San Diego fires

S

Sneaks

New member
We're sitting almost directly in the path of the smoke plume from the fires near Escondido with a yard full of ash, burning eyes and the smoke is like a fog. We're safe and definitely not in danger but the next city east of us (Rancho Santa Fe) home of $3,000,000 homes and up is evacuated and parts of Solana Beach to the South of us has evacuation "Pack and Prepare" orders. No end in sight.

Two hours ago we received word that Valley Center is being evacuated. That's the home of Boris. "Journey On" Boris. He hasn't posted since Saturday and we're wondering if he's safe. Anybody know?

One of the main North South arteries, Interstate 15, has been closed most of the day with structure fires right next to the freeway. All traffic was rerouted to Interstate 5, now a madhouse. San Diego Mayor asked that everyone stay home from work today. An unprecedented step. Resources are at an all time low. At one time today, the entire city of San Diego was protected by ONE fire engine!!!!

Lets hope for a break in the winds and double digit humidity again.

Don
 
Don. my 89-year old father lives over near El Camino Real in Encinitas, and a brother lives in Cardiff, so I've been following this stuff very carefully. Their shop is in Sorrento Valley, some 6-8 miles SE of Del Mar, and even there the smoke has been thick.

Right now, they are all planning to sleep tonight at the shop, just to escape the smoke.

It's no fun down there right now, for sure! Hope the fires get contained pretty quick.
 
Dave, my 89 year old mother is on El Camino Real in the Atria Assisted Living facility. About 1 1/2 miles from here. They've closed the building up because the main risk to the elderly is air quality. We have a hepa filter on our A/C unit and worse case for us would be loss of power. If that happens, our RV is sitting in the driveway at the ready.

I think the most emotional moment on local TV involved a reporter named Larry Himmel who has worked at KFMB for well over 30 years, starting as a teenager. He was working as a field reporter. He and his crew broadcasted his own house being torched by the fire. Reality TV for sure....

Don
 
Our best wishes for all who are affected by this series of fires. At one point in my life, I sat in a fire station in Carson, listening to the mutual aid radio, as my parent's home was saved from a fire in the hills of Glendale.

I have been getting peroidic reports from my son Todd--sounds like it is bad down there. Lets hope that the winds diminish soon.
 
Don,
I was thinking about you as I watched the fires on TV...came upstairs to inquire on the site how you were doing and now I know.
Thoughts and prayers to you and all the others in the "dragons" path.

Any word from Fishtales?
 
With a Family as big as this, I was at work today with the news running most of the time on the fires, and intermitantly wondering if, and knowing the answer to "I wonder if thereare C-Brats down there?" You all were in my prayers today, and will be for safety and and end to the conflagration.
It's not just houses, It's homes and family. I remember being a kid at home and waking up to the pounding on the door and someone yelling your house is on fire. You never forget that feeling. What a cruel thing for that poor reporter to have to go through.
Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
DaveS":3jf6o5x5 said:
Thoughts and prayers to you and all the others in the "dragons" path.

Any word from Fishtales?
Click to expand...

Thanks Dave, your prayers are working. We woke up this morning to stillness outside here on the coast. Calm but very smoky and the ash is much finer. We're crossing fingers that it remains calm. As a firefighter I know you have a good idea of what the firefighters and the fire victims are going through. Late last night they were discussing the "E" word with Encinitas/Olivenhain and that gave us a scare but the wind shifted and things moved south.

Have not heard from Fishtales. He's north of the Los Angeles basin and our local stations are focused on this area. I've been concerned about Chris (Rana Verde) but the main worry is Boris and Judy on Journey On. His home is on a steep hillside and that area is still evacuated.

The big concern now is the fire along Hwy 94 from El Cajon to Tecate Mexico. It's been racing south and some fairly heavily populated areas in the Spring Valley/Chula Vista areas are seriously threatened.

Harvey, it's true. Fires become far more personal when you know the folks involved and Boris/Judy are local. I think Da Nerd even has relatives in the evacuated areas.

Something that hasn't been mentioned much on TV is the plight of illegal aliens who trek through many of the fire areas on their way north. I do know several seriously burned individuals have been discovered and rescued by firefighters but I think the count is going to skyrocket before it's all over.

