Stephani Stephenson on tue 28 oct 03
Hello folks
I worked with the Forest service for a time and have lived
in fire country all my life.
I have never seen a fire advance so fast and spread so far
as the fire which overtook San Diego county and part of the
city this Sunday. Really there would have been no way to get
at this fire, as it moved so swiftly and created such
dangerous winds that air assault would have been impossible,
even if we had had more air resources to fight the blaze.
It seems as if there is a solid line of fire from the
Mexican border up north to areas East and north of LA.
Right now the air quality is extremely unhealthy, visibility
about 1/4 mile even here on the coast. air index up around
170. It feels like the entire county is immersed in a
'reducing' atmosphere... respirators needed to go outside,
even inside for most of us who do not have air filtering
systems. We potters love fire but let me tell you , down
here we are immensely fond of water and oxygen right now
(Oxygen once the fire is out, that is). People were asked to
conserve water and electricity, which kept the water
pressure up well enough to allow the firefighters to work.
We have potters who have lost studios as well as literally
thousands of homes lost in S. California. These are not just
homes out in the wilderness areas, but homes in established
residential areas. The fire encroached west as far as I-5 at
Balboa avenue, in E edge of LaJolla. The eastern part of the
county, as in areas further up north, are still out of
control and we are waiting to see what the winds have in
store.
The wind has subsided except in the mountains and canyon
areas east of I-15 and East County, and is supposed to
return to us from the ocean again today, which will
hopefully bring us higher humidity and gradual cleansing of
air.
For the most part people here are doing remarkably well,
evacuation of tens of thousands of people , others stayed
home to keep the roadways clear for emergency vehicles. Many
people here on the coast have opened their homes to people
in the more direly affected areas.
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