Fire water burn
Wow, it's hard to concentrate on work or anything else, what with southern California pretty much on fire. I just got this email from my Dad, who is hopefully going to be flying out to visit us this week (hope he doesn't mind if I quote parts of it):
...Then I have the problem of getting to the airport. Yesterday that would have been impossible. But they're opening I15 up this morning and if the wind doesn't cause too much trouble today they'll probably keep it open. But the weather forecast is for another Santa Ana day, like yesterday. As Santa Ana's go, it wasn't too extreme, but it still caused big trouble with the fires. The Ramona fire moved many miles to hit San Diego--down around Miramar air base, and El Cajon, going through Poway and Scripts Ranch on the way. I guess it covers over 100,000 acres. Most of it calmed down overnight, leaving the biggest activity out in El Cajon. But it's also spreading north to join the Valley Center fire east of Escondido. The Valley Center fire is only 10,000 acres or so, but it still covers the East, south and west sides of Valley Center and got into Escondido last night, though I think they stopped it there. But the west side of it is still burning toward us. It's no immediate threat here. But last night I had to show ID to get back into Hidden Meadows--I guess they don't want Valley Center people trying to evade road blocks elsewhere by going over the dirt roads east of Hidden Meadows.It's too smokey this morning to see exactly where it is. Hopefully if the Ramona fire is less today they can send more crews out to Valley Center. Yesterday they couldn't fly the air bombers because of the smoke. It doesn't look less smokey today, but that could change.
Yikes. Now I'm worried about all my friends and family out there. California bloggers, you guys OK? What's going on out there?
update: Californian Mark has posted about the blaze. Go read!
Comments
The Interstate 15 is open for your dad today. Though I already drove through the Miramar area and it's a strange site. You are surrounded by smoke and have low visibility like a foggy day. Unlike a foggy day, there is an orange haze as the sun tries to pierce the smoke that completely surrounds you. Somehow the fire jumped something like 10 lanes of Interstate 15 and headed west towards the 805. It's black, charred, and unbelievable down there. My work is located near that area and we shutdown today. Even when sitting inside our office I could taste and smell the smoke.
Posted by: Tiddo | October 27, 2003 1:51 PM
When they closed the 15 this past weekend, they redirected all of the traffic through our the town we used to live in, Palmdale. 15 to 58 across to the 14, through the mountains to the 5. Traffic was solid (and I mean that literally: there were NO breaks) from Victorville nearly to Palmdale.
What a mess... and to think that last week we had zero fires. Now we have that 100k acre fire, other fires that have destroyed up to 300 homes, others that have killed a handful of people. All in one weekend.
Posted by: pcg | October 27, 2003 2:14 PM