The San Diego Fires 2007

It's been exactly one week since the fires began....
I woke up Sunday morning to 50-80 mph winds and knew there would be trouble.
I called a friend who lives further out in East County and we talked about the winds. She asked if anything was burning and I said [inserting nervous laugh here], "Not yet....," but knew something was very likely to happen. You just don't get Santa Ana winds without something catching on fire, especially in such an awful drought.
So Cal has been in a drought since 1998, and just like 2003 I knew San Diego was in for it.

Within just a few hours, we learned that the first fire had started, most likely the result of sparks from electrical wires that were downed by the winds. That first fire was in the most eastern part of San Diego county, east of Ramona, and spreading fast from east to west, as the Santa Ana's blow. Did I forget to add, already too close to my own East County residence for my own comfort?

We saw on the news that all of Ramona was being evacuated, so we called to see how our friends were doing out there.... The fire storms 4 years ago that destroyed her house in that fire, and she just escaped. We offered to come out and help them do whatever she needed, but this time, she was already thinking they'd probably have to leave, so they prepared to evacuate early in the afternoon, then stayed to protect the house for as long as they could.

They finally called around 10 PM to say they were on their way out, with their cat Fluffy and two dogs Sam & Bubba.

On Monday,Chris was sent home early that morning, as the fires were burning Poway, his job site was in danger. He was lucky to make it back on the 15 freeway just before they closed it off. Then the fire reached the east side of Del Mar, that's about the time I really got scared. Even with the horrible fires in 2003, fire has never made it that close to the coast before. (Plus with this fire, dubbed the "Witch fire" since it started near Witch Creek.It's silly
but that made it all the creepier)
Also, you felt like you had no where to run. Freeways across San Diego & beyond were closing. With the Harris fire burning further South, but still in San Diego. It looked like San Diego would become a giant fire trap for the 3 million+ who live here.
The winds were still blowing and some firefighters were saying that if the winds didn't die down soon, the fire would make it to the coast for sure. That was just so hard to imagine, but we could see on the news how fast it was moving, and the smoke was getting thicker all across the county.
Luckily our house turned out to be the best refuge after all. For awhile there I was having serious doubts. But, in the end we ended up being one of the few areas in San Diego, just barely untouched by fire. (Even if dangerously too close for my comfort)
I would have never imagined that we'd ever be so threatened by this fire. Apparently, I had forgotten how much ash and embers blew out to us in '03. But, I did not take long for the fires to refresh my memory as it looked like it was snowing outside early on.

Our scariest day was Tuesday, when the winds had not yet died down and the embers were raining all over the place. We didn't get much sleep Sunday night, and hardly any sleep Monday night knowing how close it was getting. Tuesday's dawn was black and bitter tasting. Our eyes and throats were burning all week long, I even lost my voice the first day.
I restricted use of the front door as much as I could. (to avoid the smoky air entering the house) The news had already been asking everyone to refrain from being outdoors, or opening up any windows.We were told to use our air conditioners to filter the air.

We had the news on constantly, trying to see the path of the fires, and hear who was being evacuated next. When Barona and Lakeside got their orders to evacuate "voluntarily" that morning, (When they could, the police and emergency crews would ask people to leave voluntarily well before they made it a mandatory order) we decided to start packing.
We no longer could see any large areas of blue sky and keep in mind, prior to Tuesday, we could at least see some blue to the north, and small hints of blue to the south. It was completely black to the east, and brownish towards the west, meaning we were directly under the line of smoke, directly on the wind line, directly in the path of the fire. We packed up both cars with all the essentials, and boy let me tell you that was a good reality check. Memories of packing quickly for the '03 fires came flooding back. Just like back then, each child had a backpack packed with their favorite toy & dvds. First thing I put in the truck was a giant plastic tub of family & baby photos. Then, I packed three outfits for each person and then sat in sadness deciding which knicknacks to take next.That was the hardest thing to decide, since my grandparents passed away within these last few years. I have many small things of theirs that mean so much. In the end, I decided my grandmother's 2 antique clocks and a few ceramic angels that used to belong to my great grandmother had to come along.
And I did pack a small suitcase, grabbed our marriage license, birth certificates, & my old
laptop. Lucky for me we never had to evacuate. Outside it was very eery and very quiet... hardly ANY traffic on the freeway at all.All the schools in San Diego county were closed, as were most of the businesses. We were told to stay off the freeways so that fire crews could get through, and most people did, and were just staying home glued to their TV's.

