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As fires raged in the foothills of Santa Barbara county over the weekend, commiseration and concern came from around the world, from friends and colleagues in Bangladesh, Haiti and Sierra Leone.
For Thomas Tighe, a resident of Montecito and the head of Direct Relief, an aid organization that dispenses medical provisions to the needy around the globe, the shoe was on the other foot — this time the emergency was his own.
Mr. Tighe and his family quickly gathered photos, drawings, birth certificates and computer hard drives. They summoned the dogs, rounded up the cats and evacuated their home on Sunday.
As they fled, the messages came in. Father Richard Frechette, the founder of a pediatric hospital in Haiti, sent an email: “Are you OK? and your home and offices? many prayers for you! Let me know if we can help you in any way!”
Mr. Tighe was shaken but safe — the fire never reached his neighborhood. Yet he felt a shared sense of vulnerability from the people he has spent a career assisting.
Continue reading the main story“People just wanted to check in,” he said. “I’m not sure they even knew what they could do. But they wanted to extend an offer. It’s really quite touching from people who themselves have very little.”
By Monday night the Thomas fire, the largest of the Southern California blazes, had reached a milestone: It was 50 percent contained. Calmer winds quieted the fire, which has burned 271,000 acres, the third largest fire in modern California history. Gusts are expected later in the week and Cal Fire estimates that 18,000 homes and businesses are still threatened.
With his family sheltered with friends and relatives, Mr. Tighe went back to work Monday — he flew to Puerto Rico, where Direct Relief has been the largest donor of medical supplies in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
He received a message on his phone Monday that the mandatory evacuation in his neighborhood had been lifted. He will soon return to California hoping that the fires still raging in the wild lands above Montecito, stay there.
California Online
(Please note: We regularly highlight articles on news sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.)
• When a 8.1 magnitude earthquake struck Mexico on Sept. 8, five-foot waves sloshed in the Devil’s Hole pool in the Mojave Desert, 1,500 miles away. It’s one of the mysteries the Amargosa, the slender thread of a river that defies the desert. [The New York Times]
• The San Francisco medical examiner confirmed that a heart attack killed Mayor Ed Lee of San Francisco last week. [San Francisco Chronicle]
• There are particular challenges for California buried in the Republican tax bill, and some economists believe that could ultimately prove a drag on growth and harm the state’s competitiveness. [Los Angeles Times]
• Gov. Jerry Brown: “Call your Republican representative and tell them: ‘Vote no on this tax monstrosity.’” [Video on Twitter]
• Congress will consider an $81 billion disaster aid package. How much of it will go to California? The Republican leadership hasn’t said. [Los Angeles Times]
• After at least 15 women accused Judge Alex Kozinski of subjecting them to unwanted sexual comments or physical contact, he announced his retirement Monday. Judge Kozinski was appointed to the Ninth Circuit by Ronald Reagan in 1985. [The New York Times]
• Bay Area business groups and a think tank have hired Governor Brown’s campaign firm to drum up support for more transport infrastructure: trains, ferries and another bridge across, or a tunnel underneath, the Bay. [Mercury News]
• Earlier this year a U.C. Davis chemistry professor oversaw tests that found 93 percent of marijuana samples collected from dispensaries in four Southern California counties tested positive for pesticides. Marijuana sold when recreational sales become legal Jan. 1 may have the same problem: Stiffer regulations and testing requirements are being phased in next year and growers and sellers have a six-month grace period. [Associated Press via the Daily Democrat]
• Holiday tips: How to foil “porch pirates” — the Christmas present thieves who swipe your delivery from your doorstep. [Orange County Register]
• Reed Print, a publisher of weekly newspapers in the Central Valley, is going out of business. [Bakersfield.com]
• The cheapest house in San Francisco this year? $491,000 [San Francisco Chronicle]
• The actor Rob Lowe, who has a house in the Montecito area, thanked firefighters with a home-cooked meal [The Tribune]
And Finally ...
Before it expanded into a global restaurant chain, Trader Vic’s was a bar in Oakland.
And since 1960 Claudette Lum has been welcoming guests with a gardenia in her hair, first at a branch in San Francisco and then in Emeryville.
She has served both Queen Elizabeth II and Nancy Reagan. Now, at age 80, she is retiring at the end of the year.
She explained the decision to the San Francisco Chronicle: “I’m a cyclist. I cycle 40 miles a week. I enjoy the outdoors. I have a boyfriend. I just think it’s time. I’m healthy, so why not?”
California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com.
California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.
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