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 ...
My brother and his family live just a few miles west of Poway, about 200 yards south of the Ted Williams Parkway. I left a message on his home phone earlier, and e-mailed his wife at her work, but no response. I hope they've evacuated to safety. Prayers for them and for your relative.
Bookmark for tomorrow.
Probably one of those theoretical possibilities that could happen or has happened under specific circumstances. Then again, could be just airhead MSM reporting. There was a reporter on a San Diego Station earlier that was watching a fire bulldozer try to catch up to a control burn that was running away from him. She stated that what he was doing was pushing the fire with his bulldozer. Eventually he told her what happened and told her to evac immediately.
Just heard reported that Camp Pendleton Commander stated that from 20,000 to 23,000 vehicles were escorted out of the Fallbrook evac zone through the base and onto the 5 freeway. No one knows what is happening up there now.
The extend of the destruction amazed me. It was almost as if a bomb had gone off. You are right about the stench, I had forgotten about that.
Before seeing the results of that fire, and talking to people who had watched it develop, I had the idea that wetting everything down with a hose would be sufficient to prevent a house from catching fire. I did not understand that fires can generate such tremendous heat that flammable items inside a house will spontaneously ignite before the outside flames reach the walls.
I also did not appreciate the speed at which a fire can spread. If the wind is up, it moves faster than a person can run. A friend in Oakland was almost caught by the fire. He thought he was at a reasonable distance, and all of a sudden the fire was within a block of him. It was as though he was being stalked by a very large, very dangerous animal.
The homeowner who ignores an evacuation warning to stand on his roof with his little garden hose is taking a terrible risk.
new large fire now burning in Santa Clarita in LA county..
winds picking up..
mobile home park right in its path!!
one trailer on fire
very windy
The good news is that he said that the wind had calmed down. The potential bad news is that he said that the fire was now burning to his west, not what you want to hear. His email came in at about 8:45 p.m. Pacific time. I sure hope that your brother and his family have evacuated if they were told to do so.
It is obvious resouces were short in canyon country, engines were stretched thin, If a plan like this existed , they could have checked out hose and pumps to fire trained local citizens for structure protection
There could also be earthquakes, floods, hurricanes or terror attacks where a civilian Civil Defense force could be rapidly assembled and deployed at any neighborhood for rescue, security and logistic support in addition and foremost to the national guard which takes longer to muster
Last word from my brother is that his home is still standing, but everything else around the home is gutted. Just a small swath of properties along his lonely street were spared, and they may not be out of danger just yet.
They're being told by an emergency services friend on the mountain that their street would make a dramatic picture of several untouched homes surrounded on all sides by scorched remains of their neighborhood. It's all just burnt to the dirt for acres around in all directions except for his home and a few others on his street. Maybe we'll see just that sort of picture on the news when the media vultures finally get up there when it's safe to roll video.
Brother also tells me that the true extent of the damage to Lake Arrowhead is very under-reported. It's going to be hundreds of homes lost in what used to be about the finest place you could find up there.
For those continuing to pray, please consider some words for those who have lost everything. There will be more people than can be assuaged of their loss when the real effect of this tragedy is finally known.
We really need to keep track of events and post a comparison.
I don’t think it’s “explode” like a bomb, or like dynamite, but more the way the oils in the tree cause the foliage to just burst into flame when subjected to the heat of an approaching blaze. It’s far more dramatic with pines, as they have turpentine in them, which is more flammable than eucalyptus oil.
I don’t know that there are any natural conditions that could stoke a eucalyptus up hot enough to where the actual tree trunk would explode into flames. You’d have to have a very hot fire around the same tree, for a very long time. Volcanism would be about the only possible way that nature could create that kind of scenario.
I think that "explode" just means that when they finally burn, they burn very rapidly, sending up large gusts of flame. That was what happened during the Oakland Hills fire. Eucalyptus trees were blamed for worsening that fire with their explosions, but I do not believe it was ever proven.
The trees do have an odd habit of auto-amputating large branches on warm windless summer days, once to the detriment of my car's hatchback. Since you live in San Diego, you have probably heard of eucalyptus branches falling on unwary tourists as they strolled through Balboa Park.
Geeze think about all the propane in a trailor park.
Not to mention the oxegon tanks for those O2 dependant.
Actually all the stuff folks keep for years in tha garage.
Spray paint, fertilizer ect.
Anyone know if a Prayer thread is going for those having to endure this fire storm?
Yes, but very little evidence is left behind, for after Hillary walks by, the eucalyptus branches self detonate, falling on the unsuspecting tourists, who then spontaneously combust. Very little left behind.../ad absurdum off
Amateur Radio Operators currently fill much of this void as part of the Incident Command System, specifically as a part of the logistics function.
The big problem now is that FEMA and the Red Cross wish to monopolize all aspects of what has become the emerging new business of “disaster relief”.
The Red Cross and FEMA have interfered with many local relief efforts actually driving off local volunteers to solidify there own “relevance”.
North Dakota flooding - Red Cross/Fema refused access to local relief groups.
Katrina - Numerous cases of FEMA -destroying- antennas of local police and local relief groups.
9/11 New York - Amateur Radio APRS operations (GPS)terminated at the Command Centers due to concerns the bad guys would attack the Command Center. Never mind every other agency was radiating their position.
Red Cross policy of not training radio operators in damage assessment -before- an incident. This is an effort to control their prominence during a disaster.
I don’t speak for any amateur radio group. Only from my own experience and reading on the topic.
Any large bureaucracy anywhere will make every effort to protect and expand their own influence and relevancy.
Successful execution of their mission is quite low on the priority list.
Failure actually allows more funding and manpower to be allocated in the future.
Failure is the mandate of any large government bureaucracy.
I was involved for years with two counties in Kalifohnia as an emergency communications volunteer, and lived it first-hand.
So, now emergency communications is for me/family/friends and that is it!
another large evactuation now for areas just SE of SD (harris fre)
9/11 really gave these guys a “boost” under the guise of “National Security”.
I think we could do a lot of good at the very local level (neighborhood) by participating and even organizing in such as way as to be ‘under the radar’ - perhaps - I just lost my momentum though!
On any given storm event we can have up to a hundred or more spotters trained by the NWS on the air. Many of these spotters are mobile and are actively engaging the storms. Madison and Milwaukee repeaters can be “linked” and thus provide instant real time communications for over 20 counties.
With Net Control situated right in the Sullivan NWSFO op center, the meteorologists have -instant- two way communications with spotters in the field.
Everybody is a volunteer, trained, equipped at their own expense, and unpaid.
Exactly what you were describing!
Direct live video links for San Diego:
Channel 7, NBC:
http://mfile.akamai.com/12901/live/reflector:34023.asx
Channel 2, CBS
http://mfile.akamai.com/12922/live/reflector:38610.asx
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