jaina

I realized I didn't do a fire follow-up post-- I did end up going to work on Wednesday. My coworkers were all fine, and so were their houses, although the fire came within a block of one person's house. The remaining fires have been at least mostly contained by this point. I flew out of San Diego yesterday and spotted at least two areas still burning. Crazy.

While the fires are still burninating the county-side, we have basically been declared safe. They have lifted the evacuations that were closest to us, along with most of the coastal evacuations, so it looks like they'e no longer concerned that the Witch fire will burn much more to the south and west (ie, toward us). Chris and Rachel are still fine (Sony has been letting employees bring their pets to the office! How cool is that?) and Alex and Tree are returning home, since their evac has been lifted as well.

Air quality in our area is great; we no longer even smell any smoke. To celebrate, we opened a window, because it was getting almost unbearably stuffy. We also took a short walk outside to combat stir-craziness. Not sure whether either of us will go to work tomorrow; basically it depends on what they say on the news in the morning, whether they still want everyone to stay home and off the roads or not. (And whether my office is even open; I've had no communication from anyone since I left on Monday morning.)

So that's good news for us. However, there are still 500,000 people evacuated in the county, and the fires are still burning bright in the north and south, so prayers and good thoughts for all of them would surely still be appreciated. I still don't know about the houses of my four evacuated coworkers who were all in the Rancho Bernardo and Poway areas. :(

Still safe, still at home. Situation (for us) is about the same as last night. Right now, everything depends on the wind. If the strong Santa Anas continue, the firefighters will just have a terrible time trying to stop the progress of the flames. The winds are incredibly unpredictable-- they will seem to calm down, then flare back up.

They have still not evacuated my area (and fingers crossed that it won't happen)-- depends on whether the Witch Fire to the northeast of us turns more south. Currently, the fire seems to be headed straight west, which is good news for us, but less so for the city of Encinitas. Even so, if it was just me and Rogue, we would already be gone and up in C'bad with Debby and Dan. But with the Ginny-cat, the poor thing is so neurotic that we don't want to traumatize her any more than necessary, so we'll wait for official word.

They are asking everyone to stay home from work, stay off the highways, stay off cell phones, and conserve power as much as possible. sirrogue's workplace is officially closed; I've had no word from mine, but when I dial in it goes straight to the recorded message, so I'm just staying home. I slept from about midnight to 5 am while Rogue monitored the news, and now he's getting some sleep.

Air-quality-wise, we're actually doing pretty well, apparently much better than blusurfer and Dan (oddly, the reverse of the 2003 fires). There's a faint haze, stronger to the north, but the sky is mostly still blue-ish. If you go outside, you get the fire smell, but we've battened down the hatches and it's still fine in here, if a bit stuffy.

We are still safe. However, the evacuation line is creeping closer to our house (the southern boundary is now Sorrento Valley Blvd), so we are packing in earnest. If they say go, we want to be able to just go. But it's definitely not certain that we'll have to go.

Alex and Tree, and Jon, Janet, and Jonny all evacuated safely. If blusurfer and Dan end up having to evac due to the Fallbrook fire, we will likely end up with Alex and Tree at her parents' house.

For the MTG people: Alex and Tree are under voluntary evacuation. (Clarification from blusurfer: this is because of air quality concerns, not imminent flames.) They are packing up the cats and heading for Tree's parents in LA.

Chris and Rachel's house is very close to an evacuation area, but they haven't gotten any notices yet, as far as I am aware. They are at his office right now, "taking advantage of its recirculating air."

We are still in no danger, but we're getting ready to pack, just in case.

San Diego fire update: Just wanted to post quickly and let y'all know that sirrogue and I are fine. We are both at work (although we will likely head home shortly) and our apartment is currently not in any danger. We're in the UCSD area, if you want to look at a map. blusurfer and Dan are okay too.

However, three of my coworkers have been evacuated from their homes, and another is on standby and has packed up her cats and car. If you could spare some thoughts or prayers for them, they would be appreciated.

This feels much scarier than four years ago, because it's much closer to where lots and lots of people live. They're saying on the news that it will likely be worse than the 2003 fires. Also, I think the scariest thing is that they are saying that they cannot contain the fires right now, that about all they can do is make sure people get out safely.

ETA: If anyone finds a good map of either the current location of the fires or all the areas that have been evacuated, could you let me know? The online coverage has been lacking.

ETA2: Map found, thanks Dan and Blu! This map is very helpful for understanding the current situation in the county.