Hard to imagine but according to this morning's paper 300,000 people have been forced to evacuate so far.
Don

7am edit: Winds are picking up, more evacuations are being ordered. Another fire up toward Riverside County is keeping I-15 closed. 500 homes, 100 commercial buildings destroyed and the numbers are still increasing.

Damn!

Don
 
We woke up to nearly clear skies.
The Sedgewick Fire (UCSB property) in 100% contained.
The Ranch fire just east of us near Piro is still burning, it is about to merge with another fire. I heard this morning that it jumped the freeway (126)
The Nightsky fire is near Camarillo, Joel and Sue (SEA3PO) was out of power the for awhile, is fully contained.

Many new small fires starting about as fast as they contain some of the others.

Thats the news for Santa Barbara/Ventura Counties.
 
Pat Anderson":278az0fr said:
OK, Uncle Don, Rana Verde Chris and others - how is everybody making out with the fires in SoCal? The news pictures are awful, hope everyone is OK...
Click to expand...

Every hour it gets worse, Pat. All of SoCal is under a power shortage alert now, the count of homes lost has topped an incredible 1,000 as reported by Public Service at 8am, evacuees number over 300,000 (10% of the entire county population) and none of the fires are under control. There are ten major fires in So Cal and the two that affect us are the Witch Creek fire that's hitting Journey On and the other North County brats, and the Harris fire that's west of Hwy 94 and rapidly closing on Chula Vista. A third smaller fire is also threatening Valley Center from a different direction.

NONE of the fires are even remotely under control. Because of limited firefighting resources most of the emergency services effort is concentrated on rescue and saving threatened cities and large subdivisions. It's still marching toward the coast. :sad

The bright spots? There were literally more volunteers at the Qualcomm Stadium shelter than evacuees at 5pm yesterday and help is pouring in from everywhere. Very few cases of looting going on, at least so far.

Uncle Don
 
Still blowing a gale here...darn Santa Ana winds.. it's hot and windy... I was supposed to have a new roof installed starting yesterday... they cancelled..you can't breathe the air...... you can taste the fires there is so much ash in the wind.... at least today we can see the sky....
We are in no danger here...I guess it got to within a few miles of us....but between us and the fires is at least a mile or two of Million dollar homes and so I am pretty safe living in town... theres some advantages to being middle class....
The boat is covered with a tarp so it is safe from all the ash, although it will need a good washdown when all this is over.

I already tried telling Susan I should take the boat and the dogs and head inland...but she was not buying....rats.

Joel
SEA3PO
 
Thanks for the update, Uncle. With Roger and Joel checking in, it looks like we need to hear from Chris and Boris as to where they are and how they are doing. This is just unimaginable. The local news last night showed a fire truck from the Snoqualmie Ranger Station (Forest Service) about to head south to help in the effort. From TV, it just looks like it is impossible to do anything effective to fight these fires.
 
Pat Anderson":1b313cc7 said:
From TV, it just looks like it is impossible to do anything effective to fight these fires.
Click to expand...

With the high winds, it was. Fortunately the winds have subsided enough and visibility has improved so firefighting aircraft can now be used. They're on it now and for us, it's making a difference. The mandatory evacuations are still going on (here it starts exactly 10 blocks east of us and extends east to I-15) but some areas are being allowed to return home. The entire oceanside city of Del Mar got the word about 15 minutes ago that they could return home today. They were evacuated yesterday evening. So far, that's the only area west if I-5 that was evacuated.

Seeing as we're the southernmost west coast city, the only real help we can get is from the North and it's a long long drive for your Snoqualmie Ranger Station engine. Trust me, they are more than welcome....

The numbers are bizarre. 350,000 temporarily homeless folk now, with maybe 5,000 of those permanently homeless since the destroyed homes count is over 1,500 and expected to be much higher.

Unfortunately, two major fires are expected to come together along Hwy 76. The entire Hwy 76 corridor has just been ordered to evacuate because when they do join, it's gonna be a huge conflagration. The quaint city of Julian was just now put under mandatory evacuation along with folks on Palomar Mt., so I really expect the 350,000 numbers to swell alarmngly by later today.

