Posted on 10/21/2007 2:04:00 PM PDT by ArmstedFragg
Yet another Southern California wildfire underway, this time in the eastern San Diego County area near Witch Creek on Highway 78 between Ramona and Julian. Wind driven fire, caused by power lines dropping. Over a thousand acres since its start about an hour and a half ago.
Chief on scene requesting 7 air tankers, 6 helicopters, 10 strike teams of brush engines, and 6 strike teams of structure engines. Resources in the area are very low, so unknown how much of that order he'll actually get.
Fire's blowing south and west, smoke visible 10 miles away. Highway 15 in northern San Diego city is experiencing traffic impacts because of low visibility due to the smoke. Discussions underway over possible evacuation of part of Ramona.
This is an area where there's quite a bit of old-growth fuel.
Both state and Feds just cancelled all days off and recalled all personnel.
Was just there 2 weeks ago....
I just went out and eyeballed it from ten miles away. The plume’s laying over flat, but boiling up pretty good. From the direction it’s going, it’ll run into the burn from the ‘03 Cedar fire at some point. Whether that’ll be before or after it hits the south end of Ramona is open to question.
Prayers for our CA FReepers and the people they have to live with.....seriously, I pray all of you do OK and continued prayers for everyones safety.....
smoke drifting over La Jolla now...
I think this is the fire that had one fatality. Also some firefighters injured. So many fires going on in SoCal it is hard to keep track.
I put up some photos on my web site (link below). I just shot these from my back yard at 3 pm... it’s not *quite* so dark as that (the exposure on this camera is kind of screwy) but you get the idea.
I’m in Carmel Valley, pretty near to the coast, so that smoke is traveling a long distance (I’m guessing that the fire is probably 15 to 20 miles inland from here.)
http://westernsyndicate.blogspot.com/2007/10/witch-creek-fire.html
Here’s a link to a San Diego Union Tribune article about it
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20071021-1517-witchfire.html
It is raining ash as far south as Imperial beach and Chula vista near the San Ysidro border.
Mira Mesa High School (at Mira Mesa Blvd & Reagan Rd.) is the new center for Ramona residents (pets included). Chaplains, mental health, food and water available.
The 67 is the *only* available means to evacuate Ramona due to fire(s) along 78.
They got on it quicker, and there’s more resources on scene, but it has similarity to the Cedar Fire. Big danger is getting overwhelmed by all these other fire starts. The San Marcos Fire is a pretty good worker, and that Guehito blaze was a complete surprise. Right now, we have power lines going down all over town and those could produce new starts. If all we had was Witch Creek, I wouldn’t be sweating it. Although Chiefs on scene north of Ramona are reporting that fire’s “running hard” at the moment.
CalFire saying N.E. portion of Rancho Bernardo now being evacuated, probably the area around Old Coach Rd.
New fire at East Mission and Davis Rd. as reported on KFMB-TV (Ch 8). They've got live pictures.
I just saw a picture of the raging fire silhouetting a line of cattle on a ridge.
San Diegan in Florida bump ...
Prayers for all of you from a SD native with lots of family still living in the most wonderful city in the world.
Okay... the fire blew through south of San Pasqual, down the watershed to Lake Hodges. It’s going through the extreme southern end of Escondido now. We’re losing some structures in the hills to the east of the mall. CHP is shutting down the 15, looks like it’ll jump it. Engines are being staged on the west side of the 15. This is the head of the fire from the north of Ramona side. Visibility’s near-zero, and fire engines are getting chased out. Real hot, and real fast. Ugly stuff.
Some parts of Poway, those near Poway High School, are getting evacuation calls.
You info’s correct. Nobody’s planning to make a stand at the bridge. Everybody’s in ‘bump and run’ mode.
Also, I heard on NBC, that the I-15 is now closed from Via Rancho Parkway to the 56 (Ted Williams)
West of 15, East of 5, North of 56 are under evacuation order.
Qualcomm has been opened as an evacuation center.
Have’nt lived in SD since 1990 and my last visit was 2004. I’m in Texas now, but I still have lots of relatives throughout the county.
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