Wild Fire in San Diego

Wildfire burning in 4S Ranch area of SD. This is breaking, I'm packing...

Good luck, update us as you can.

We (my Zip Code) are now under an evacuation alert rather than a mandatory evacuation. Others closer to the actual fire are under mandatory evac. I'm slowing and will probably repack the truck before sleeping. Tomorrow will be another windy Santa Ana day (hot/dry/windy) and all it takes is a wind shift. As it is, we are not in the wind's path, but we'll be able to leave quickly if things change.

I'm taking this seriously, but more as practice, looking toward the real fire season later in the year. Hopefully this fire just burns up a lot of fuel and creates a huge fire break in that area. Last report they hadn't lost any structures, just a lot of brush.

Officially the fire is 5% contained, but at the news brief, the fire chief seemed to be very confident that they had a handle on it. Maybe 5% is the part of the fire that is threatening structures, the other 95% is burning brush -- which won't be there during fire season. Controlled burns are not allowed, but this is an out of control wildfire...

I still need to repack the truck. Maybe re-prioritize ... Packing in a hurry is not optimum.

News this morning is 1550 acres and 25% contained. We smelled smoke last night after the wind shifted, but this morning it's cooler and clean. It's supposed to heat up again today with higher winds so we'll see. I don't think my residence is threatened, so at this point I'm just following the news. No injuries or structural damage at this point. Nice to see the various agencies involved cooperating and not stepping on each other. Lessons learned from past fires paying off.

Stay safe, Russ!

Russ,

Good luck, take care!

Hope the new firebreak will be a help in the summer.

Keep in touch when you can.

Jerry

Thanks. Jerry, the folks bordering that canyon are pretty much inoculated from wildfire issues for a couple years. If they get through this with no structural damage (fingers crossed) there will be a lot of well deserved kudos.

Apparently one of the Marine aviation units at Pendleton recently recertified (Cal Fire?) doing water drops. I haven't seen any Marine helicopters flying this fire but that ability gives SD a lot of depth in airborne fire fighting resources.

As for origin, apparently the fire started within yards of a high school. I have no idea how a fire could start there, no one in CA smokes, especially HS students on their lunch break

Stay safe! Glad the Marines can help.

Windy and hot up here as well. Glad things are looking up.

Every time I saw a video on the local news showing firefighters in full gear fighting this fire and looked at the temperature in the upper 90's F -- wow, serious temps and hotter near the flames. If they can stop flare ups today we should be in good shape.

BTW, first notification we received on this came via a reverse 9-1-1 call from SDPD. First time we received a reverse call from LE.

Russ, I'm a couple of miles upwind of you. I got some smoke last night when the onshore flow pushed it east. But, during the day, this blast furnace of a Santa Ana is pushing everything west.

I heard that the evacuation order for 4S and surrounding areas was lifted today.

Live updates:
http://www.cbs8.com/#WNPoll139127
I've watching this like a hawk since I'm sandwiched between greenspaces. If one or the other ignites, I'm gone.

During the 07 wildfires, I got the evacuation order via reverse 911 as well. I think there was a bit of delay as the rest of the apartment complex had alread packed up several hours before I got the call.

Looks like this one is over for me, but now there is a fire at Pendleton and another at Carlsbad. Lots of fuel out there...

This was a good drill for me, next time the stuff will be a bit better organized so I can pack quicker. Based on past experience we've normally had days to pack and get ready because the fires started well to the East. These fires are starting in the interstitial wilderness of suburbia and structures are immediately threatened.

107 degrees F in the backyard.

Park your car thinking everything is good and before noon your car's paint is melting/bubbling -- So did he drive away or abandon the car? How were the tires?

Fire Condition Guide?

FireCon 5: set when wildfire conditions (winds, drought, seasonal) exist.

FireCon 4: set when a wildfire has started within 100 miles upwind of your present location.

FireCon 3: set when a wildfire has started within 50 miles upwind of your present location.
A. Top off fuel tanks
B. Plan your escape route(s)
C. Know where everyone in the family is.

