Inferno

What started as two fires in east county, which we initially mistook for a BBQ, has now exploded into 7 separate fires which have consumed 160,000+ acres, over 500 homes and led to the evacution of 250,000 people in San Diego County. I've been watching the coverage on the news all day, and I don't think they've made any headway in controlling the fire. I was sent home from work today because the air quality is so bad they had to close the UCSD campus. They've evacuated nearby hospitals, so we are all on call for the next two days for "disaster backup." They have evacuated north San Diego neighborhoods. They've just evacuated parts of Del Mar, which is right near the ocean. They now have issued mandatory evacuations in east Chula Vista, where my grandparents live (but they are further west than the mandatory evacuation area). Horses have been evacuted to the Del Mar Fairgrounds, which is now full with 0ver 1800 animals (including a zebra!). Qualcomm stadium has been set up as an evacuation center, where thousands of people have gone. The air is filled with smoke. I left my car parked outside for 3 hours this morning, and came back to find it covered in a light layer of ash. Freeways are closed. It is chaos, but very well organized chaos. They've been very good about evacuating people well ahead of the fire so people have plenty of time to get out. The news coverage has been excellent so everyone knows what is going on. And people are going out of their way to help others. People are opening their homes, donating the time and trailers and trucks to help people evacuate, people are bringing donations to the stadium to help out. It is better than other disasters, in that the main part of San Diego is really unaffected, so stores are still open and everything is still up and running if you get out of the areas directly affected by the fire. It's scary though, the fire just keeps advancing, the winds just keep blowing. Luckily, we are safely tucked into the middle of San Diego, well away from any canyons. We can't even feel the Santa Ana winds here. We just have to deal with this horrible air quality (which is actually better here than most places, since we are up on a hill). The weather (hot, dry and windy) is supposed to stick around until Wednesday. Tomorrow more firefighters are due to arrive, hopefully they will be able to get the planes up if the winds die down, and hopefully they'll start to make some headway.