It's Nice to see "Blue Skies" again in Scripps Ranch after the San Diego Fires

We finally saw blues skies again in Scripps Ranch after all of the nearby fires had obscurred the skies with ash and orange haze. Many of the fires in San Diego are still raging to the north of us, but firefighters are getting the upperhand and hope to 100% contain these fires by next week. Firefighters will spend the next few weeks putting out "hot" spots in the fire zones.

San Diego Firestorms Oct 2007 - Harris Fire

Our big scare for our family occurred early Tuesday morning. I dosed off for about 2 hours Monday night while watching the news reports on the 8 different fires that were occuring in the county. When I woke up close to midnight, I heard that there was a fire seen on the large San Miguel Mountain that lies south of my parents' home in Spring Valley about 1.5 miles away. With the mandatory evacuation of Bonita and areas up to the Sweetwater Reservoir due to the Harris Fire, I knew it was time to go get my mother out of Spring Valley.


We woke her up (after 4 phone calls) and told her to pack what she could, and drove 25 minutes south to Spring Valley to get her. On the way there, we could see the entire top ridge of the San Miguel Mountain on fire (as far away as Mission Valley near Qualcomm Stadium)! When we finally arrived at my parents' residence, people were standing outside their homes, mesmerized at this spectacular site of a huge wall of fire running miles along the top of the mountain. It was amazing that something so beautiful could be so deadly.


We were out of there in 10 minutes and luckily avoided the "parking lot" situation on the main roads leading out of Spring Valley just an hour later.


Thanks to all of the firefighters and air support that were able to put that fire out by the next day! If the Sweetwater Resevoir wasn't there as a huge fire break between the fire and the surrounding community, the news reports said that around 200 homes could have been damaged or destroyed.

San Diego Firestorms Oct 2007 - Witch Creek Fire

The Witch Creek fire broke out between Ramona and Julian on Sunday, Oct 21. In less than 24 hours, the fire spread westward and to the south, destroying homes and buildings in Ramona, Escondido, Rancho Bernardo and Poway. We quickly evacuated our home in Scripps Ranch Monday morning as soon as the fires were damaging homes in the north part of Poway (about 5 miles away). After the Cedar Fire in Oct 2003, we did not want to take any chances.

Our prayers and best wishes go out to all of the families affected by all of the fires in southern Califronia this past week.