A California fire outbreak has claimed as many as 100 homes in Santa Barbara County, threatening the homes of some famous celebrities and forcing close to 9000 residents to evacuate.
The "Tea" fire, which began yesterday, currently covers 1,500 acres and threatens 1,500 residential structures, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said on its Web site. None of the fire has been contained.
A total of 4,500 residents were ordered evacuated and another 4,500 residents were issued voluntary evacuation orders.
According to Tully Lehman, spokesman for the Insurance Information Network of California the state is estimating that at least 100 homes have been damaged or destroyed from the fire.
In this region of the fire, some of the homes are reportedly on the high-end scale, ranging from $1 million to $2 million, and owned by some well known celebrities, he said.
Among the notables mentioned having homes in the area are Oprah Winfrey, Rob Lowe, John Cleese and Michael Douglas.
Despite a number of fires so far this year in California, Mr. Lehman said the losses have not been too significant. The worst was a fire in October that hit a mobile home park destroying 36 homes.
One thing that appears to be aiding firefighters, he noted, is that homeowners are heeding the advice of the state officials and insurance companies to prepare a defensible space of 100 feet around the home.
According to the National Interagency Fire Center, there have been a total of 74,312 fires this year consuming more than 5.1 million acres.
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