SoCal Fire?

[Khunajawdge]

Well, I guess I'll ask; is everybody in the San Diego/Malibu area OK?

 

[kaitsdad]

Well, I guess I'll ask; is everybody in the San Diego/Malibu area OK?

I don't think we have any idea yet.

LA times fire status

It's entirely possible that there are forum members that are yet to return to their homes.

Lawson Valley evacuated at 2:40 PM this afternoon - so there's still a lot of unknowns.

All we can do is pray for them, and hope that everyone is safe. Quite frankly, I'm amazed that the fatality rate is so low at this point. I know that I haven't seen blue sky since Sunday afternoon, and while the winds have pretty much stopped, there is still a huge amount of smoke and ash in the air.

It's not over till it's over.

 

[madmike2]

Well, I guess I'll ask; is everybody in the San Diego/Malibu area OK?

All we can do is pray for them, and hope that everyone is safe.

It's not over till it's over.

Yep! Very scary incidents.

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

an email from a coworker:

Thank you all for your kind thoughts and messages. We evacuated at 6am on Monday and came to Palm Springs via OC since the 15 freeway was closed. We can go back to our home now and have heard from our neighbors that our home is fine, lots of ash and debris to clean up but no real damage. Our immediate block and neighborhood were not affected. We are between Rancho Bernardo and Rancho Santa Fe so we are very fortunate since both those areas had extensive damage. We are planning to go back on Sat., hoping that the air quality will improve by then and school will be open on Monday. I am online and keeping track of existing projects and will be back to full speed next week.

It would be weird to return and see devastation all around...I can only imagine what it would be like to see so many people displaced. Terrible.

 

[bigdolma]

double post...

 

[bigdolma]

Bob and Nance are in Pine Valley, off the 8 east of San Diego.

Elfirebob rides an 03 and is battalion chief in that area. Left a couple of messages but have not heard anything.

They are such wonderful folks. If anyone has heard anything, please post it here.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you Bob and Nance.

armand

 

[madmike2]

Bob and Nance are in Pine Valley, off the 8 east of San Diego.
Elfirebob rides an 03 and is battalion chief in that area. Left a couple of messages but have not heard anything.

They are such wonderful folks. If anyone has heard anything, please post it here.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you Bob and Nance.

armand

Armand, I emailed Pegscraper when this thing started. He had talked with them on the phone. Bob and Nance were on vacation in NM (?) at that time, so they were fine. No word on their house, etc. In fact, Ed hasn't emailed me back with information, either.

 

[bigdolma]

Thanks Mike!

I just received the following email from Nance.

"Got your message. We've been on vacation in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, returned late last night 4 days early so Bob could lend a hand. All is well here... some tree and roof damage due to 80 mph winds but that's nothing compared to those poor souls who have lost their homes. The good Lord saw fit to keep us safe... thanks for your prayers. Ed and Jacquie are safe as well. "

The fire is not over yet and Bob is back to fighting. Good luck there guys, our thoughts are with you!

Armand

 

[madmike2]

Thanks, Armand. Like you I was beginning to be concerned for them. Not hearing from them really sucks!

 

[Toecutter]

edited

Glad our FJR buddies came through unscathed....

 

[Malve]

I live in Ramona, the town that the fire started in. I was evacuated Sunday Night when the fire was North East of us. When I woke up on Monday, the fire was South West of us and thought the worst, but it actually went around us. I live in a community named Mt. Woodson located at the base of the North side of (you guessed it... Mt Woodson). On Wednesday, the fire was raging from the South side of the mountain and heading around to the north...didn't look very good. Thankfully, the top of said mountain has many important communications towers, so saving them was a priority. The mountain looks like somebody took a giant marker and drew a red circle around it... charred on the outside, safe on the inside. Kudos to the firefighters as they did awesome.

btw.... If I get any retardent on me...will I become ********?

I told my kids... If the house burns down and we lose all of our things don't be upset... all we have to do is just go to a store and buy new stuff.

