1 minute read
Valorous Village
from Reports of Montecito Being Exclusive to the Newly Wed and Nearly Dead Turn Out to Have Been Greatly
Montecito Fire Chief David Neels is Taking the Fight to the Fire
Montecito Fire Chief David Neels poses by his ride, which is handily painted Fire Engine Red (photo courtesy Montecito Fire Department)
by Jeff Wing
Montecito Fire Department’s (MFD) Station 91 is an understated, red-tiled building in the foothills above Montecito – at a glance more “stately hacienda” than Command Center; though the hacienda’s 30’ aerial somewhat gives the game away. Fire Chief given to sudden grins, he is holding court in the station conference room. As if to keep the mission top-of-mind, large windows frame the gorgeous Santa Ynez Mountains, which as a matter of record occasionally catch fire.
“We have a challenging area here on the South Coast,” Neels says, “from Gaviota to the Ventura County line. The mountains have a very steep grade, access. There’s no road system that we can easily get to.” When a fire emergency is afoot, regional responders quickly come together with no jurisdictional murmuring to complicate rollout. “We have a really strong mutual aid plan in this county,” Neels says. “CarpinteriaSummerland, the City of Santa Barbara, the County Fire department, and the Los Padres National Forest – we come together quickly on any fire ignition on our front country.” He recalls one such ignition that still causes locals to shudder in remembrance.
“The night the Tea Fire started, I was coming back from a place called South OPS in Riverside County – the Southern California Coordination Center for all the region’s fire agencies. The wind and the weather and the temperature that night – it just didn’t feel right.” Feeling indefinably uneasy, Neels jumped off the northbound 101 at San Ysidro, his intuitions at full boil. He drove to his then-home in Valorous Village Page 344
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