<p>Sandiegomom, thank you for checking in…was also glad to hear from Carolyn that her pot-bellied pig, which they had to leave behind, is also OK. (I’m still trying to explain to co-workers the shout I gave out: “Oh thank goodness, the pig made it too!”)</p>
<p>My home is in the direct path of the fire at its current clip, and only a short distance to boot. With the resources being allocated to defeating it (I have heard that it now has #1 priority for CA resources) I highly doubt our home is in any real danger, but it’s hard not to be nervous.</p>
<p>On the plus side, now that things have calmed down a little, the fire service and police have been able to patrol around the burned areas and do structure reports. Devastation is not QUITE as bad as was originally feared: it seems that what burned REALLY burned, but the fire also jumped a lot and skipped a few houses in the middle of the chaos. While it’s certainly not a blessing to be left in the middle of the remains of your neighborhood, I am always glad to hear when another place makes it.</p>
<p>Crossing my fingers that the Santa Anas don’t start up again soon, because that would cause serious problems.</p>
<p>The news this morning regarding the Santiago Canyon fire (about 10 miles from me): A crew of firefighters was forced into retreat overnight after the Santiago wildfire made a sudden lunge up the slopes of the Santa Ana Mountains. The firefighters, not wanting to get trapped by the fire with only an uphill escape route, pulled back around 6 p.m. They returned several hours later, after the fire had calmed down. It has also now burned 27,000 acres. This morning, there were around 1,600 firefighters on the lines.</p>
<p>Sandiegomom:</p>
<p>Thanks so much for coming online to reassure us and give us news of Carolyn. I’ve been thinking about you and other SoCal folks.</p>
<p>South Ops is calling spare units to the Santiago Fire; the effort to fight both the Slide and Grass Fires has been going so well that I think we’re able to send at least a tanker and a few crews that direction.</p>
<p>All is looking good at this point. They hope to have the Grass Fire fully contained by Sunday, and the Slide Fire is behaving well enough that they’re hopeful they can beat it down some more in the next couple days, while it’s not threatening too many homes (they’re focusing on the fronts that are closest to other communities, though there are things in the path of the other fronts). </p>
<p>Crossing my fingers that the weather stays mild and the winds stay calm. Everyone who’s been affected by this is in my thoughts and prayers.</p>
<p>I live right next to the major staging area being used for the fires (Kit Carson Park in Escondido) and it’s quite an operation. There are firefighters from all over the state and outside of the state camped out and staged there. There are also prisoners and guards camped out there who were fighting the fires. The HS across the street has been turned into a lot for many of the heavy equipment trailers and water trucks along with more fire trucks. Bush and Schwarzenegger landed at Kit Carson Park on Thursday to greet the fire crews after touring the area and I think it was well received. There were lots of homes destroyed within a couple of miles of this area (Escondido, Rancho Bernardo, Del Dios). I just drove through some of these areas today (only on the freeways and highway - not into the neighborhoods) and there was a lot of devastation.</p>
<p>These fire men and women have done an outstanding job. So have the people who organized and staffed the evacuation locations including the stadium. One of my friends who was evacuated was fed and taken care of so well he said he felt like he was on vacation. I walked over to the park and HS today and shook the hands of some firemen and thanked them as well as some corrections officers (guarding the prisoners) for their help. I would have thanked the prisoners as well if I could have gotten closer to them. These people do a terrific job fighting the fires in 100 degree days, extremely rugged terrain, and very dangerous conditions. </p>
<p>The weather has turned around now and the most threatening fires have been fairly controlled. There are still some threatened areas in the outlying areas of the county but closer into the city normalcy is returning.</p>
<p>Here is an article about the firefighting prisoners. It seems like a very good idea to me. </p>
<p><a href=“http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3784511[/url]”>http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3784511</a></p>
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<p>Apparently a few of them were.</p>
<p>I laughed when I read a newpaper article that said that things were so cushy at Qualcomm that the officials began to suspect that not all of the evacuees really needed to be there. So they announced over the PA that they were going to check IDs to make sure that everyone was actually from an evacuated area - and about a thousand “evacuees” promptly packed up and left.</p>
<p>I was able to return home yesteday. All is fine, just a layer of ash everywhere. The only problem is the water. It came back on yesterday, but we aren’t allowed to use it for anything except laundry and toilet flushing until the health department deems it safe. They’re saying to have no human contact with the water. The National Guard is passing out bottled water, though. It could have been so much worse around here. The firefighters did a great job.</p>
<p>Conditions are okay down here – it could’ve been a lot worse if the winds didn’t die down and we didn’t get any help from firefighters around the country. I have to hand it to those firefighters: they’ve been working non-stop the past week and have contained a majority of the fires. I think at one point we were up to 23 fires. Unfortunately the ones that are still burning are only about 35-45 percent contained. The air conditions are pretty poor but the good thing is that they’re letting people at Qualcomm stadium and other evac centers go home. Damages are estimated to be around $1.6 billion unfortunately so we’ll just see how everything plays out.</p>
<p>They made major progress on the fires in the mountains. The Grass Fire is 95% contained and the Slide Fire is 75% contained. They’re lifting the mandatory evacuations and reducing them to voluntary for most of the mountain, excepting the areas that were heavily burned or are still near a front.</p>
<p>No one’s quite sure what to expect, but the mountain residents are heading up at noon today. There haven’t been any announcements regarding the state of the infrastructure, and I can only imagine the chaos that is going to ensue once the fires are out and the people who lost their homes begin to face the next step.</p>
<p>The Santiago fire (10 miles from me…still) has consumed just under 28,000 acres, and is now 40% contained. On the scene: 1,941 firefighters, 216 engines/trucks, 35 hand-crews, 18 bulldozers. 634 officers from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. 100-plus officers from California Highway Patrol, 13 helicopters, 8 air tankers, 13 water tenders. </p>
<p>Expected “containment” Tuesday. Full control: unknown</p>
<p>Cause: Arson - $285,000 reward offered.</p>
<p>I suppose I can start sweeping out my backyard now, it looks terrible. I could use some workers.</p>
<p>The National Weather Service says a new round of potentially dangerous Santa Ana winds is likely to blow through inland Orange County next weekend, bringing gusts up to 40 mph in some foothills and canyons, and dropping the relative humidity below 20 percent. The winds “may again bring critical fire weather conditions,” the weather service says.</p>
<p>“This looks like a short-lived event that would occur on Saturday,” says Dan Atkin, a weather service forecaster. “Temperatures could get into the mid-80s in Orange County.”</p>
<p>The conductor of the youth orchestra that both my daughters played in lost his home to the fires. It was filled with mementos from the many international tours the orchestra has taken.</p>