San Diego Fires

UPDATE: All is safe where I am now. So far, over 1,000 homes have been destroyed throughout the San Diego area from the fires this week, with 35 homes lost in Rancho Santa Fe (where I live). As you can see from this map of homes lost in Rancho Santa Fe, the wind stopped in the nick of time. The homes caught fire from the north east, heading south west. The last home lost in RSF was one block from my home. I was very fortunate. Thank you to everyone who called to make sure I was OK.

Many friends and family members have contacted me to find out if I'm OK. So far, over 350,000 homes have been evacuated, and over 1,000 destroyed.

As of Tuesday, Oct. 23, 1:00 PM, here's a quick update...

On Monday morning, around 10 AM, I received a "reverse 911" call at my home in Rancho Santa Fe, telling me I needed to immediately evacuate, as the fires were approaching. I proceeded to prepare my SUV with all the essentials, but stayed in my house. Throughout the day I kept an eye on the news and would hourly look out all the windows from my top floor. It was obvious most people had left Rancho Santa Fe. Around 10 PM, I could see the flames off in the distance, and it was clear they were getting closer, so I decided it was time to leave. I drove to our church's evacuation site, and Toby (my dog) and I spent the night there with about 100 others.

I awoke early this morning, around 5:30 AM. There are about three different ways to get to my house, so I decided to get in my SUV and survey things. I tried all three routes into my neighborhood, and all had police road blocks, preventing me from entering the area. From one of the road blocks you could see the fire burning the hillside (just north of San Dieguito Road), not far from my house (at the intersection of Camino Del Sur and San Dieguito Road). Around 6:00 I was able to take a hidden back road to get to my home. All was well with my house and my 14-home subdivision. Again, I have a sense I'm the only one here. For now, I am going to stay in the home and keep a close eye on things, again, ready to leave in a moments notice if needs be. I'm hopeful, however, that things will start to be contained soon. I'll keep you posted. Winds are mild here, but feel like they are picking up.

This map shows where my home is located, the fire area as of early this morning (and how close it got/is), along with the mandatory and advisory evacuation areas. Click image to enlarge.



So far, over 1,000 homes had been destroyed by the San Diego fires. Here is a Google Map I set up that shows my house and those homes in RSF which are close by, as reported destroyed on TV, so far. (Click on each marker to see the number of homes destroyed and their addresses. My home is the marker in the lower left side.) As you can see, a little close for comfort.

For a list of all destroyed homes, county wide, as verified by New 8, go here.

Updates on the situation can be found at http://www.sdcountyemergency.com

Kevin