San Diego Wildfires

I don't know how much info you're getting about our current crazy wildfire situation here in San Diego county. The national news seems more interested in talking about the rich famous peoples' homes in Malibu ... (10,000 ppl evacuated vs 250,000 here in SD; 10x the # of homes burned here vs there, etc)

Yesterday morning, we started getting warning about a fire that broke out near the border town of Protreto (across from the Mexican town of Tecate). The border crossing was closed, the fire was spreading, and the terrible Santa Ana winds were picking up. The Santa Anas are high-speed, extremely dry winds that funnel in through the mountains from the desert. In combination with the very dry conditions that we have experienced the last few years, we have been under RED fire warning for the past few weeks. To give you an idea of how the Santa Anas turn San Diego county into a tinderbox, the dew points in the most fire-threatened areas have hovered around zero degrees today (compared to mid-50's this time of year).

As Sunday progressed, we began to hear about multiple fires: The Witch Creek fire in Ramona, the growing Harris fire at the border, a fire in Fallbrook that is currently threatening the huge kindling-filled chaparral of Camp Pendleton, a fire in Descanso at the borders of Cleveland National Forest and Cuyamaca State Park ... then a fire caused by a blown transformer in the San Pasqual Valley near the Wild Animal Park merged with the exploding Witch Creek fire ... and a fire in San Marcos caused by static electricity. If that doesn't highlight the incredibly dry conditions, I don't know what does.

Here's what we know right now.

The Wild Animal Park was in danger for a while. They evacuated the most endangered animals (California Condors, small reptiles, etc), but then the fire got too close and the entire staff had to evac as well. We saw a very surreal interview on the news where they were saying that, if it comes to it, the animals would take refuge in their watering holes. (!!!!) Thank goodness, the Witch fire skirted the park (thanks to the natural fire break surrounding the park and their irrigation system).

Starting very early this morning, evacuations were announced for many highly residential suburbs. A former colleague of mine who lives in Rancho Bernardo was evacuated at 5 am - I'm 90% positive that I saw her complex in flames on the news. After the official announcements were made by the city that non-essential personnel should stay home and off the highways (so that emergency crews and evacuees could get around easily), I stayed glued to the news and tried to stay in touch with friends in the evacuation zones via text messaging. The cell lines were jammed but texts got through just fine.

This is a picture from Rancho Bernardo, around 10 am this morning:

Around 8 am, Rancho Santa Fe, an area of $5+million homes, was evacuated. Another colleague of mine who lives up there with her in-laws evacuated with their horses. Thankfully, the race track at Del Mar opened as a large animal refuge. Shortly thereafter, evacuation notices were issued for a HUGE area of HIGHLY populated suburbs: from Rte56 North to Del Dios highway (in Encinitas) and from I15 all the way West to I5. This was because of threat from rapid Santa Ana-fueled fire spread from the Witch Fire. This included my thesis advisor's house and another colleague was right on the border of this area, so he began getting his cars packed in preparation for evacuation.

This is a scene from I-5 North this morning, heading toward Orange County, from the evacuated area near Encinitas. I-15 was closed in both directions, so all that diverted traffic was pushed onto I-5, causing a standstill. Thankfully, the evacuations in this area are precautionary; the density of traffic is a good indicator of what a disaster an emergency evcauation would be.

I have embedded a google map showing the area of evacuation (pink) and Witch fire burn area (red, currenly 145,000 acres; this map is outdated by about 10 hours). Drag the map around to see the Harris fire (22,000 acres) at the border. Right now, the San Marcos fire is contained (unless the Witch fire merges with it overnight), and the Fallbrook fire does not appear on this map. For those interested in updates, this is an amazing blog full of tricked-out google maps:
http://and-still-i-persist.com/?cat=50


View Larger Map

After taking some hikes recently in areas burned in the 2003 Cedar Fire (yes, this weekend was the 4th anniversary), I just cannot imagine what the landscape will look like in the coming years. Sadly, because there is no letting up in the Santa Anas for at least 48 hours, the potential for this network of fires to make the Cedar and Paradise fires of 2003 look like manageable messes is truly frightening. Right now, just about every official to give a press conference says that there is every likelihood that the fires WILL reach the ocean by the time it's all said and done. Solana Beach, a beachside community, is under alert for potential overnight mandatory evacuations (it's voluntary right now). This blows my mind.

Nick and I are so thankful that we're currently at NO risk, and in a freak weather phenomenon, the air quality at our place has actually been quite good today. Just up the coast, however, at UCSD, the air quality is terrible. So we're counting our blessings and keeping an eye on the rapidly changing conditions. The sustained winds are already down to 40 mph (instead of 60) and the gusts are down to 50-60 from 75. This has allowed aircraft, including a DC-10 that can drop 15,000 gallons of water or fire retardant in a 100x1500ft swath, in addition to chopper fire fighting crews, to get up in the air and help the ground crews. Every indication is that this air support is the only thing really slowing the approach of the fire fronts.

Update (7:50 pm): most of Mira Mesa is under evacuation notice now, too. The crazy thing is, Mira Mesa is a concrete jungle - 8-lane roads and irrigated subdivisions. Still, because of the extremely low dew points, it takes just an ember on the wind to cause a new fire. Otay Mesa is also being evacuated because the Harris fire has reached the Otay Lakes.

The updates are coming fast and furious on the news now, so I'd better get this published before everything is out of date. Remember us down here in SD, even when CNN, Fox, and NBC talk about Olivia Newton John's burning house in Malibu. Keep your fingers crossed or say a prayer for the 300,000 people who have evacuated their homes and are sitting in shelters and Qualcomm stadium watching updates and worrying.

And on a hopeful note: San Diego's craigslist has a whole community forum of people offering everything from a pull-out sofa for a fire victim to their pickup truck to help people evacuate ... strangers helping strangers. It's good to know that San Diego can still feel like a small town sometimes!