Some Fire Reflections

FWIW, it's a valuable exercise to consider the reality of what "really matters" when packing up your vehicles with a wildfire bearin' down on you. I went through this same situation in 2003 - the difference in 2003 was I was on foot when I had go through the house and decide what to evacuate. At that time, the simplicity and time pressure of that situation was liberating and envigorating (strange to reflect on this now) - truth is, when it was boiled down to the simple question in 2003 of "what can I carry that truly matters" I immediately sprang into action...

In '03 I was forced to park my truck 1 kilometer (sorry imperial system folks - sooner or later the US'ians will embrace base 10! :-) ) or so away from the house, as no one was being allowed to enter our community with vehicles. I literally sprinted the 1k to the house, broke the front door (it was deadbolted/chained from the inside and even though I remembered the keys, I forgot the garage door opener to get in that way...) - took five minutes filling a mountaineering backpack with photo albums, crated our only dog (Lucho) at the time and ran back to the truck. It may seem silly that I reacted that way, but damn, the simplicity of the situation was quite revealing.

This time around, we had lots of time (and two vehicles) to get things squared away. We filmed the entire house to document contents (highly recommended, BTW) and put what we thought was important in the vehicles. This time around we got some clothes, important documents, the BTR PC ;-) , a couple bikes, and some more junk in addition to what was grabbed in '03 (plus we have another dog now - Lea). And really, the additional time to consider the situation was a wee-bit painful for me - there was too much time to analyze things, I reckon. Lots of mental fun tickets were wasted on unimportant decisions about trivial crap...

There's a lesson in all of this for me, and one that I was fully aware of even before this day:

Keeping things simple has its advantages.

Another pic I took of the socal fires:



I live in the community at the bottom of that pic.

Disaster averted

All ok. House still there.

Flames march nearer

Fire is less than a kilometer away. We've been evacuated. Selene and I are ok right now as are the dogs - but we will probably be watching the house burn within the next couple of hours.

Then again, maybe not! ;-)

Wind shift

Fire is on both sides of the 15, but progress towards the house has slowed due to shifting winds. Evacuations have occurred for homes within a stones throw of us. Basically, we are at the mercy of the santa ana's it appears

The view out the back door...

Fire seems to be travelling our direction.

A bit of altitude to get a better view

Fixed wing aircraft are on scene trying to protect structures. Looks to be 3k or so away from the house now.

San diego fires

This is the Mission/Rice Canyon fire... About 4 or 5 kilometers North of our house.

San diego fires

This is smoke in Carlsbad from the fires in san elijo/rancho bernardo (I took this pic on my way home from work this morning).

Large scale evacuations have taken place because of this particular fire.