FireCon 2: set when a wildfire has started within 25 miles upwind of your present location.
A. Load vehicles.
B. Have all family members come home.
C.

FireCon 1: set when an evacuation has been ordered for your present location.
A. Load family members into vehicles.
B. Depart via best evacuation route chosen.
C.

Here's a framework based on zero Wildfire experience. Perhaps it can be modified to reflect reality by those who are experienced with living in areas prone to wildfires.

FireCon 5: set when wildfire risk is high (high winds, high temp, dry fuel).
A. Top off fuel tanks, check fluid levels, belts, and spare tire pressure

FireCon 4: set when a wildfire risk is high and has started within 100 miles upwind of your present location.
same as Firecon 5

FireCon 3: set when a wildfire risk is high and has started within 50 miles upwind of your present location.
A. Top off fuel tanks, check fluid levels, belts, and spare tire pressure
B. Check evacuation plan.
C. Know where everyone in the family is.

FireCon 2: set when a wildfire has started within 25 miles upwind of your present location.
A. Top off fuel tanks, check fluid levels, belts, and spare tire pressure
B. Check evacuation plan.
C. Assemble/notify family of imminent evacuation.
E. Assemble items for evacuation. Do not put items in car due to theft risk.
F. Contact friends/family where you intend to bug out to.

FireCon 1: set when an evacuation has been ordered for your present location.
A. Load cars
B. Leave

I load the truck Cond 3, but I keep it in an attached garage. I leave it packed until we're back in Cond 5. The way these fires are popping up close-in puts me in Cond 2 until the Santa Ana dies down and it cools a bit.. Should be back closer to normal by Friday.

These fires (plural) caught everyone a bit off guard. Peeps making preps for fire season and suddenly it is fire season. This is going to be a long summer...

News conference -- peeps talking all these fires popping up separately is very suspicious but the weather is also very hot, very dry with wind (Santa Ana conditions) ... basically it could be nature or it could be arson ... peeps dancing around the A word but the guy talking now just said could be arson but the investigation is not anywhere near complete.

More air assets inbound: two are military, FEMA released $$ for one of the big tankers. Resource management among the different agencies involved is huge and they all seem to be working together. Nice to see.

Thank you for building/filling this out with reality. Anybody else have input to a FireCon Checklist?

I was thinking along the same lines. 8 fires with 5 of them within a few hours makes me think there is a firebug running around. I'm going to avoid news about this till the investigation is more complete. The early reports are inaccurate m0re often as not.

Big 747 is what I heard. I'll keep an eye out for that one. It'll probably be working the fire out on I-8 or the Carlsbad one

Unfortunately, arsonists watch the weather forecasts and plan ahead for their perversions. But it is also true that high winds knock down power lines and otherwise play games with the infrastructure. Good investigation can usually determine the cause.

We have a fire locally, along a major highway, that is also suspicious.....

The first fire Tuesday (labeled the Bernardo Fire iirc) could have been HS kids on a smoke break, but the fires yesterday were highly suspicious as to timing and location. We'll see, no point in speculating while the arson investigators put on their CSI hats; the guys at the podium are speculating enough. It's not like they won't have their A-Team all over this with assistance from state and Federal labs.

That's a quote from the local SD Ch.10 (KGTV). Apparently the points of origin were all at an upwind point of a large open space giving a fire lots of fuel for the wind to push it through.

Edit: link to article
All but one fire burning in San Diego County have a suspicious ignition point

Just an FYI -- 109 degrees F in the backyard. 6 hours ago it was 58 deg F. Fortunately the winds have dropped significantly. Tomorrow should be cooler.

The flags at work are finally showing winds coming in from the west instead of the east. It feels like 6-7 mph down from the 20+ mph on Tuesday. Let's hope this is the break that the firefighters need to knock those fires down.

