SANTA BARBARA — The deadly wildfire that has ravaged Southern California for nearly two weeks gained fury overnight and now threatens swaths of coastal Santa Barbara County, authorities said Saturday. The inferno missed her house last week in the Ojai Valley, just east of Santa Barbara — although it covered her lawn with ash — and she hoped the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History would survive, too. Across the city of Santa Barbara on Saturday, residents began preparing for the worst. State Street, normally a bustling center of life and commerce in downtown Santa Barbara, was eerily quiet Saturday as the Thomas Fire raged closer. Joe’s Café, long a popular hangout in Santa Barbara, also shuttered early.

Source: Washington Post December 16, 2017 20:00 UTC