Wildfire is not that unfamiliar term to San Diego, but I never realized that I will experience it so closely this time.
(Photo Credit: KPBS-Flickr)On Sunday, because of high winds and dry weather, almost 10 fires started in San Diego county. The Witch Creek fire in Ramona, which started with just 100 acres on Sunday morning, spread across 13,000 acres till Sunday evening. While on Monday morning it burnt up to 140, 000 acres of land across northeast of SD. The speed at which it was spreading and moving towards SD city, was indeed scary. The winds were blowing at 60mph and humidity numbers were in single digit. The temperatures all over county were soaring to 90-100 deg fahrenheit, making weather conditions similar to AZ.
On Moday morning, when I woke up from a phone call from Qualcomm automated notification system, to report my "home" status.. I realized the urgency of the situation. My place in MiraMesa was surely safe, but mother nature was already showing its rage in Rancho Bernardo, around 20-25 miles fro my place, burning all houses and apartment complexes. Area of Poway (15 miles from my place) was already under mandatory evacuation.
(Photo Credit: Google - Map Data @2007)I called couple of my friends in that area to find out the status and was glad to find out they were safe, but surely were scared to death of loosing their houses. One of my friends mentioned that last month his colleague has just moved to their new house in Rancho Bernanrdo. They had their house warming ceremony (VastuShanti) on Saturday evening and now received evacuation orders on Sunday night.. How cruel your fate can be... Hmmm.. God Delusion !!!
Mira mesa being safe, I decided to go out with couple of friends. Sky was full of black smoke-clouds. The smell of smoke was in the air and small flecks of ash were falling around.
We went to the evacuation center in Qualcomm stadium to find out if they need any help esp with "man power". Considering the requirement for relief work, I really didn't realize how I spent 8 hrs there, helping evacuees in sorting and distributing beddings. Considering the 2003 SD fire, people mentioned that relief work was really well organized. Infact at one point, the number of volunteers in the Qualcomm stadium were more than evacuees :) !!
When I was returning home at 9 pm, Moon looked like one in eclipsed state, red-yellowish in color. Generally in crystal clear weather, moon looks bright white as milk, but witch creek fire is surely acting as a "witch", causing moon to be disappeared.
After reaching home, when I turned on the TV, I was lil bit shocked with the news that the fire has spread a lot on west side of SD and mandatory evacuations has been issued at South DelMar and North Sorento Valley area, probably 10-15 blocks from me. Considering the wind conditions, if fire would have spread little bit more, then MiraMesa was the next one going to be under mandatory evacuations. With flaky electricity conditions, I packed all important docs and stuff. While sorting out some low-priority stuff, I realized that how difficult it is to pack my "5 years of stay in USA" just in couple of bags. It surely made me nervous at that point. What must be going through those minds, who were already under mandatory evacuations... and I can not imagine thoughts of those who have already lost their houses and belongings.... When you work as a volunteer, though you are doing your best, your state of mind can never reach at the same level as the evacuee, the pain they must be gong through.. and now I was about to switch the sides and that thought itself scared me a little. I really didn't want to end up in Qualcomm Stadium as an evacuee...
While trying to sleep at 2pm, I heard some people in my apartment complex moving their luggage in their cars, but I guess they were doing precautionary evacuation. No voluntary or mandatory evacuations were announced officially yet.
On Tuesday morning, I guess mother nature must have been heard the prayers, the winds were subsided to ~10mph. Witch Creek fire is not moving towards south, but still moving lil bit on north-west. Most of the fire is under control and not spreading much. By afternoon, most of evacuations on south side of the fire have been lifted areas.... still its only 10% contained !!
Its unbelievable how things can change in such a short time... On Saturday, I was relaxed and working on my guitar lessons, wondering how to play F chord smoothly.... and...... on Monday evening, I was worried that I probably will not be able take my guitar with me if mandatory evacuations happen.... Hshhhhh !!
Probably nothing happened to me specifically. I was never hit by the worst, but overall its a realization that "Life comes to you really fast, when you are busy doing other things" !!
