Harris fire

[crisw]

This was the view from our back window last night of the Harris fire...we don't know where the fire is this morning; all the news is on the bigger Witch fire to the north. which is burning dozens of homes. The fire appears to be moving west away from us; let's hope it stays that way.

[Allen42ACJ]

Hi Cris
That is a fantastic view..
I hope you don't get a better one.
Glad you OK so far..
Good luck..

[dr0591]

Wow, that's scary. Must really set your nerves on edge. Can you smell the smoke too?

Glad you're OK.

[crisw]

Hmm, someone moved this- thanks Admin, it was under a different thread!

This is what it looks like right now from my bedroom window. They just closed the road near us, still no evacuation yet. It's still headed west rather than north towards us.

Can't small much smoke; the sky is blue overhead- the smoke is all blowing west.

[Allen42ACJ]

Don't wait till the last minuet..
Get things together that are important and can not be replaced..
If you have a swimming pool,great place to throw things in..

Good luck..

[Larry]

Looks like you have some fairly open field between you and the devil. Hope grains would be enough.

Nice pic.

[crisw]

Yep. everything is together. There is indeed 800 acres of mowed straw field in front of us, and still no sign of the fire getting nearer.

[Larry]

Western Canada evacuated a few years ago duu to the severe smoke pollution from fires east of them. That is a definite possibilty but it doesn't look that large by the pics. I am ignorant of this blaze until now.

[bgrant]

Didn't know about it either - I listen mostly to East Coast news. You actually give names to your fires?!!

Keep safe.

[crisw]

Wel, it's burned over 25,000 acres, so it's plenty big! We have been evacuated- but the fire was not too near; it's mainly precautionary because we live on a road with only one egress.

They do name all the fires here; right now there are at least 8 of them burning in the county. No one knows yet how many homes have been destroyed.

[Deirdre]

Hey Cris, was worried about you. You are watching it from the backside and I get front row view.

11:30 last night it came over the ridge in a v shape and wiped out vegetation between towers and resevoir.

3:30 this AM it engulfed the towers.

4:30 AM fire was running along access roads about 100 yds above resevoir.

Our only concern is that if it had jumped the access roads, would it go down into the dry grass that now makes up the bottom of the resevoir.

10AM military helicopters with water buckets now dropping water over terrain nearest new housing track (The Pointe), real smoky, looks like it is traveling throgh canyon between housing track and mountain side. Heading back toward HWY 94 and El Cajon.

Watched it heading southwest toward the 125 connector and Bonita Golf course.

Kind of scary to be encircled by several fires and all escape paths being blocked off. Only path left to us was going to Coronado.

Just glad that the winds have died down to a reasonble breeze. Now we just need a good rain.

[bgrant]

Dee and Cris,

How are you both doing? Any evacuations? Was the tornado in your area? Hope all is fine.

[Deirdre]

According to Office of Emergency Services, north Jamul (Cris' area) are under mandatory evacuation as of this afternoon.

The area between Cris and myself, Rancho San Diego, is being burned as I type.

The Mt. San Miguel northwest slope has ceased burning, but it did go through the canyon toward Rancho San Diego.

Yes, we do name our wildfires based upon where they originated.

The northern part of the county is still burning and more evacuations are occuring. The Witch Creek fire has shifted toward Mt. Palomar Observatory and the historic town of Julian, which is renowned for apple pies.

Air quality sucks this evening, chest burning from inhaling ashes. Coastal winds are pushing fire back to the east and lots of areas that had already burned are being affected, but that is a good sign; there is no vegetation or chapparel left to burn.

Several areas that burned in the 2003 Cedar fire got nailed again, and many of those folks had just finished rebuilding their homes. Now, they are having a repeat of four years ago.

Do have to give credit to the County and City of San Diego for learning from the Cedar Fire and the Katrina fiasco. FEMA is already in place, executive orders have been signed, military fire assistance was provided.

In the Cedar fire only 50,000 were evacuated; these fires have caused almost 320,000 people to be evacuated. In the Cedar fire 15 deaths occured; these fires have only had one actual fire related death and five elder citizens who died after being evacuated.

I am fortunate today that the evacuation point for the area of Spring Valley was located 2 miles east of my house.

Only major headache that we really are experiencing is closure of almost every major interchange that links the county to the eastern portions of the county.

If Cris doesn't respond, she may still be out of the Jamul area during the evacuation period or she may not have utilities restored in her neck of the woods. If she goes to work tomorrow she will most likely respond then. I truly pray that her house and family is safe this evening and that no harm comes to her families assets. May the angels watch over her and her fellow Jamul residents.

For you eastern folks: in California the letter J is pronunced with an H sound (not all words, just a lot of them have the Spanish pronunciation)

[crisw]

I'm still at my sister's; we were told not to expect to go back for 2-3 days. It looks like the fire skipped the area of our house. I work at a school, so I am off for the week as all schools are closed.

[bgrant]

Dee, my prayers go out for Cris, her family and all others in that area. We were just a few minutes ago watching footage of the fires and deeply feel for those who have already lost all their possessions.

I also hope that the distance between you and the fire stays the same, or better yet, increases.

Please keep us updated, because even though we're seeing it on the News, there's nothing like direct and personal information.

All the best.