The first two days, our friends spent most of their time trying to find out what shape their house and property were in. They finally got a call from a neighbor (who managed to stay behind while the rest of Ramona was evacuated). They then learned that their property was safe. We had figured that if the fire was now near us, it had to be through Ramona, so
our friends spent the next couple of days trying to get back to their house, and there are lots of entertaining stories there. Bottom line was that they never could get through. The
Sheriff's Department had called in the National Guard (kids with AK-47's) and nobody was going to get past them.

Yeah, of course we were all glued to the TV's.We needed to know how far the fires were progressing and who was being ordered to evacuate next. It was on every San Diego station continuously, all day, all night. All other shows were preempted. But, we had no clue that it was on TV across the country! Your phone calls were what informed us of that. E-mail was spotty for some reason, as were the network TV sites. (No Heroes or Journeyman for me, and YES I did try to watch them online, that did not work either) Worse yet, I just wasn't able to sit at the computer for more than a few minutes at a time .Which meant, GASP, NO GATHER! Nothing was normal. I am still not sure why the e-mail wasn't working well, but we had lots of power surges, too. Plus we were really busy here. Neighbors of ours had two displaced families staying with them; a family with two kids from Poway, and a set of grandparents with two dogs. We did a big pot luck dinner with all of them and us one night. It helped distract them from worrying about the fires for a little while. But, yeah, it was very time consuming, and difficult to work much, especially with all the distressing updates. Somewhere in there, I saw Katie Couric on TV in a helicopter touring the burned out areas.... That was weird. And the "Governator" had been here for a few days, too.
At one point just a few blocks from our home, although I felt too tired to care much.
He actually used to own a home in one of the more severely damaged areas down here, but I don't know if he still owns it.
Thursday night, the city of Ramona lifted the evacuation on the condition that no one returning could use city water. Probably half the residents are on their own well water so many did go back Thursday night, but most waited until daylight Friday.
More fires popped up during the week, and a few of those were definitely arson. There are some really sick people out there that know the conditions are just right for fires to get out of control in a hurry, and they know the manpower is already maxed out fighting the first fires, and they go ahead and torch another location. That's just sick.
Also, the Marines set a backfire on Camp Pendleton when one of the fires east of Fallbrook threatened that area. Unfortunately, the Marines' fire managed to get out of hand, and that burned out a huge portion close to the I-5 freeway. That was still burning when we drove through there Friday.

So, it was pretty intense for a while, but we are really very fine here, and very grateful the fires stopped where they did. We honestly didn't even know how close they had gotten until Friday, when we could finally SEE. I told some of you that the fires came to within 10 miles of our house, but it was more like 5 miles. That may sound like a pretty good distance away, but when burning embers are blowing towards you, it's way too close for comfort. Things still smell pretty bad, like a BBQ gone wrong, but it will all get cleaned up eventually. The air quality is steadily improving, too. I took a few photos when I had to go out during the fires.
Seeing things for yourself, and close up does nothing for confidence. Taking them and viewing them now really gives me the creeps. It's just amazing how some houses survived and others did not. There was a posh section just west of Ramona where they had $3 million dollar mansions that burned to the ground - nothing left. The fires don't care if you have money or not.
Thanks again to all of you who called, and emailed for checking in on my family.It was a rough week, but we suffered no damage other than the bad air outside. We are among the lucky ones. I am thankful for so many things large and small, but most of all I thank God
our house did not get burned. No one in my family got hurt.I guess its time to go through all the excess junk I have. Its funny, but I sure have a clear vision of whats really important.
I knew before, but now its up front and center.In the end its the people in our lives that mean the most, and I cant forget the photographs of my family, loved ones and the kids growing up.



The Fires


Looking for San Diego Wildfire 2007 maps? These are my favorites so far.
Click here for the Witch Creek fire and here for the Harris fire.

San Diego State University has posted a fantastic "Google Earth" based map of the wildfires in San Diego. Here's how to see it.

Start Google Earth . You can download and install Google Earth here if you don't have it already.

Right click on this link and copy the link to your clipboard.

In Google Earth, do file->open and paste the URL into the file name box. Don't worry if Google Earth looks like it wants a file name instead of a URL. (it works regardless)

This will bring up the overlays and map data.

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