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When the residents of San Diego County went to bed last Sunday night, all were gripped by the news of raging wildfires in Orange county and one rapidly spreading fire in Witch Creek, a town just northeast of San Diego. By Monday morning, all of southern California was on alert. Evacuation orders were being made in many neighborhoods as, just overnight, the fires had spread like, well, wildfire. Gathering its fuel from the hurricane strength Santa Ana winds, the Witch Creek Fire had now grown from 3,000 acres to 30,000 acres! Even worse, smoldering ambers from the larger fires had kicked up dozens of smaller fires across the county. It seemed as if everything from San Diego to Los Angeles was about to go up in flames.
Being from Florida, I am no stranger to wildfires. I have lived in a couple different cities in Florida that have experienced them but nothing ever this massive. Currently, I live in Oceanside, California, a small beach town that is home to mostly U.S. Marine families and other military personnel. The news stations were so busy reporting about the fires that were already burning, there was little mention about the threat posed on Oceanside and neighboring Vista, CA. New fires had even erupted just north of us on the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base and the housing areas were called next to be evacuated. For about three days, my family and I prepared for the worse as each fire inched closer and closer to us, pushing our backs into an invisible corner. We evacuated for one night, to a friend's house that lived closer to the beach. All we carried with us were one suitcase each, blankets, and important documents. All over town the air was thick with smoke and the ash rained for days from the sky.
While we were lucky enough to not be reached by any of the fires, this experience has been one of the most stressful and exhausting of my life. I am thankful to the reverse 911 technology and the numerous people that helped with the evacuations. Despite my worries for others, I found it amazing that over a half million people could be alerted and moved so quickly. It only made me wonder why this was not possible during hurricane Katrina when there was so much more forewarning. Hopefully, the wildfires of southern California will teach every state a lesson in emergency protocol. The local news stations now report that fire crews expect containment of all fires by Halloween.
