 I'm Brian May in the Cal OES Operations Center and I want to give you an update on the Thomas Fire now and it's 13th day it is now the third largest wildfire in California history and to get more on this fire and the activity today with the red flag warnings we're actually going to go to the front lines to guys who have been on the fire lines all week long my co-worker Sean Boyd and Jonathan Goodell are both at San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito and Sean I want to start just tell me kind of where you are and what you're seeing today. Well it is coincidental I think and maybe even a bit ironic that we are here at San Ysidro Ranch which is a very historical location here in the Santa Barbara area this is where Jacqueline Onassis Kennedy and the president got married not where they got married but actually where they had their honeymoon way back in the 60s this is San Ysidro Ranch we have firefighters who are stationed out here right now prepared to defend this historical location in what is really becoming an historical fire we are in an area that overlooks or is overlooked by the mountains where this fire is burning right now the smoke right now is that it's very worst in the last week that we have been here firefighters we have Cal OES engines right over here who are refilling their water tanks and are again on defensive measures the wind out here has been incredible it has been the windiest that we have seen it in at least the last seven days in fact our our hotel was evacuated today there was a power outage and the wind has created such a mess with the ash breathe that is in the air it's incredibly dangerous we cannot breathe without these things and every now and then you get that particulate matter into the eyes and it burns so right now the fire is really giving firefighters a heck of a time in trying to not only contain it but to keep it from spreading down here into the urban interface from wildland interface to the urban interface which is known in the in the fire community as wooey w u i wooey it sounds funny but it's not a funny matter the wildland interface is now what they're dealing with they've transitioned to that interface and defensible posturing for these homes and we are in an area where there are multi-million dollar homes Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres live not too far from where we are now multi-million dollar beautiful and it of course would be a shame to see any house go regardless of the price but the area here it truly is beautiful but the smoke is as thick as we've ever seen it in the last seven days as I said and it is blowing right out of the canyon what is interesting come this way Phil we're gonna show you something here which I think is really interesting okay right behind me I don't know how well that's showing up in the shot but over here behind me we have the smoke blowing out from one canyon and then a little bit to the right there's blue sky and then a little bit farther it's more smoke so we're right here in the middle of what should be a beautiful spot but because we have winds blowing down the canyons from both sides of us that smoke is just swirling around through here and you can see the the wind changes periodically the wind will come in from one direction and then it'll slow down and then it'll be calm and then it'll come from the other direction so this is the kind of thing that firefighters are having to contend with they can be in canyon side by side but that wind is going to be completely different depending on where they are in those canyons Sean I know you talked about you guys were evacuated in the hotel this morning and you're among thousands there were literally thousands of evacuations in Santa Barbara and Montecito are those evacuations still ongoing as we speak now yes they are in fact the latest numbers that we got just a little while ago in fact 20 to 25,000 evacuated from Santa Barbara many of those coming as a result of this current change in fire behavior I want to ask you quickly Sean I know the winds have been the big threat today those red flag warnings as you and I are talking now are you able to hear or see any aircraft I know at one point in time they were struggling even to get aircraft in the air to fight the fire from up above yeah about an hour and a half ago we saw some of the big helicopters the kind of funny looking ones that have the hose hanging down from the middle they were flying and I think the reason for that is that they're big enough they can handle some of these winds but we have not seen any other aircraft at least in the last hour these red flag warnings are making these dangerous conditions and they're going to continue so if there are residents watching this that are in the area that could be affected let's give them some advice Sean what should residents do if they're in these areas well first of all they need to pay attention to any of the alerts that come through their cell phones those those wireless emergency alerts are critical in conveying information to them about when and where to evacuate in fact we got several of them this morning when our hotel was evacuated down along the water front the other thing to do is know where your shelters are listen to the radio a lot of people are having problems getting those signals to their phones and when they evacuate they leave their home they're in the car often they're not going to get those alerts or the signals to their to their phone in their car so turn on the radio listen to both amna and fm radio which is what we were doing today they're giving a lot of information a lot of the TV stations are feeding their signal to the radio stations and giving continuous coverage so that's extremely important turn on that radio when you get in the car and make sure you do not blow past any of the road closures it's critical because those roads are closed for a reason it's for your safety so know your evacuation route know where you're going and get there safely let people know that where you're going to be Sean thank you very much great work out there you guys stay safe as well I know you guys have been down there for quite a long time as Sean mentioned keep watching keep monitoring TV radio your local first responders we've got all of the latest fire information on wildfirerecovery.org thanks for watching