Witch Fire, Harris Fire, Rice Fire updates - 22nd October, Part 3
Other SD Firestorm 2007 updates
Updates here have been resorted and are now in reverse chronological order.
If you're following along with my updates but don't have me on your friends list, I created a new post for this morning's updates. I also created a "firestorm 2007" tag, so you can either refresh the tag page, or you can subscribe to the tag to be notified of new update posts, if you like.
11:45p: I meant to just take a catnap, but it lasted longer than I meant. Oops. Brief updates of the last few hours:
As of two hours ago, new mandatory evacuation area in Encinitas: east of Rancho Santa Fe Rd., north of El Camino Del Norte.
Reverse 911 notifications were sent to some residents in Bonita (not sure of the specific area) and Spring Valley (north of the Sweetwater Reservoir).
Harris fire may have slowed down a bit over the past hour or two, but winds may pick up again.
Primary source for this latest update is the KPBS Twitter feed. It looks as though they'll be continuing to post updates as they come. Other news sources seem to have taken a break for now, and thus other individual bloggers are taking the time to sleep or otherwise take a break... I'll be doing the same due to relative lack of news.
9:32p: Per the Twitter feeds of KPBS and nateritter, there are eyewitness reports of a fire wall heading toward the Del Mar Coastal area. Can't tell how close it is from those updates, though.
Santee officials are keeping an eye out on one branch of the Witch fire - this particular branch is north of El Capitan Reservoir, and it may or may not reach Santee.
News conference coming up at 10:00p.
9:30p: They've started evacuations south of the 56, though I can't tell whether it's mandatory or voluntary yet... I'm seeing/hearing conflicting information on that point.
High Valley in Poway is under threat.
9:24p: Well, shit, now they're saying that the winds won't change till Thursday.
Everyone north of the 56 is under mandatory evacuation.
9:20p: A voluntary evacuation is in place for all areas of Del Mar (well, those that haven't already been under mandatory evacuation, that is).
9:09p: Encinitas Community Center has been set up as an evacuation center, small pets welcome.
Non-food donations (cots, flashlights, batteries, blankets, what have you) are still being accepted at Qualcomm.
8:46p: New evacuation center at Borrego Springs High. They can house small pets and help find a place for horses.
8:35p: The Rice fire is composed of three blazes right now. The first is by the 15, south of Reche Road. The second is at Ranger and East Mission Rd, just west of the 15. The third is in the Rainbow Glen area, just east of Yucca Rd, on both sides of the 15.
Del Mar city officials have reported fire in the Fairbanks Ranch area. City residents are being told to evacuate and are being directed to El Toro High in Lake Forest, Orange County.
Winds have died down along the coasts, but it's getting windier in Potrero. Steady at 18mph, with gusts of up to 43mph. Winds or gusts (I forget which) in Valley Center are up to 40 mph. Tomorrow looks like it'll be 5-10°F warmer in the valleys and mountains (not so much on the coast). This really isn't helping matters...
8:25p: Del Mar Fairgrounds is only at capacity for large animals; they can still take some evacuees.
Granite Hills is in need of food for the livestock... they have a large number of animals there. They could also use some Port-a-Potties, or a key for the bathrooms since they're locked right now.
8:04p: nateritter's Twitter page has constant quick updates.
7:39p: Holy crap... if the UT fireblog is correct, the Witch fire is up to 145,000 acres. Still at 0% containment. 600 structures have been destroyed and another 300 structures have been damaged. 625 firefighters are working to contain the blaze.
The 15 is now open again between the 56 and the 78.
7:33p: Blogger Bruce Henderson has been covering the firestorm; the maps are particularly noteworthy.
7:28p: Fairbanks Ranch and Fairbanks Highlands are under evacuation. I didn't catch whether it was mandatory or advisory, but I'll update the post again when I find out.
The Rolling Hills Ranch evacuation is now mandatory.
