LOS ANGELES — The Alisal fire in Santa Barbara County is threatening the former vacation home of President Ronald Reagan.
Flames were nearing Rancho del Cielo, the 688-acre ranch known as the “Western White House,” where Reagan and his wife, Nancy, played host to several world leaders.
The property’s manager, Flemming Bertelsen, said Wednesday morning that the fire had come within a quarter-mile of the famed ranch but that so far it had “dodged a bullet.”
“We were expecting to get slammed by the fire running up-canyon on us, but amazingly, this unusual north wind kept pushing it away from us,” he said.
Bertelsen, a former wildland firefighter, said he and four other workers were continuing fuel reduction and structure defense, including clearing away dried leaves and twigs that blew throughout the night. It was far too soon to call the battle won, he said.
“People tend to underestimate fire behavior,” he said, “and when everything comes into alignment — when the winds and the topography and the fuels and the radiant sunlight all line up at once, there’s really nothing that’s going to stop fire from overrunning even a compound as well defended as Reagan Ranch.”
With oak and manzanita trees and riding trails hidden in the Santa Ynez Mountains, Reagan’s ranch was a sanctuary from the pressures of the White House.
The century-old, 1,200-square-foot adobe ranch house hosted world leaders, including Mikhail Gorbachev and Queen Elizabeth, as well as the Reagan family’s Thanksgiving dinners.
After the Reagans sold the ranch, it gained new life as a venue for the conservative Young America’s Foundation.
