Tuesday, October 23, 2007

FIRE!

We had a pretty good scare the last couple days with fires in the San Diego area. You may have heard we've become Rancho Hell West.

I don't want to bore you with too many details. Those in the area have already heard enough but for those not in the area, a fire started in Witch Creek between Ramona and Julian (Witch Fire) Sunday afternoon and around the same time there was a fire in Tecate up to Barrett Junction dubbed the (Harris Fire). Both fires headed in a westerly direction.

We watched these fires closely on the news as we watched Game 7 of the ALCS. As the fire crept through Ramona we started talking about what we'd take if we had to evacuate. At about 2am Monday morning, the fire was still 7-8 miles off so I felt pretty safe. I woke up at 5am to advisory evacuation warnings for our area. So we filled our suitcases with clothes, grabbed my main desktop computer, some hygenic products, my camera bag, mixer, microphones, laptop and all our important papers. We filled the car to the point where there's no way we're going to fit anything more in there without blocking sightlines. Lastly we grabbed the cat, some food and treats and toys and we put her in the carrier and took off at about 6:30am.

I realized when I turned the car on that my car was nearly empty on gas but I felt I could make it to Black Mountain Road without going empty. Then I hit traffic on Bernardo Center Drive heading south so I had to pull a U-Turn and hit the Chevron station on Rancho Penasquitos Dr. Then we headed south on I-15 to Chula Vista. Victoria's in-laws live on the west end of the city so we felt safe.

The Witch fire burned through Ramona and forked. The NW fork went towards San Pasqual and the SW fork went towards Poway and Scripps Ranch. That NW fork followed south of Escondido and along the northern and western rims of Lake Hodges. The SW fork hit the NE corner of Espola Road and then split again with one fork going along Rancho Bernardo Road and the other heading south on Espola Road.

The Rancho Bernardo fork burned through northern RB within 2 miles of our apartment and NW 4S Ranch meeting up with that NW fork and heading west to Rancho Santa Fe. It burned Fairfield Ranch and The Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe and headed towards Del Mar.

The Poway fork hit some homes in Poway and I hear it hit Carmel Mtn Ranch but I haven't heard any real news there so I'm not sure if our apartment is safe or not. I did hear this morning that the fires there have settled down a bit so hopefully it won't flare up again.

At the moment we're at my in-laws house in Chula Vista west of the 805 and east of I-5. The fires that hit near our apartment seem to be either settled down or well west of us so I'm crossing my fingers that we escaped and our apartment is still there and just fine.

If you pray, pray for us. If not, any kind thoughts or words would be helpful. We're not asking for any more than that until we learn about our apartment. Thanks for all the kind words and offers already.