Firefighters maintained good control of the Holiday Fire north of Goleta Sunday, with one crew witnessing a touching moment in the ashes of a couple's home.
A Santa Barbara County Fire Department crew had escorted Ishu and Laura Rao to their destroyed house on Fairview Avenue to search for Laura Rao's Tiffany & Co. wedding ring.
They had a general idea where the ring might be when they started looking, said Mike Eliason, the fire department's spokesman.
When they found the damaged ring, Ishu Rao dropped to one knee and asked his wife to marry him again.
The moment came as a surprise to the crew accompanying the Raos, Eliason said. But Eliason — a former newspaper photographer who often posts dramatic fire pictures on the SBCFireInfo Twitter account — captured the moment.
"I grabbed my iPhone," Eliason said.
The 100-acre fire that started Friday night remained 80 percent contained Sunday.
Officials had new figures on the number of structures burned. Thirteen single-family homes were destroyed, three were damaged, and 15 buildings, including barns, workshops and sheds, were destroyed. The cause remained under investigation.
About 75 firefighters from the Ventura County Fire Department helped fight the Holiday Fire, officials said, as well as some personnel from city departments in Oxnard and Ventura.
County crews in recent days have also helped fight the Valley Fire in San Bernardino County, the County Fire northwest of Sacramento and the Klamathon Fire in Siskiyou County.
On Sunday afternoon, a county helicopter crew was sent to a brush fire in the Lebec area off Interstate 5 in Kern County.