Tea fire in Montecito

The Tea fire consumes a hillside home in Montecito.  (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

Santa Barbara residents watch the advancing Tea fire on the hillside in Montecito.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Glendale firefighter Eric Carlsen, left, with help from Steve Chiachi, pours water on the remains of the physics building on the Westmont College.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

The Mount Calvary Benedictine Retreat House and Monastery sits under a cloud of smoke from the Montecito Tea fire.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Brother Joseph Brown, of the Benedictine Order of the Holy Cross, walks through the rubble of the monastery. “We’re grateful for all that got out alive,” Brown said. “We are grateful to God for all the wonderful times we had here.”  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Brown takes in the monastery’s devastation.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Scores of homes sit smoldering the morning after flames raced through the hills of Montecito near Santa Barbara.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The setting sun peeks through bare limbs left after the fire swept through.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Firefighters battle flames as a Montecito home burns.  (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

Flames engulf a home on the hillside above Stanwood Drive.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Flames climb through Rattlesnake Canyon Park in the Los Padres National Forest above Santa Barbara before sunrise today.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Westmont College psychology Professor Brenda Smith surveys the remains of Bauder Hall, a 1920s building that served as Psychology Department offices and classrooms. Smith said her residence on the campus survived the Tea fire.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

“You made it!” cries Sharon Willis, a nurse at Westmont College, as she hugs Nathaniel Taylor, an acquaintance who lives near the school. Taylor, whose parents are professors at Westmont, and Willis each live in a faculty housing tract that was hit hard by the Tea fire.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

A crew with the Santa Barbara City Fire Department puts out flames on a home on Coyote Drive in Montecito.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

A firefighter with the Torrance Fire Department puts out hot spots on Mountain Drive in Montecito. Crews brought in from throughout California are battling the blaze.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Kelly Voyson, left, and his wife, Marya, walk toward the charred remains of their home on Conejo Road in Santa Barbara.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Kelly, left, and Marya Voyson look inside her father’s fire-ravaged car on Conejo Road in Santa Barbara.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Westmont College students Sheeva Lotfian of Laguna Niguel, left, and Megan Beard of Medford, Ore., are among the approximately 800 people who took refuge in the gym on the Santa Barbara campus.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Santa Barbara resident Russ Behm, rests at an evacuation center at San Marcos High School in Santa Barbara. Behm spent the night at the Red Cross shelter and as of Friday morning did not know whether his house had survived the fire.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Santa Barbara resident Rosario Rossano, left, reads about the fire as her daughter Marisol, 2, looks on. The family, including Rossano’s father, Joel Ramos, and her daughter Arwen, 3, stayed at the evacuation center at San Marcos High School in Santa Barbara.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

A California Department of Forestry air tanker flies over dozens of smoldering homes in the Montecito area.  (Kevork Djansezian / Associated Press)

Firefighters look over a home that was destroyed Thursday night when the Tea fire swept through the Montecito area.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

A firefighter looks out from a damaged home.  (Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images)

Patio furniture angles down a steep cliff on the deck area of a home that burned during the Tea fire.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

Nikos Hatzakis of the Compton Fire Department is framed by the carcass of a charred vintage car.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

A firefighting plane drops a load of fire retardant over the Tea fire in Montecito.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Smoke hangs in the air as the sun rises Friday morning, revealing the damage a fast-moving fire brought to the area.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

A burned motorcycle sits in smoldering ashes in the driveway of a home that was destroyed by the fire that started Thursday evening.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

Cal Fire Battalion Chief Bill Fisher tells Santa Barbara resident Gene Winkler, 68, that he may have to leave his home. Winkler spent the night at his home on Gibraltar Road as many of his neighbors evacuated.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Sabrina Bell-Bonadeo and her fiance, John Weber, survey the damage near a family member’s home that survived the fire.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

Clint Hull of the Ventura County Fire Department hits a hot spot on the Mount Calvary Monastery, built in 1927.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

The charred remains of a Porsche sit on the lot of a destroyed home on Coyote Road in Montecito.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

A charred car rests in the middle of a smoldering landscape along Conejo Road in Santa Barbara.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

A worker with Tidwell Excavating looks over devastation from the Tea fire to homes along Conejo Road in Santa Barbara.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Kelly Voyson, left, and his wife, Marya, in the charred remains of their home in Santa Barbara. “It’s kind of crazy. We’ve lost everything we’ve owned. We’re homeless,” Voyson said. They are staying in a Santa Barbara hotel.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Marya Voyson walks through the ruins of what was her home on Conejo Road in Santa Barbara. Voyson lived there with her husband and children for the last 25 years. “It’s still my home. Everybody’s going to rebuild. I’m hopeful,” Voyson said.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

The charred remnants of one of the approximately 100 homes destroyed in the Tea fire in the hills above Montecito near Santa Barbara.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)