Santa Barbara County

The Animal Shelter Assistance Program in Santa Barbara County says the calico named Patches was brought in as a stray last month and a microchip scan revealed her identity.

A koala hospital in Australia posted a somber update on its Facebook page on Tuesday — that the koala rescued from a bushfire has died. The koala was pulled from a tree surrounded by fire by a shirtless woman last week in a now-viral video. The baby koala was named Ellenborough Lewis after the rescuer’s grandchild.

Authorities served search warrants Sunday at the Southern California company that owned the scuba diving boat that caught fire and killed 34 people last week.

U.S. food regulators say they weren’t able to identify a contamination source for a food poisoning outbreak that prompted them to warn people to avoid romaine lettuce this fall. The Food and Drug Administration says it wasn’t able to determine how a water reservoir on a Santa Barbara County, California, farm became contaminated with E. coli. It also says the...

Roads are covered with mud and debris during morning downpours Saturday Feb. 2, 2019 in Santa Barbara County.

A Southern California couple who lost their home in a wildfire made a new happy memory Sunday amid the ashes when they found what was left of the wife’s wedding and engagement rings.

The California mudslide that killed at least 19 people is causing distress miles from where the torrent of muck and boulders stopped, as a local economy that thrives on tourism and the lure of sun-soaked beaches was left reeling.

The oldest victim swept away in a California mudslide was Jim Mitchell, who had celebrated his 89th birthday the day before. He died with his wife of more than 50 years, Alice.

The largest wildfire on record in California is 100-percent contained more than a month after it began in the hills of Ventura County, according to Los Padres National Forest officials.

The number of missing after a California mudslide has fluctuated wildly, due to shifting definitions, the inherent uncertainty that follows a natural disaster, and just plain human error. On Thursday, the number provided by authorities went from 48, down to eight, then back up to 43. Officials say a clerical mistake led to the figure of eight being released. At...

Cars were found washed up on a Santa Barbara County beach in the wake of Tuesday’s deadly storm and mud flow. The cars, possibly carried to the beach by the floodwaters, were found in the Montecito area. The cars were not occupied.

Authorities now say 17 people have died in Southern California mudslides and another 13 are missing.

A 14-year-old girl was one of several people rescued by firefighters who fanned out across a flood-ravaged Santa Barbara County community after a night of downpours and mudslides.

A California wildfire that has killed two people and seared its way through cities, towns and wilderness northwest of Los Angeles became the largest blaze ever officially recorded in California on Friday, authorities said. The Thomas fire took only 2 ½ weeks to burn its way into history books as unrelenting winds and parched weather turned everything in its path...

All evacuation orders related to the Thomas fire in Santa Barbara County were lifted Thursday, more than two weeks after the wildfire started in Ventura County and grew into one of the state’s largest blazes on record.

Firefighters worked on increasing fire lines Friday in the Ventura County community of Fillmore after gusts died down slightly, providing a brief respite from the critical combination of low humidity and strong winds.

Firefighters kept a wall of flames from descending mountains into coastal neighborhoods after a huge and destructive Southern California wildfire exploded in size, becoming the fifth largest in state history.