Posted on 10/22/2007 8:06:14 AM PDT by Sleeping Freeper
SAN DIEGO -- With fire spreading quickly westward, San Diego County officials ordered the evacuation of a huge area east of Interstate 15 between Del Dios Highway and Highway 56 early Mon"This is the worst fire this county has ever seen -- worse than the Cedar Fire [of 2003]," Sheriff Bill Kolender said.
At a news conference shortly after 6 a.m., officials said fires had spread dramatically overnight, whipped by fierce Santa Ana winds. They said fire had jumped Interstate 15 at Lake Hodges and was burning in parts of Rancho Bernardo. Because of the explosive and unpredictable nature of the blazes, all residents living between Interstate 15 and Interstate 5 from Del Dios Highway in the north to Highway 56 in the south were told to begin evacuating.
"This fire is moving very quickly," San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said. "Watch TV, listen to the radio and have your car prepared to leave."
Among the communities in the evacuation area are Rancho Sante Fe, Carmel Highlands, Rancho Bernardo, Del Mar Heights and Fairbanks Ranch and parts of Rancho Penasquitos.
Officials have opened Qualcomm Stadium in Mission Valley to handle the large number of evacuees.
Sanders asked everyone in San Diego County to minimize the use of cell phones to leave the airways free for the use of emergency personnel.day.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcsandiego.com ...
Do you think that there will be looting, raping and pillaging inside of Qualcomm?
See tag line.
You know, this is all Bush’s fault.
I wonder if any homegrown jihadis are complicit in these fires?
I think that’s about 500 miles north beside a bay.
Agreed! If we didn’t invade Iraq we would have had enough troops to invade Califorina and rid ourselves of the most liberal state in the Union!!! :-)
From MarketWatch Herb Greenburg’s Blog:
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/greenberg/
10:20:59 AM October 22nd, 2007
The Enormity of the Situation…
Can’t be stressed in San Diego. We’re packing and getting out of dodge.
Cheers.
9:51:49 AM October 22nd, 2007
San Diego Evacuation
This is remarkable. They’ve just evacuated a major part of San Diego: Everywhere East of the I-5, North of the 56 and South of Lake Hodges. If you know San Diego, this is, well, half the area. My area, Carmel Valley, is included. This is JUST east of Del Mar. Total track home city, but also includes Rancho Santa Fe.
8:54:32 AM October 22nd, 2007
San Diego Fires
The San Diego fires are quite serious. For those of you who know the area, there are great concerns about the San Diego Wild Animal Park, which is northeast of the city. More disconcerting is the evacuation of the heavily populated Rancho Bernardo — which is northeast of the city and roughly about 18 miles due east of Del Mar; about 14 miles east of my home. There are currently about eight fires burning in the county.
What a difference a few hours make: My wife and I were out for about 2 hours yesterday. We left our home east of Del Mar on what was a windy but richly warm day as the Santa Ana winds started to kick up. There was no talk of fire. We had headed just a few miles north on the coast. By the we turned around we headed into smoke that was really so thick and red that we thought the fires were either on the coast by Del Mar or somewhere near our home. Yet the flames were 30-plus miles east of us. That’s how intense the winds were. Rather than dying down at night, as they often do, the winds have continued to blow with heavy gusts throughout the night. No matter where you are east of the flames it’s impossible to escape the soot and ash. I would suspect my area is very safe and not threatened. But many schools and all San Diego courts have been closed.
La Jolla backwards is Al Alloj.
Praying for you all. I know that area well and dealt with the aftermath of the Cedar and Paradise Fires as part of my job.
For perspective, we had these large wildfires every year in Alabama (a woodland state) until the late 1940’s and early 1950’s when we instituted scientific forestry management.
Now we’ve got logging roads strategically placed to serve as fire breaks in ways that limit most of our fires to a mere 100 acres.
This is why you no longer hear about great forest fires in Alabama.
Such large fires *can* be stopped with proper land management from mature adults.
The pyros are out today and they aim to burn So Cal to the ground:
6:18 a.m.: Two fires burning 160 acres; homes evacuated
Melissa Pinion-Whitt, Staff writer
ONTARIO - Two brush fires fueled by 30 to 40 mph Santa Ana winds are burning in the south part of the city, prompting evacuations and damaging structures.
One of the blazes is burning in the 8600 block of East Schaefer Avenue and the other is in the 13000 block of South Walker Avenue. The fires have burned about 160 acres, said Ontario fire spokesman Jacob Green.
More than 100 firefighters from Ontario and surrounding agencies battled the blaze, dealing with low visibility and high winds and blowing debris, Green said.
Mandatory evacuations were in effect for residents south of Schaefer, east of Grove Avenue, north of Edison Avenue and west of Walker Avenue.
Residents were evacuated to the Westwind Community Center at 2425 Riverside Drive in Ontario. Firefighters established a disaster hotline for residents, (909) 988-3650.
Unfortunately, many Orange County and San Bernadino county cities have engines in Malibu. So California fire departments are stretched thin. I watched Fullerton FD battle a structure fire in Burbank last night.
There should probably just be one thread for all of the fires burning in SoCal. It’s going to be a long day.
It seems putting in wide, permanent fire breaks in these areas, particularly around inhabited areas, would stop fires
from spreading.
You sure? Maybe you should come down to Monmouth County?
None of any of the people arrested for starting fires in Southern California in the past few years have been Muslim, despite much hope to the contrary.
This is an ecosystem that naturally burns and given the right conditions it's going to burn eventually from one cause or another.
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