Thanks. Still trying to get ahold of the Ramona folks.
I also just learned that my MiL and her husband up near Arrowhead are being affected by a new fire out their way. Good Lord. They were only allowed back up the hill because of their respective jobs, but apparently most people are not allowed to travel up the mountain at the moment. Her community (Lake Gregory/Crestline) isn’t being evacuated at the moment from what I understand, though.
I just flew into San Diego today about 2 hours ago. From the air, the south is really visably on fire and there is a lot of plumes of smoke in the distance everywhere you can see. The turbulance was pretty bad. Its making me anxious. I’ve never seen from the air fire in every direction. Pretty scary. Hopefully everyone will be okay. My mom and sister are flying in tomorrow for a vacation to see where I live. I think we’ll keep their bags packed and leave my suitcases packed in case it jumps the 5 and actually reaches the ocean. ( I live in La Jolla).
Well, heck. My friends’ home seems to still be outside the mandatory evacuation area. Less than a mile west of it at the moment…
Great link, thanks.
I just talked to a friend in La Jolla and they’re packing the car for the “just in case.” They are anticipating the power going down at some point and have started filling every container in the house with potable water and bought batteries. Another friend in Leucadia has been without power for 30 hours.
MY SIL, in Spring Valley, is loading her trailer in case the fire comes up over the crest. The police have been through with a “very early warning.”
My best friend is a school principal in East County who is staying until the bitter end to make sure that all the little ones get picked up. Two of my teacher friends were called home b/c their houses in Otay Mesa were “in imminent danger.” We haven’t been able to reach them.
It’s difficult to believe that the size of this fire exceeds the Cedar fire. I’ve never seen ANYTHING like that fire when I was in SD. It looked like a volcano had spewed.
Just to renew my offer . . . my peeps in San Diego are having a tough time calling one another, but I’ve been able to get in from the East Coast. Please let me know if anybody needs to have calls made.
Good news: my Ramona relatives are fine. They’re sitting in a Home Depot parking lot in their motorhome. As far as they know, their property is fine.
Bad news: my MiL’s town is now part of the voluntary evacuation zone, and an adjacent town (Twin Peaks) is under mandatory evacuation. KFWB is reporting that 113 homes are gone in the Lake Arrowhead fire so far.
We’re just coming in to the fire season in Australia. So, why do these American fires have a habit of starting in October? Isn’t it getting cooler there now? I don’t understand that part. I thought May would be when the danger would start for you guys.
As I understand it (and a more knowledgeable doper will be by to correct/elaborate), San Diego is almost always 72 degrees fahrenheit and mostly sunny. But it is towards the fall that the rains become more sparse, and the Santa Ana winds tend to pick up. So everything becomes a tinderbox, fanned by strong gusts.
I typed that a couple hours ago, and just as I hit “post” we lost power. We’re refugees! We’re in Temecula now.
Another local checking in here. IMHO, the issue is the lack of rain combined with the winds and rough terrain. We don’t get rain here at all during the summer, and it usually doesn’t start raining until December. Also, during this time of year, we get the Santa Anas that exacerbate any fire that comes up.
Also, not all of San Diego is 72 degrees year-round. For example, Romona (north of San Diego and a bit inland) gets very, VERY hot during the summer. The closer to the coast, the more temperate the climate. The mountains are a bit more inland, so despite the high elevation, it will still get warm enough in the summer for everything to dry out.
More updates if you’re lucky enough to load the page: http://fireblog.signonsandiego.com/
These winds were really strong. They might have severed power lines, which ignited fires. Then the winds spread sparks. It was bound to happen.
Out here in the High Desert we’re having the worst sandstorms I’ve seen and some really insane wind gusts. I can only imagine how the Santa Anas must be affecting the fires further south. My heart goes out to everyone affected by the wildfires. Everyone stay safe out there.
The Sedgwick fire out here looks like it will be contained soon enough and it no buildings are threatened. We’re very fortunate.
Don’t know why, but I found I was no longer receiving email notices of new replies on this thread. Odd.
Anyway - When my previously mentioned stepsister and her family evacuated their Ramona home, they went to my father and stepmother’s place at the opposite end of town and in a very secluded area, so I guess they thought they could get away with it! They let my brother know their house is apparently OK, but houses of neighbors of theirs did burn.
The fire never got close to my father and stepmother’s place. My father and stepmother are on their way back from their central California vacation and will most likely stay with friends of theirs in Oceanside until the all clear for residents of Ramona to return is given.
Quite likely. I understand one of the fires that started overnight, in the San Pasqual Valley near the Wild Animal Park, was started when a transformer exploded.
Ditto. Double odd. For those who have friends/family in Rancho Bernardo, our councilman said that citizens are doing a walkthrough the town and identifying which homes have burnt. They hope to publish this list by tomorrow afternoon, but I didn’t catch where. Will drop in if I find it.
Yeah, I saw the same footage and was hoping for a website. There was an OES sign behind him, but their website currently doesn’t have anything related to the day’s events.
I don’t want to get too optimistic about my mom returning to her home soon, but they did say they were hoping that residents might be able to work their way back, under police escort, hopefully by tomorrow. :crosses fingers:
Here’s hoping the damage was kept to a minimum, and the fires in general take a turn for the better overnight.
The big factor there will be the winds. They did NOT die down last night. My recollection of multi-day Santa Ana’s is that the winds normally do cease or at least taper off sharply at night then restart after sunrise. Last night was an exception.
They’ve recommended that Solana Beach residents evacuate so my Mom and step-Dad are at my sister’s in L.A. Chances are still remote that the fire will get to her place though.
Solana Beach had a voluntary evacuation several hours ago. I wouldn’t unpack if I were you. 
I just heard about 30 seconds ago that the fire isn’t in Otay Mesa, but it’s heading there.
It’s specific to the West, and to Southern California in particular.
Right on the money. (In the last few years the climate has gotten a little more variable; over the course of a year I’d say the low is about 55 and the high is 100, but most of the time we are still right around 72.) It’s getting a little cooler in the morning and at night here, but yeah, the Santa Ana winds are the main thing. “Rains become more sparse” is a pretty relative thing; it almost never rains here, and when it does it only rains for a few minutes at a time. The fall is when we go from “ridiculously sparse rainfall” to “almost bone dry”. I doubt the statistical difference is all that substantial, but these huge fires tend to happen in (even more) dry years for San Diego. 2003 brought a record drought, and I don’t know the numbers for this year, but it has seemed unusually dry.
Just goes to show that we’re all at the whim of nature. It actually snowed within the city limits for the first time in 20+ years last winter.