The Harris fire is now at 22,000 acres, 5% containment.
7:18p: Evacuation order still stands for Harbison Canyon, west Alpine, and Crest, but the fire isn't approaching those areas just yet... this is only a precuation.
Additional mandatory evacuations in the Del Mar/Solana Beach/Sorrento Valley areas. The new mandatory evacuation area is bounded by Del Dios Highway in the north, Sorrento Valley Rd in the south, and Black Mountain Rd on the east. It extends all the way to the coast in the west. The Del Mar and Solana Beach neighborhoods that were previously under advisory are included in this area.
7:13p: The high wind advisory has been extended until 3:00p Wednesday. The red flag warning will last for the same time period.
7:05p: The evacuation of Bella Lago in Chula Vista is now mandatory. Rolling Hills is probably next on deck.
6:57p: Camp Pendleton military and their families are urged to prepare for an evacuation.
Witch fire continues in Ramona, northeast of the airport.
6:37p: Del Mar advisory evacuations were ordered for the following areas: east side of Crest Road, Oribia Road, San Dieguito Road, Avenida Primavera and Serpentine Drive. Other Del Mar residents are advised to prepare for evacuation.
It's now estimated that at least 70 homes have been destroyed in Poway, but note that this is a conservative estimate - they're saying the final figure will likely be much higher. The hardest hit areas have been the Maderas and Highland Ranch neighborhoods.
6:30p: The SD County Emergency site posted another map of the fire and evacuation area earlier this after. The good news is, it's slightly more up-to-date than previous maps, though it's still 2 hours behind at this point. The bad news is, the site still loads like ass, which especially lovely given the size of the PDF. So I took screencaps and posted them to my Flickr account. See the county overview, Rice fire and Witch fire map, and Harris fire map. In all maps, the solid red is the estimated fire area, the hatched purple is the estimated mandatory evacuation area, and the hatched pink is the estimated advisory evacuation area.
Also, jonthegm created a Google map earlier today, which shows the fire and evacuation areas near Mira Mesa.
Updates here have been resorted and are now in reverse chronological order.
If you're following along with my updates but don't have me on your friends list, I created a new post for this morning's updates. I also created a "firestorm 2007" tag, so you can either refresh the tag page, or you can subscribe to the tag to be notified of new update posts, if you like.
11:45p: I meant to just take a catnap, but it lasted longer than I meant. Oops. Brief updates of the last few hours:
As of two hours ago, new mandatory evacuation area in Encinitas: east of Rancho Santa Fe Rd., north of El Camino Del Norte.
Reverse 911 notifications were sent to some residents in Bonita (not sure of the specific area) and Spring Valley (north of the Sweetwater Reservoir).
Harris fire may have slowed down a bit over the past hour or two, but winds may pick up again.
Primary source for this latest update is the KPBS Twitter feed. It looks as though they'll be continuing to post updates as they come. Other news sources seem to have taken a break for now, and thus other individual bloggers are taking the time to sleep or otherwise take a break... I'll be doing the same due to relative lack of news.
9:32p: Per the Twitter feeds of KPBS and nateritter, there are eyewitness reports of a fire wall heading toward the Del Mar Coastal area. Can't tell how close it is from those updates, though.
Santee officials are keeping an eye out on one branch of the Witch fire - this particular branch is north of El Capitan Reservoir, and it may or may not reach Santee.
News conference coming up at 10:00p.
9:30p: They've started evacuations south of the 56, though I can't tell whether it's mandatory or voluntary yet... I'm seeing/hearing conflicting information on that point.
High Valley in Poway is under threat.
9:24p: Well, shit, now they're saying that the winds won't change till Thursday.
Everyone north of the 56 is under mandatory evacuation.
9:20p: A voluntary evacuation is in place for all areas of Del Mar (well, those that haven't already been under mandatory evacuation, that is).
9:09p: Encinitas Community Center has been set up as an evacuation center, small pets welcome.
