San Diego Fires: The Aftermath

The view of Mt. Miguel taken from the bedroom window of my 2-story house. When I decided to leave at 2am last night the entire hillside in the background was a wave of flame working its way down the mountain - I could feel the heat.

 

Let me clarify, please - - the fires in North County and east of me are still very much out of control and dangerous. This blog is only about the Harris Fire on Mt. Miguel that was affecting me in Rancho San Diego, 2 siblings and their families in Rolling Hills/Eastlake area as well as my parents' home in Bonita.

After a very long night I allowed myself 1.5 hours around 7 this morning to sleep after evacuating to my boyfriend Patrick's condo in central San Diego. By God's good grace the winds this morning in the Southbay were not as strong as they expected and firefighters were at last able to contain the fire.

At 4pm I brought Jordy-the-cat back home and took pictures from my house of the 3 smoldering spots at the foot of the eastern side of Mt. Miguel which, last night had engulfed the mountain in one giant wave of flames that led me to leave voluntarily and others imperatively.

The following picture shows a close-up of the biggest last hint of active smoke from the previous night and morning at the bottom of Mt. Miguel probably less than 10 miles away from me.

 

The newish housing community of "The Pointe" off Jamacha were mandatory evacuated. They sit below me and are separated by a canyon that leads directly to my back yard. That is why I knew if they were leaving, I needed to be careful. At the time this picture was taken - they still hadn't been allowed back in.

 

A shot of my small backyard which stops at about 10 feet embankment of ice plant (great for helping deter fires!) and then opens out to a large canyon (refer to the top picture).

 

A little after me, my brother Ben and his family received the good news that they also could return to their home. The visibility is bad, my eyes are stinging something awful but I am much more relaxed tonite and plan to sleep now that my family is out of danger. That said - there are still several fires burning out of control this evening and 1000 homes lost so far. My prayers are with my community. God Bless each and every one of us.
A very red, eerily beautiful sun shown late afternoon....