Fire

Well, this has been one interesting week here in the Southland.

I started my week on Sunday at a conference here in town (was there starting Sat night).
By Monday morning, we were hearing about the fire getting out of control all over the county.
My wife called from work stating that they were sending everyone home as the offices were close to evacuation areas.
I told her to come get me at the hotel and then we'd go home and bring the doggies inside in case there was too much smoke.

We're in a weird calm spot where we live in the city.

My house faces due south and we're along what would be called the "mid city" area south of mission valley and interstate 8 and north of downtown. We live close to SDSU.


From here, we could see way off in the distance the fires burning in what was billed as the "Harris fire". It grew quite a bit and I woke up around 4am yesterday, looked out that direction and could see the flames climbing over and down Mt. Miguel (the larger hill on the right in this photo. further than it looks due to zoom lens on my friend's Nikon).

Friends of ours that live up in the Poway area got evacuated on Monday as did their parents and grandparents nearby.

I still had a room booked so we sent the grandparents downtown to the hotel with their doggy. Their kids made sure they got in alright, then slept in their motorhome not too far away.
Our friends stayed with us with their two cats and we watched the news.
It's scary stuff.
Then I realized why I do not watch the news on TV: Because the talking heads are all fucking dipshits.

Some asshole on Nightline last night said things like "I'm here at Lake Hodges, which is normally beautiful. But today, you can smell the fires, the smoke and even.. the death." Yes, he did. Earlier he noted that on Tuesday "the sun came up angry". Seriously.
And of course, they need to name everything. This was dubbed "Firestorm 2007!" Ugh.

Also, thank the Lord Almighty that as of Thursday morning, we're hearing that President Bush is on the way! He'll know just what to say to my community!

Anyway, we are VERY thankful because other than stink from the smoke, we have not been affected by the fires.
We are just glad that our friends are safe and we could help them a bit.

It appears that the weather is about to change for the better and an onshore flow like normal will start.

The firefighters were able to start with the air attack of the flames this morning, thankfully.

I hope that this gets under control soon and that people can get back to their lives.
I'm very sad for those that have had their lives turned upside down and wish the best for them..

And of course, thanks so much to all the firefighters and their hard work.
What an amazing group of people.

Peace.

Mike