Man pleads guilty to arson in November brushfire

By NEIL HARTSTEIN NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

By KATHERINE ZEHNDER NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

The Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade, in partnership with Direct Relief and the Santa Barbara Foundation, deployed volunteers and heavy equipment Saturday to Orcutt to help homeowners recover from the recent flooding.

“It was awesome, amazing. We had such a good time. It was a good, meaningful volunteer project. We had about 30 volunteers and eight team leaders,” Abe Powell, CEO and CoFounder of the Bucket Brigade told the News-Press.

From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, volunteers gathered at the 1100 block of Parkland Drive in Orcutt to remove debris, replace damaged drywall and insulation, dig out silt from homes and help restore yards damaged by flooding.

“It is a very positive thing and an expression of community reaching out to help each other in a time of need. Only the nicest people come out and sacrifice a Saturday morning to help people they don’t know. It self- selects for a nice group of people. The day started with a nice group of people having coffee and donuts and then we had a briefing,” said Mr. Powell. “We had two different locations, both in Orcutt. The first was a single mother with a daughter who is visually impaired. We were restoring the yard so the dog would stay in the

Please see BRIGADE on A2