylmar ponds where the mosquito fish are bred were inundated with ash, resulting in the fish deaths. On November 15, 2008, despite the fire raging several miles to the north, a San Fernando Valley shopping center, Americana at Brand , decided to move ahead with an evening fireworks display as part of its Christmas tree lighting ceremony. The Los Angeles Times reported that

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1848-505: Was 95% contained after burning 1,940 acres (785 ha), and on November 18, it was 100% contained. On November 15, 2008, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger visited areas burned in the Tea Fire, noting: "When you walk around the area that was destroyed, it looks like hell." The cause of the fire was under investigation for the first four days when authorities determined on November 17 that it was "human-caused". The following day, Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office investigators announced that

1892-405: Was killed in the line of duty on the grounds of Olive View Medical Center. Olsen observed a suspect crash his truck through the gates of the medical center parking lot, and race onto the vacant hospital grounds. Pursuing the suspect in his county patrol car, he made a vehicle stop and confronted the suspect, Steven Vyeda of Watsonville, CA . Responding LAPD officers found Officer Olson deceased on

1936-684: Was opened on May 8, 1987. Olive View incorporated UCLA in its name, becoming Olive View–UCLA Medical Center in 1992. In May 1997, Olive View–UCLA Medical Center became a part of ValleyCare, which maintains responsibility for the care of the medically indigent, low income, uninsured residents of the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys. Olive View–UCLA Medical Center has an affiliation with the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA , offering residency programs in major specialty areas as well as providing an on-campus School of Nursing. It

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