Our neighborhood is packed and prepared. Can't go out, most businesses closed, we just sit and worry.

WHERE IS BORIS!!!

Don
 
I talked to Boris! Judy is in the LA area safe, Boris waited too long and he's still at home watching the fort. He's safe and will likely check in when he gets to it - he's on a land line SLOW connection.

Update: I-5 was closed this morning and may be opening again in a few minutes. I-15 has intermittent closures but I-8 is again allowing high profile traffic through, though why anybody would want to go to Yuma is beyond me. :roll:

Best local info

Biggest shock was Katrina comparisons at the morning Emergency Services briefing.

At this point, more people have been evacuated in San Diego County than the entire Katrina incident. Without any major injuries or lawlessness. Only two have been arrested so far for looting, 7 others questioned and released. Qualcomm Stadium is holding over 12,000 evacuees and there have been nothing but positive reports. Compare that to New Orleans. We'v also had fewer than 5 fatalities overall and far fewer injuries compared to the 2003 Cedar fire.

It's apparent that San Diego learned from the 2003 fire and Katrina. Of course we all know who's gonna take credit.... :sad Did I mention our President will be visiting San Diego today?

Folks are still in danger but they've lifted our "pack and prepare" order and are actively letting people return to their homes in safer sections.

Three cheers for the firefighters, military, and thousands of volunteers!

:thup :thup :beer :beer :beer

Don
 
Don

I imagine you was happy to extend Him (our President) the credit for Katrina :smile I would think it only fair when the buck stops there the credit would go to the top whether the reaction to a disaster is good or bad.

Keep safe very happy to hear all the c-brats are ok for now.

In the summer of l941 which was of course before these areas filled with Housing my Dad who had shortly before joined the Marine Core was out on these same type fire lines. He still has a vivid unhappy memory of that time.

Jay
 
Don -

Thanks for the updates and sure glad that the Brats have come through fine. Talked with Chris (Rana Verde) and he is sure work stressed from the extra duties of a person with a key role in providing essential services to the public -- sure seems that CA has its act in order, mostly, for such a disaster.
 
Thank you Bill and El (and all the rest who sent us So Cal folk your prayers). I figured Chris would be up to his neck in work when he didn't answer my email.

It continues to amaze me that even though the magnitude of the disaster is greater than Katrina as far as evacuations, its been a far smoother, safer and well run response. We learned from the 2003 Cedar fire and Katrina. Qualcomm Stadium had only one person arrested so far and even that was because he had an outstanding warrant for spousal abuse. Major insurance companies and FEMA have booths and first response teams at the stadium. Local government in some areas sent their entire staff out to physically walk the damaged area, write down the addresses of homes destroyed, and put the list on a website so the folks who were displaced could know. That's the worse part of being evacuated. Not knowing if your house survived or not.

Local news has, so far, refrained from finger pointing except for a few isolated incidents, and I think that was more because the anchormen were just as stressed and tired as the evacuees, and more than one had homes they couldn't go back to because of evacuation orders. Nobody's perfect.

Although the fires are being contained, it's not over by a long shot and air quality really sux here and everywhere in the county. I had a friend call from Lake Havasu and even his area was getting a dose of lousy air. Air quality is going to be a serious issue for weeks. We don't get rain to wash everything off and no matter where we are, we smell like walking ashtrays 7/24.

Personally, we had planned to go to the Borrego area for a long weekend at a "Gathering" of Lazy Daze RV owners. I'll go later today and come back tomorrow just to greet friends, but they don't have power or water there due to our fires, and I suspect the air quality is far worse now that the Santa Ana is over and the offshore winds are picking up.

The numbers are huge, thankfully most of the stories are heartwarming. Areas are being repopulated this morning, albeit without water in some major cases, and most of the affected news anchors have finally changed clothes... :wink: Even Larry Himmel. I think the world watched him reporting live as his house burned in front of his camera courtesy of CNN. He's back reporting "business as usual" and if you didn't know his life was totally changed by "The Witch", you'd never know it. It's no wonder us folks in San Diego really love this somewhat goofy guy.

Hey, I need an El hug. No proxy hugs allowed. Lookin forward to crossing wakes again, hopefully sooner rather than later, Bill.

Don
 
Back
Top