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.
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