Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch threatened by 18,000 acre SoCal wildfire
A wildfire is threatening many properties in Santa Barbara - including Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch.
The famous estate is located in Santa Barbara County, California, is at risk of being engulfed by flames from the deadly wildfire, which has been dubbed Lake Fire.
Jackson, who died in 2009 at the age of 50 after having a cardiac arrest in Los Angeles, bought the ranch for $17 million and it is estimated that he spent a further $35 million turning it into an amusement park with a zoo.
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He also installed a theater, a ferris wheel, a go-kart track, as well as his own fire department and a train station.
The fire has been raging since Friday (July 5), and there are currently no signs of it slowing down, with it having already burnt through more than 18,000 acres.
At 9pm on Friday, the Sheriff's Office issued its first warning when it urged residents of the Figueroa Mountain Road area, from the Forest Station to Chamberlin Ranch, to prepare for evacuation.
Since then, at 7pm yesterday (July 7) the warning was upgraded to an evacuation order for all areas from Figueroa Mountain Road at Junction Camp (including Tunnel Rd) to Chamberlin Ranch.
This also included areas from Zaca Lake Rd at Foxen Canyon Road north to the Sisquoc River including east of Foxen Canyon Road to the 9000 block, meaning a significant number of Santa Barbara residents have been displaced.
While it is currently burning through rural areas around the Los Padres National Forest, a strong breeze to the south or the west could encourage flames into more densely populated communities.
Anthony Stornetta, incident commander with Santa Barbara County Fire, said as per Fox Weather: "As we’re looking at the fire, we’re trying to go direct and directly on the fire line.
"If we can’t do it because of the steep, rugged terrain, we’ll go indirect. But we’re also looking way ahead of the fire as well."
Less than 10 percent of the fire is currently contained, FOX Weather reports.
There are currently 10 helicopters fighting to extinguish the fire, as well as a total of 641 fire fighters, 56 fire engines, nine dozers, six water tenders and 15 crews.
As of 7.20pm yesterday (July 7), only one property has been damaged, while 60 are threatened, while one firefighter has sustained an injury due to Lake Fire.
According to Scott Safechuck, a Santa Barbara Fire Department spokesman, temperatures had reached 90 degrees - and it was expected to be high again tonight, as per Deadline.
A statement from Incident Information System reads: "A large number of fire resources are on scene and responding to this rapidly developing wildfire. Firefighters are aggressively suppressing the fire.
"The communities and resources affected are a top priority."
Topics: Michael Jackson
Joe Yates