Fires in California

[RobertSchuldenfrei]

Hi Everyone,

Is anyone in our forum in peril do to the fires in California? From someone in hurricane prone Florida, you are in my thoughts and prayers.

Good luck,

Bob

[Litespeed]

I had posted earlier yesterday what was happening in San Diego. I myself live in Lakeside which is East County portion of San Diego. We are not in immediate danger. Approximately 513,000 people have now been evacuated in San Diego County, over 1000 homes have been lost and over 231,000 acres have been burned. They don't expect to have the fires contained until November 4, but luckily the winds have died down enough now for air tankers to make water and fire retardant drops which is a great help. We have had to bring in the National Guard to help with looting, luckily we haven't had much of that. I just can't imagine the low life that would take advantage of people in such distress. I talked to a girlfriend of mine who was able to sneak back into her house and everything in her area is fine. She did say that she had talked to someone up there where they saw a horse trailer (4 or 6 horse) that was hooked up to a truck and apparently got knocked over possibly by the winds and burned trying to get out. Don't know if the people or horses were able to get out or not. Only one person has died and approx 25 have been injured. We won't know the full extent of loss for quite some time. This fire is worse then the 2003 fires we had. People have really been pulling together to make donations to evacuation points and generally helping people out.

[AP_Photos]

Two resources for information on the fires:
CAL FIRE (http://www.fire.ca.gov)
They have updates every few hours as well as a link to a map
also from the National Interagency Fire Center (http://www.nifc.gov)in Boise, ID, which isn't updated as often, and also covers large fires all over the US

[swalkr]

My sister-in-law, her daughter and family have just been evacuated from Fallbrook. Two month ago, she sold her home in Baton Rouge Louisiana to get away from the hurricanes. She built a new home in Fallbrook. Please keep her, her family and all the rest of the folks in harms way in your prayers.

[pixlbandit]

Even those outside of fire danger have such poor air quality because of all the ash and smoke in the air, the hospitals are going to be jammed with people who have breathing problems. I'm within about 5 miles of the ocean, enough that we have had a bit of onshore air tonight which helps some, but my eyes are still nearly swollen shut. I feel most horrible about the wildlife lost in the blazes--the people will recover.