Tuesday fire report
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(click the link, below)
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San Diego Union Tribune online – headline news |
NBC broadcasting San Diego – headline news |
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ABC News – headline news |
CBS News – headline news |
| Fox News, San Diego – headline news |
2007 San Diego County wild fires – my photos from home – (Once you reach the WEBSHOTS page, click the SLIDE SHOW icon in the upper right corner menu. Adjust for a shorter time per slide (beneath photos) if you prefer.) |
Tuesday morning – Oct 23, 2007
Hello Friends & family,
Please pray for all of the people living in Southern California and for the firefighters! At thepresent time, there may be in excess of TEN or more major fires in our area.
Fires are still burning – we are not out of danger yet. The firefighters are so overwhelmed. We were so fortunate that the fire was not close to our home – Don and I came home last night and checked the status of the fire hourly by visually by walking across the street next to our neighbor’s home. The fire closest / most threatening to us in Poway is the Witch Creek fire (what a name) and that has been shortened to "Witch Fire" – appropriate, right?
Short term Evacuation
We shut off the gas when we left the house yesterday, and opened the gates. Don parked his corvette on the street at the curb (we are seeing houses with cars inside the garages that explode, but cars on the street may survive even when all the houses are burnt up – weird).
We slept in our bed part of the night last night– and are prepared to evacuate at a moments’ notice should we need to. However, if the fires stay in the hills, we only have the smoke and ash to deal with. We still have power, water and gas. Amazing. Our area has been declared a federal disaster area, so FEMA is coming now.
Our fire fighters and fire crew chiefs and amazing – they brief us on television regularly. We've heard word that there are air tankers and helicopters headed our way. The official count of homes lost as of this morning are 1000.
The TODAY show is now broadcasting from here. Matt Lauer has just arrived. Rancho Bernardo, just north of us, had several homes burned out as the fire hopped the freeway near us. Matt is standing with a couple in the burned rubble of their home.
We have not had aerial tankers making water drops in the past several days due to high winds.
Once folks were evacuated (about 1/2 to 2/3 of the city, it appears) the fires just rolled over the areas – the fire crews would fight where ever they were but with so much of the county on fire, whoeeee….. not a chance to protect all the structures.
We still have Santa Ana conditions – extremely low humidity, high winds from the desert, and still abundant dead fuel throughout the region due to the drought. Again, it is the driest year on record for the past 130 years. This morning, we are beginning to see some onshore breezes which normally bring humidity from the ocean air - but the winds are picking up the flames that have worked their way from the desert to the ocean, and now the winds are directing the flames back around into unburned areas.
Some evacuees may be allowed to return to their homes today - but the fire chief was cautious in telling people that fact during the news report.
Personal Loss
Our dear quilting friend, Jackie Koenig lost her home in the Rancho Bernardo fire right off I-15. I just spoke with her by phone. Our hearts are breaking for her loss, and we are SO thankful Jackie evacuated to her sister, Betty's home nearby.
Thankfully, the weather has not been scorchingly hot the past day or two but that is different within the fire zone, where the flames may be a hundred feet high or more, and they call the spires of fire “firenados” that swirl up into the sky.
The hill opposite us burned all day yesterday and last night. If you look on a map, the town of Ramona was evacuated 2 days ago and the fires have burned through Ramona ever since. This area was between Ramona & Poway, just north and east of us.
Don heard explosions on the hill across from us – probably propane tanks or something. Those homes built in the rocks and unincorporated terrain are in really remote, inaccessible & indefensible locations.
One television news reporter, Larry Himmel, was with a film crew in his neighborhood in Rancho Bernardo to check his home – and watched it burn to the ground. (on camera)
We are proud to report only one death and 40 injured – the evacuation centers are doing extremely well with food, clothing, sleeping provisions, massage therapists and more.
We are asked to CONSERVE, CONSERVE, CONSERVE – power, water, electricity, cell phone signals, road travel. I am posting the news here for friends & family who are anxious to hear from us and of our welfare.
I will keep you posted – love to all! Jan & Don
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