Now that all Santa Barbara evacuation orders have been listed, we know you’re looking forward to getting back to normal. Getting rid of the Thomas Fire ash is part of that, so we want to let you know that we’re working on a plan to clear Parks and Rec Department locations of ash.
As we told you earlier, we’re following Santa Barbara County’s Preliminary Ash Management Plan, which you can find in English and Spanish at CountyOfSB.org.
This means, among other things, that we will not being using leaf blowers, we’ll make every effort to not stir the ash up into the air (although some of that is probably unavoidable), and we’ll work to keep the water we use from flowing into storm drains.
We will let you know more as soon as we know it, but for now, we’ve already started clearing the ash at the Municipal Tennis Center. We hope to be finished with that on the Pickleball courts and our three lighted tennis courts on Saturday, December 23.
We’re also working hard to get the ash cleared from the sidewalks along Cabrillo Boulevard and Chase Palm Park in time for this Saturday's and Sunday's Santa Barbara Arts and Crafts Show dates, so your last-minute Christmas shopping will be as ash-free as we can possibly make it.
If you're facing the task of cleaning up ash from the Thomas Fire in your own home, further resources are available at CountyOfSB.org. In particular, their page on Thomas Fire Cleanup and Health Resources is a great place to start.