Non-food donations (cots, flashlights, batteries, blankets, what have you) are still being accepted at Qualcomm.
8:46p: New evacuation center at Borrego Springs High. They can house small pets and help find a place for horses.
8:35p: The Rice fire is composed of three blazes right now. The first is by the 15, south of Reche Road. The second is at Ranger and East Mission Rd, just west of the 15. The third is in the Rainbow Glen area, just east of Yucca Rd, on both sides of the 15.
Del Mar city officials have reported fire in the Fairbanks Ranch area. City residents are being told to evacuate and are being directed to El Toro High in Lake Forest, Orange County.
Winds have died down along the coasts, but it's getting windier in Potrero. Steady at 18mph, with gusts of up to 43mph. Winds or gusts (I forget which) in Valley Center are up to 40 mph. Tomorrow looks like it'll be 5-10°F warmer in the valleys and mountains (not so much on the coast). This really isn't helping matters...
8:25p: Del Mar Fairgrounds is only at capacity for large animals; they can still take some evacuees.
Granite Hills is in need of food for the livestock... they have a large number of animals there. They could also use some Port-a-Potties, or a key for the bathrooms since they're locked right now.
8:04p: nateritter's Twitter page has constant quick updates.
7:39p: Holy crap... if the UT fireblog is correct, the Witch fire is up to 145,000 acres. Still at 0% containment. 600 structures have been destroyed and another 300 structures have been damaged. 625 firefighters are working to contain the blaze.
The 15 is now open again between the 56 and the 78.
7:33p: Blogger Bruce Henderson has been covering the firestorm; the maps are particularly noteworthy.
7:28p: Fairbanks Ranch and Fairbanks Highlands are under evacuation. I didn't catch whether it was mandatory or advisory, but I'll update the post again when I find out.
The Rolling Hills Ranch evacuation is now mandatory.
The Harris fire is now at 22,000 acres, 5% containment.
7:18p: Evacuation order still stands for Harbison Canyon, west Alpine, and Crest, but the fire isn't approaching those areas just yet... this is only a precuation.
Additional mandatory evacuations in the Del Mar/Solana Beach/Sorrento Valley areas. The new mandatory evacuation area is bounded by Del Dios Highway in the north, Sorrento Valley Rd in the south, and Black Mountain Rd on the east. It extends all the way to the coast in the west. The Del Mar and Solana Beach neighborhoods that were previously under advisory are included in this area.
7:13p: The high wind advisory has been extended until 3:00p Wednesday. The red flag warning will last for the same time period.
7:05p: The evacuation of Bella Lago in Chula Vista is now mandatory. Rolling Hills is probably next on deck.
6:57p: Camp Pendleton military and their families are urged to prepare for an evacuation.
Witch fire continues in Ramona, northeast of the airport.
6:37p: Del Mar advisory evacuations were ordered for the following areas: east side of Crest Road, Oribia Road, San Dieguito Road, Avenida Primavera and Serpentine Drive. Other Del Mar residents are advised to prepare for evacuation.
It's now estimated that at least 70 homes have been destroyed in Poway, but note that this is a conservative estimate - they're saying the final figure will likely be much higher. The hardest hit areas have been the Maderas and Highland Ranch neighborhoods.
6:30p: The SD County Emergency site posted another map of the fire and evacuation area earlier this after. The good news is, it's slightly more up-to-date than previous maps, though it's still 2 hours behind at this point. The bad news is, the site still loads like ass, which especially lovely given the size of the PDF. So I took screencaps and posted them to my Flickr account. See the county overview, Rice fire and Witch fire map, and Harris fire map. In all maps, the solid red is the estimated fire area, the hatched purple is the estimated mandatory evacuation area, and the hatched pink is the estimated advisory evacuation area.
Also, jonthegm created a Google map earlier today, which shows the fire and evacuation areas near Mira Mesa.