Most Jesusita Fire Evacuations Lifted

Santa Barbara (myFOXla.com) - This story has been updated with a new version. Click here for the new version of this story .

Thousands of evacuees began going home Saturday as a blanket of cool, moist air flowing in from the Pacific Ocean tamed a wind-driven wildfire that burned 80 homes along the outskirts of town during the week.

>> You can watch Gigi Graciette's report in the video player.

Cheers erupted at an evacuation center when Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown announced that mandatory evacuation orders for most areas were being downgraded to evacuation warnings, meaning residents could return but remain alert.

"We got a break in this weather," said actor Rob Lowe, an area resident who watched the sheriff deliver the news.

Among the first to return were Jonathan Kenny, 44, and his wife, Susan Kim, 42, who found their home covered in ash but still standing near blackened hillsides that showed just how close the fire came.

"I feel like we dodged a bullet on this one," said Kenny, who watered plants and fed goldfish in a backyard pond.

"They're not floating belly up so that's a good sign," Kim said.

But a short distance away up a narrow canyon road, gutted homes and burned out cars awaited the return of their owners. A scorched palm tree jutted toward a clear, blue sky and a lawn chair, scorched appliances and metal filing cabinets were among the few recognizable remnants. Investigators studied the area, where three firefighters were injured in a firestorm.

Cherie Topper gasped when she reached the top of a hill and caught a glimpse of her tiny blue home nestled in a canyon behind a reservoir. "I can see my roof," she told a friend, tears welling in her eyes. "My house is still there."

Topper, a 52-year old program manager for Raytheon, had raced home Tuesday to pack and have her family's pet llama, Oreo, taken away as smoke rose from the mountains. She had to settle for the distant view Saturday because the house was in a still-closed area, but she could not contain her enthusiasm.

"Thank you!" she shouted at a passing firetruck, throwing her arms in the air.

More than 30,000 people had been under mandatory evacuation orders dating back as far as Tuesday afternoon, when the fire erupted just above Santa Barbara on the face of steep Santa Ynez Mountains. Another 23,000 had been on evacuation standby.

Notorious local winds known as "sundowners" sweeping from inland and down the face of the mountains hurled the fire into outlying neighborhoods Wednesday afternoon, causing most of the destruction, and again late Thursday and early Friday.

A predicted sundowner failed to materialize Friday night and the normal flow of ocean air pushed ashore a dense marine layer that didn't let the sun peek through until nearly midday. Officials had said an onshore flow would not only raise humidity levels but blow the fire away from developed areas on the foothills of the mountain range.

Firefighters remained cautious but said the 8,700-acre blaze was 30 percent contained and was expected to be fully encircled by Wednesday. On Friday it had been active along a five-mile front just above Santa Barbara, west toward neighboring Goleta and east toward the community of Montecito.

The containment line largely hugged the fire's southern edge, where most homes are located, said Nick Schuler, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The hottest parts of the fire were on the northeast and western edges, said city fire spokesman John Ahlman.

Water-dropping helicopters continued to shuttle between reservoirs and hot spots but flames were not apparent and the huge plumes of smoke that loomed over the city for days had vanished.

The National Weather Service predicted that overnight clouds and fog would continue through Monday morning before a return of a weak-to-moderate sundowners in the Santa Ynez range Monday night and into midweek.

"The mist is going to take a way a lot of heat from the fire and that's all good," Ahlman said.

The evacuations were lifted in phases to avoid traffic jams.

Martha Marsango, an 87-year-old widow, didn't wait. She said she couldn't take it anymore and on Friday made her way back to the home of 48 years where she raised her children and skinny-dipped in the pool with her late husband.

"I was worried about my house," she said. "I figured I could replace everything that was in it, but it is still my home."

Resident Eric Hall, 59, said he believed the worst was over when he felt the mist sweep in off the ocean.

"The weather is cooperating," said Hall, who was having his daughter's ash-covered car cleaned at a car wash.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited evacuees housed at the University of California, Santa Barbara, campus before the sheriff's announcement.

"I think one woman came up to me and said, 'I like it here much better than my home because here finally I'm getting served other than me always having to provide for the family.' So