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Raging Wildfire Delays Grand Opening

May 7th, 2009

For only the second time in history, Apple has postponed an announced grand opening of a retail store, leaving an quiet space at 928 State Street in Santa Barbara (Calif.). After a long process of building permit approvals, construction and personnel hiring, the store was scheduled to open this Saturday at 10 a.m. However, on Wednesday county officials expanded a evacuation warning area to within 600 feet of the downtown store, which is about two miles from where the fire started Tuesday in the foothills overlooking the city. Over 20,000 residents have been evacuated from the coastal town, electric power is unreliable, and blowing soot and smoke have turned the downtown uninhabitable. Weather conditions over the weekend will be crucial to allow firefighters to control the fire. Apple’s Web site says only that the opening , “has been postponed. Check back soon for new opening details.” The International Plaza (Fla.) store grand opening was postponed after the September 11th terrorist attacks. Check the evacuation map after the break.

This map shows the mandatory (dark orange) and warning (light orange) evacuation areas for the Jesusita fire at its peak, May 8, 2009 at noon. The Apple store location was within 600 feet of the warning area and about 1.4 miles from the closest burn area.
View Santa Barbara Fire Evacuation in a larger map


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I was there tonight (May 7th, at 9:30 P.M.) and saw no flag, in fact no Apple Store identification of any kind, not even a website. There were just big black wood panels covering the front entrance. I was able to peek through, though, and saw some construction workers putting some last minute touches on the store interior. Everything was all set up, lights were on, demos were running on Macs, iPods, iPhones and Genius Bar displays. The store is basically complete, but no Apple identification on the store facade anywhere.

In terms of the fire, yeah the smoke is pretty bad down there at the store. Ashes were coming down, and there was so much smoke in the sky that the moon was literally glowing red, I’m not kidding.

I hope the fires are put out soon and the air clears so this store can finally open!

Austin May 7, 2009 at 10:13 pm

Just as a point of accuracy, one other Apple Store opening was postponed. International Plaza in Tampa was delayed as it was scheduled to open right after 9/11. It’s opening was delayed by a few days. [IFO - Thanks…correction made.]

Hackintosh May 8, 2009 at 6:54 am

Actually, I hope the fires are put out and the air clears for a lot more reasons. It’s so bad, the opening of the Apple Store is no longer much of a priority.

Austin May 8, 2009 at 9:16 am

cool, maybe it will burn down the store. Long live Mac Mechanic!

Pete Sake May 8, 2009 at 5:43 pm

Apple had three employees stationed outside on Saturday. HUNDREDS of people showed up and were told about the postponement one at a time. The barrier on the front is still up and the Apple flag is not flying.

I asked if it was only due to the fire nearby and the employee wouldn’t say. At the time there was a very large crane in the back parking lot moving in something heavy so the postponement may not only have been due to the fire.

I’m glad it was postponed, though. With all this happening here it is hard to celebrate much of anything else except for the better weather the last few days that helped the fire-fighters a great deal.

Now it looks like the fire will be out soon and everything can begin to return back to some degree of normalcy here.

SB Surfer May 10, 2009 at 7:08 am
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