It's been an interesting couple of days

[JR]

There was bit of a brush fire nearby. Check out the county FD site here to see the map of the burned area and the chronology of updates from the fire's inception to this morning.

I live in the community south of Hwy 101, roughly on a line between the where the fire stated at the Northwest and the Estern part where they're still showing an evacuation area. It never got closer than about 1.5 miles from me, so I was fairly complacent. LOML expressed some anxiety.

[cabinetman]

Fires like that 1½ miles away is still pretty close. The wind may not be in your favor.

.

[capncarl]

Last year when San Diego was having its fires my bro feared that his house would surely burn and put his large collection of bikes in the pool. The only thing that I could think was that a chopper would drop the water bag in his pool and snag a few bikes and bomb some fireman with them. All was well for him though.
capncarl

[Stytooner]

My neighbor has never cleaned out his pool. It is an above ground type. It is green and full of Bull Frogs. Those things are very noisy at night.
If they were to do that with his pool, the Firemen could at least enjoy some roasted frog legs for a snack.

Those fires sure get crazy out there. I hope everyone fairs well this fire season.

[JR]

Those fires sure get crazy out there. I hope everyone fairs well this fire season.

This one was unusual in that the hot, dry wind from the NE is not expected this time of year. That usually happens in Sep/Oct.

Thursday 3pm observations at a nearby airport:
95 degrees F
2% RH
Winds 30 MPH gusting to 50 MPH from the Northeast

[atgcpaul]

Hoping for the best for you all.

When the Cedar Fire came through San Diego in 2003, we were about that far away from it in a residential area north of the city. When it threatened to jump the 15, I started to burn all my computer records to CD and started making plans with the wife on what to pack. We were no where near prepared. Luckily the on shore breeze held it back.

I had friends who were extremely lucky in that fire. They showed me pictures of the road leading to their condo. It was just a wall of flame stretching left and right rising up 5+ stories. Like from a movie. Their house was untouched.

I worked with a 50+ year old guy who was SD born and raised who gave me the low down on why that fire swept through some residential areas so quickly. A lot of the homes burned in that fire were in eucalyptus groves grown in the 19th and early 20th centuries to be used for ships, wharfs, and railroad ties. Well, none of that panned out (http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journ...eucalyptus.htm) but the oily eucalyptus trees lit up like matches.

Despite thick clouds of smoke, yellow skies, and ash falling out of the sky, you could still see people jogging outside despite the health warnings. San Diego.

[JR]

The final tally was >24,000 acres burned, battled by over 1,000 emergency personnel, 10 helicopters and 6 fixed wing aircraft.

I did not take these pictures, which come from the local weekly newspaper. The fire came over the ridge line seen in the foreground, which is one of the two spots that are 1.5 miles away from me, right down to the houses. No houses were lost, thankfully, with only a few seeing any kind of damage at all.



This one shows the fire approaching a nearby development of about 1500 homes. The fire nearly encircled them, but once again failed to hurt any houses. This is due in large part to good planning and good policy. The homes were built with clear areas around them, sufficient for firefighters to keep the flames away, and we also have stringently observed requirements for annual brush clearance at property lines. That development has a couple of places where helicopters can pick up water, which enabled them to stay right on the fight for sustained periods.

[bmyers]

Glad you made it through ok there JR. Gotta be scary to sit back and watch.

B