#ThomasFire 2017_12_16 1:09pm PST
by Doc Searls Saturday, December 16, 2017

The #ThomasFire is now the third largest in California history, in terms of acreage. It has a good chance of overtaking the #CedarFire, which was near San Diego a few years ago.

It's a good thing that KEYT is now carrying its live coverage at that link, and seems also to have eliminated the clickbait #adtech on the index page as well. (It's still on the page with the live coverage of meetings.) They still have the misleading "Latest Breaking News" ad on the app. I clicked on it once before seeing it was actually an ad, and avoided going farther after looking at the advertiser's privacy policy, which involves handing personal data over to third parties for advertising purposes. They say they protect personal privacy, but I don't see how, and don't believe it.

The data connection to the Dish system at our house has now sphinctered down to a trickle. But I can still watch KEYT's live coverage here.

A new fire has started near Los Alamos, a small town in the Santa Ynez Valley. One passes through it on Highway 101 approaching Santa Maria from the south.

The live VIIRS and MODIS fire data is way behind, I am sure because the two satellites doing the detection haven't passed over recently.

KEYT is working to confirm that flights in and out of Santa Barbara's airport (SBA) are canceled. United's are suspended for sure.

101 is now re-opened both ways at Sea Cliff.

I now need to take a shower and head out to Newark airport to pick up our kid, coming back from college for the Holidays. The timing is good (for me at least): it's clear that KEYT is now kinda filling time with chat. This is not a bad thing. Reassuring, in fact.