Category: Fire

Just heard a fireman being interviewed by phone on the news say there may be a new flare up on Old Julian Highway. This is due north of the San Diego Country Estates, and is the general area where the Witch fire started. Unconfirmed information at this point, but doesn’t bode well for being able to return to Ramona very soon.

Additionally, water has been turned off again. Seems people who ignored the mandatory evacuation were starting to wash cars and houses, which was taking away from the ability to use water for fighting fires.

Less water + more fire != good time

Hmm, I’m starting to use pseudocode in posts. I really need more sleep.

From the Ramona Sentinal:

No homes in San Diego Country Estates or the Ryland development have burned. Residents of those areas and throughout Ramona have been calling the Sentinel because they have heard no official reports.

Also, some good NASA satellite photos of the fires.

I have had no real information to add over what is available in the media until recently. Water is slowly being restored to Ramona, and I have heard unconfirmed reports that San Diego Country Estates residents might be allowed back in once water service is fully restored. Apparently some grocery stores in town are open for people who did not evacuate, and highway 67 into Ramona is not in the middle of fire activity. All this is not confirmed, though.

No new information on any houses burned in the Estates. The east end still appears to be unaffected.

Some Ramona specific resources:

Ramona Sentinal web site
www.ramonarelief.com

A lot of progress was made by fire fighting teams today. Winds are not as strong, and the satellite map shows fire areas are much smaller. I’ve captured the current National Weather Service image below.

Several areas that had previously been evacuated are now being repopulated. However, the winds have shifted and the fires are moving east again. As a result, the Julian area east of Ramona has been evacuated — see the fire map link for more detail. Eastern Poway is also still evacuated, and there are active fires in that area. This means Ramona is sandwiched between two dangerous areas. The San Diego Country Estates is still pretty quiet with no fire activity, but there is really no way to get there right now. All roads in are still closed. Additionally, all water is shut off in Ramona, but this should be remedied early Wednesday morning. It is unclear when we might be able to re-enter Ramona.

The general consensus is that the worst is over, but not all areas are yet safe. The heavy Santa Ana winds are supposed to die off Wednesday, which should allow the air drops to continue unheeded.

Mira Mesa has not been evacuated. The mandatory evacuations north of 56 have not been extended down through Los Pe�asquitos Canyon. There have been great efforts to keep the fires out of the canyon, as it has not burned in 90 years.

More than 346,000 homes have been evacuated throughout San Diego county. At this point most of the new evacuations are happening in northern and southern parts of the county. There is not as much ash on the ground here in Mira Mesa as yesterday morning. This indicates to me most of the fire activity is to the north of us rather than to the east as it was yesterday.

Wildcat Canyon Road has been evacuated, near the Baron Casino (see map on that page), as well as the Lakeside area. This area burned pretty bad in the Cedar fires, resulting in a some deaths.

Winds in Ramona are kicking up again, although other areas are getting a bit of reprieve from the winds. Sources inside the San Diego Country Estates report that there are no known fires in the west end of the Estates, even though the KPBS fire map shows that area as having been covered by the Witch fire. Power and water are still available in the Estates, although I have seen reports that Ramona proper does not have good water, possibly due to lack of power. I am not sure how the west side of the Estates is fairing. This area is closer to the fire. The east end is separated from the fires to the north by Mount Gower, which burned fairly clean in the Cedar fires. The main concern is fire activity in the Wildcat Canyon Road area. If the winds shift it could send the fire back toward the southeast part of the Estates. There are more than 5,000 homes in the Estates.

Some good news: In addition to the winds decreasing around San Diego, there is a lot of support pouring in from around the country. I’m looking at helicopters dropping water on some areas right now. Air National Guard units from CO, WY and NC are on the the way, with the first units scheduled to arrive in Southern California around 2:30pm. These units will bring six C-130 air tankers, which can cover a half mile wide area with one drop of fire retardant — 3,000 gallons at a time.

At this point the Witch fire is only 1% contained. See sidebar links for more information on other areas of San Diego County.