Socal Fires

Socal is how they call South California and we have been in the news lately as many of you may know. Having watched the Malibu fire story on TV during the week end, I was a bit apprehensive about the coming days with the dry weather and the howling Santa Ana winds. There was also an official trip coming up mid week.

Sunday – we went out for dinner, and on the left of highway 15 saw a smallish fire & lots of smoke at the Fallbrook area about 15 miles from home.

Monday morning – went to the office as usual, the smoke by I15 had increased. By afternoon we heard that there were huge fires in the San Diego County & mass evacuations were underway. That was when things started to get a little worrisome. I decided it best to leave & quickly drive the 40 mile distance back to Temecula, where we live. It took me six hours to get home and took me close to the raging fires in Fallbrook, we could see stuff falling from the air – soot, cinder…and people fleeing with their cars & trucks laden. Stuck in traffic, I tried many roads to get back on the highway as the GPS instructed, all the inlets into the 15 North were blocked by Police.

Eventually my wife, who was scanning Google maps at home, relayed over the phone that there was a smallish road that joins up in Temecula and I landed up in it. De Luz - Sandia Creek road – a gorgeous drive through forest, some fabulous mansions (I saw a wooden house on an artificial lake even!). Winding, twisting and sloping, the small road & the few inhabitants were finding the many hundreds of cars a bit difficult to cope with, I suppose.

Later that night somewhere on the road through which we came, the shrubs & forest caught fire. It is now called the Rosa fire. This is about 5 miles from where we live, as the crow flies. The wind was blowing the smoke in dense trails…

Tuesday, lots of worry whether the Rosa fire would flare up – Only one site seemed to have any interest in this – The North Californian newspaper site. All others had eyes on the bigger fires.

There were far too many fires in the Socal area & by evening engines, firemen and helicopters from other states started to come by – a million people had got evacuated from Socal...Officials have evacuated nearly 350,000 homes in San Diego County alone, where the worst of the fires are blazing. Based on numbers from the 2000 census, as many as 950,000 people may have been affected

Ground crews and a helicopter launched a full-scale assault on the stubborn "Rosa" fire Tuesday morning in an attempt to surround the blaze, keep it away from homes and stop its march toward the San Diego County line and the inferno currently battering Fallbrook.At noon Tuesday, more than 400 combined acres had been charred, much of it in the thick underbrush of the avocado groves. The fire was about 50 percent surrounded with full containment expected by Wednesday, said Jody Hagemann, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. This blog covers a bit of the Fallbrook& Rosa fire.

Rosa - This fire has burned 411 acres and is 70 percent contained. 175 residences near Temecula are threatened. Evacuations have been lifted and residents are allowed to return to their homes. Suspected arson!!

Fallbrook -This fire has burned 7,500 acres in Rice Canyon in Northern San Diego County and is 10 percent contained. 206 homes, 2 commercial properties and 40 outbuildings have been destroyed. 1,500 homes are threatened currently. 35,000 people have been evacuated from the communities of Fallbrook and Deluz Canyon.

The De Luz - Sandia creek road is an interesting drive that I would not have experienced, had it not been for the fire. This site provides some nice pictures!!

The plight of those who lost their property and had to endure the pain of evacuation is terrible - I hope they can get back soon to their homes or rebuild them, to continue living their lives as they wanted!!

Fire close up pics Courtesy Lateott

Highway pice from the net - thanks, owner

Others taken from our porch