People in Santa Barbara County are getting praise from those fighting the Thomas Fire. At a community meeting this afternoon, fire officials thanked those affected by firefighting efforts and evacuations for being patient through the eight-day effort so far.
County Fire Chief Eric Peterson said the weather been highlighted by extremely low humidity. He noted that at 236,000 acres, the Thomas Fire is almost the same size as the enormous Zaca Fire of ten years ago.
Cal Fire Incident Commander Jeff Pemberton said firefighting aircraft yesterday dropped 204-million gallons of water and one-point-two-million gallons of fire retardent on the blaze. Some seven-thousand firefighters are maintaining a 20-percent containment on the flames. Battalion Chief Chris Childers said the work to put out the Thomas Fire is "not gonna be quick and it's not gonna be easy."
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