Now if something happened to mommy, that would be different. We would have to go all the way to Thailand to buy a new mommy.

 

[Fred W]

I live in Ramona, the town that the fire started in. I was evacuated Sunday Night when the fire was North East of us. When I woke up on Monday, the fire was South West of us and thought the worst, but it actually went around us. I live in a community named Mt. Woodson located at the base of the North side of (you guessed it... Mt Woodson). On Wednesday, the fire was raging from the South side of the mountain and heading around to the north...didn't look very good. Thankfully, the top of said mountain has many important communications towers, so saving them was a priority. The mountain looks like somebody took a giant marker and drew a red circle around it... charred on the outside, safe on the inside. Kudos to the firefighters as they did awesome.
btw.... If I get any retardent on me...will I become ********?

I told my kids... If the house burns down and we lose all of our things don't be upset... all we have to do is just go to a store and buy new stuff.

Now if something happened to mommy, that would be different. We would have to go all the way to Thailand to buy a new mommy.

You are wise, far beyond your years, with or without retardent. (And I have no idea how old you are, but that really doesn't even matter.)

Good karma to you and your kids. You certainly deserve it.

 

[Malve]

This weekend, several of the homes in my neighborhhod that had been sitting on the market for sale for a while got gobbled up by displaced families looking to rent why they rebuild. We've got some nice new neighbors that have just been through a lot.

 

[GalaxyBlue]

It's a good thing to have a house for sale there now... Because they will pay ANYTHING for them there... My gramps house in the Hidden Meadows is worth a TON.

 

[Toecutter]

Maybe some of them can move to Fresno/Clovis. We have lots of houses for sale, and SoCal is too crowded anyway....

It's hotter than the sun in summer, but Donald Trump is getting ready to build a golf resort here and our Mayor is Bubba!

Oh yeah, and we don't have wildfires.

 

[Santa Fe Dreamin']

[SIZE=10pt]A late reply:[/SIZE]

We live in Fallbrook – 40ish miles north of San Diego, west of Ramona about 30 miles as the crow flies and about 4.5 miles to the west of Hwy 15.

We left on Monday, 10/22 at about 1:30 PM – 2 hours before the mandatory evacuation came through the reverse 911 circuits. We left because we heard that the fires jumped an “8 lane highway” – Hwy 15. With wind gusts at 50 MPH +, we alerted other neighbors then flew out of our driveway! Besides my obvious main concern of the fires, if we waited for the “official” evacuation call, the two roads leading out of Fallbrook would be a traffic jam of panicking drivers. As it was, the east exit was already cutoff with the fire - Camp Pendleton was opened (they are at our western border – about 1.5 miles from our home) and evacuees were escorted through to Hwy 5.

We joined others camping at Oceanside Harbor feeling safe at water’s edge. That became our home-away-from-home for the next five days.

Friday afternoon we were given the OK to return home. What was dumbfounding to us as we reentered the downtown area of Fallbrook, was the almost traffic jam of Marines, National Guards, 1st Responders, SDG&E trucks, etc. busily going about the duties.

Finally arriving home, a smile covered our faces - fortunately, none of this physically touched us. Emotionally… that was a completely different thing.

Days later when we were allowed to tour the charred remains of other family's dreams, it was almost surreal. You couldn’t help but get emotional. Seeing miles after miles of scorched landscape, the stark reality of our insignificance was contrasted only by seeing repeated evidence of how well our firefighter fought. At almost ever turn we saw landscape burnt within a foot or two of a home, but the home was spared. Spared not buy divine intervention, but rather the very courageous firefighters – far gutsier than I could ever dream of being. By the best estimates (?), we lost over 200 homes and countless acres of burnt landscapes.

Looking back at our quick exodus, it’s amazing what item you hold the most precious when you have only minutes to leave. To me it was simple, the wife and I. Although… … … I did want to take my FJR.