NOT all fires started downwind of another fire ... which is part of why some are thinking maybe one or more fires were set .... nobody has reported spending much time trying validate this concern ...but hey ...really ...9 big fires in the same day ... never happened before ... and it begs the question because of it.
There were other fires yesterday that got quashed quickly and thus didn't get named since they ended up being kinda small. Like the one adjacent to Interstate 5 that closed northbound traffic for a time. I drove by it today ...not overly large area burned but its right up to the freeway ...
Whether we'll ever know if any were actually set, remains to be seen...but hey there are other places that got little rain just like San Diego Cty and they are hot like SD Cty and they are experiencing Santa Ana winds like SD Cty ....but I don't see them catching fire .....so yeah ... it only makes sense to wonder if someone helped us spend huge money to beat back the flames.
Naturally, having preps and BOBs etc doesn't seem so crazy now that its affecting so many folks.
Unlike fires in past years, this time there are tens of thousands of folks asked to evacuate, some still not back in their homes as also the pwr company hasn't restored pwr that was cut to help mitigate potential spread of fire yesterday...so some still don't have pwr anyway....and its nice and hot ....high 90's or 100's in some places.
So far though ... last I heard only 12 homes burned, 6 damaged and 2 commercial bldgs burned .... but that was a few hrs ago.

I think the HurCon (hurricane condition guide) checklist works better than the FireCon checklist because hurricanes develop more slowly and arguably, more predictably, than wildfires. In some sense, preparing for wildfires is more like preparing for an earthquake than an approaching storm because of their speed and unpredictability in many cases.

In many regions, fire season is year-round nowadays so it's always FireCon 5.

The distance cut-offs in the checklist can be useful--or not. I mean, I've seen wildfires spread great distances in a short period of time during windy conditions, and in other situations, you'll have a wildfire literally close enough to see the flames but life carries on pretty much as normal. I was in LA a few years ago on a busy street and the brown hills less than a couple miles away straight down this busy boulevard were on fire, you could see lots of flames on the hillside and a helicopter doing water drops, but everyone was carrying on like normal. Pretty surreal, actually.

One situation that catches people off guard every time is the sudden wildfire during the day. You leave for work in the morning and everything is fine, then a fire pops up while you're gone that threatens your neighborhood or housing tract, and your pets or grandma or your prized antique rocking chair that George Washington sat in is back at your house but you and a thousand of your neighbors are trying to jam back into your housing tract on the single road leading back there.

In that situation, the authorities may block anyone from going in, so the only way to get, say, your pet out is if (well, besides sneaking in) is to have a neighbor who is already there to bring the pet out.

It may be fire season year round, but it's the high winds / low humidity that raise the risk to FireCon 5. Most of the year, Calfire will knock wildfires down quickly and only a few acres will be scorched. Keep a 50-100 ft perimter around your property and you should be fine. It's when there are gale force Santa Ana winds that can drive a blaze too fast to contain, that you need to prepare to evac.

" In some sense, preparing for wildfires is more like preparing for an earthquake than an approaching storm because of their speed and unpredictability in many cases."

Absolutely. You probably should consider some combination of distance and wind velocity in transitioning between preparedness levels. It is better to leave earlier than later.

I will never forget the smoky, flaming early morning when I couldn't leave my driveway for all the fire engines bumper to bumper straining to get to the advancing fire. Not to worry - it was at least 400 yards away.

Very true. That's another difference between evacuating for a hurricane vs wildfires. Depending on the fire, "evacuating" may mean (at least in a place like Southern California) driving just a couple miles down the road, and then hanging out with your neighbors at some Starbucks parking lot waiting for the authorities to let you back home, rather than driving many miles inland to avoid some massive hurricane bearing down on you.

After loading tne heaviest container into my car, I checked with DW and she was comfortable getting out with everything else, so I hosed the roof and left for work. Later that day, DW got an impromptu shower, observing a helicopter drop.

Our block never got an evacuation advisory, which surprises me. For me, it was time to activate our check list and load up the vehicles, something we have done twice. The nearby chaparral is getting high once more, so it may be time for #3.

All you California ETS folks stay safe!

As a general FYI, you can have various emergency services Twitter feeds texted to your cell phone. It beats having to monitor the news sites. You have to text the following to 40404:
San Diego County Emergency: follow ReadySanDiego
Calfire San Diego: follow calfiresandiego