Final Fire Update

Well, although not all of the fires in the area are 100% put out, it seems like things are getting back under control around here. They announced that it was determined that the "Bernardo Fire," which was the first fire on Tuesday that broke out near our neighborhood, was started accidentally by a spark from construction equipment near that area. Apparently when construction workers noticed the fire start they tried to put it out, but with the dry brush, high temperatures, and high winds it just got out of control too quickly for them to do anything about it. Fortunately the Bernardo Fire was 100% contained as of yesterday, having burned a total of approx. 1,600 acres. And no lives or homes were lost, which is pretty amazing since the fire jumped across at least one main street and went right up to the back yards of some houses.  

The fire in Carlsbad was also declared 100% contained yesterday, after burning 600 acres. It burned dozens of homes and businesses, and a burnt body was found in a canyon after the fire went through. They reported that that area was a known camp for transients. It makes me so sad to think that they may likely never identify the person who died, and to imagine that a family in Mexico may never hear from their husband and father again and may never know why. 

There were other smaller fires this week in Oceanside, Scripps Ranch, Escondido, near Lakeside, north of Santee, and somewhere south of here near the 805 freeway, but those didn't seem to get as much coverage in the media because they were smaller than others happening at the same time, or they were put out relatively quickly.  There were 11 different fires in all in our county this week. 

There have been three different fires on different parts of Camp Pendleton this week, and as far as I know they have burned a total of about 22,500 acres between the 3 fires. Michael's sister and her kids have been staying with us for 4 days and just left to go back home since the fires closest to them seem to be getting under control. I just got an alert that all of the Camp Pendleton evacuations have now been lifted. 

And the San Marcos fire was the other one that was closest to where we live.  It started on Wednesday in San Marcos south of the 78 freeway and just west of Escondido (where Michael works on Wednesdays and Thursdays). As of yesterday morning it was 70% contained, and they were saying they expected it to be 100% contained by today. This fire also made us a little nervous, not only because it was close to Michael's work, but because it wasn't all that far north of my parents' house and our house, and could have meant another evacuation for our area if the winds had moved it this way. A couple days ago they actually ended up evacuating areas for that fire a as far south as the homes around Del Dios Highway, which included some homes on the northern edge of the Crosby neighborhood, just about 4 miles or so from our house. But the general idea seems to be that they evacuated that area as a precautionary measure because parts of that area don't have many access roads to the houses so they didn't have trouble getting people out if the winds shifted. The fire itself was not that close to our neighborhood.  Now the evacuations have been lifted for most areas affected by the San Marcos fire, so hopefully the rest of the people will be able to return soon. I read that as of yesterday evening over 2,500 acres had burned, including at least 25 structures (mostly homes). 

As far as I know they have not yet determined causes for any of the fires other than the one closest to our neighborhood. But I thought it was very interesting when my dad told me a firefighter on the news said that people couldn't understand how so many fires could all start within such a short time, and many are suspicious about how they started. But the firefighter said that at any given time there will be 6, 8, or even 10 fires in the county, but we never even hear about them because the weather conditions are not so bad and the firefighters are able to put them out before they get big. My guess is that at least one or more of the fires were started by arson, but it would be nice if we find out that most of them were naturally (or at least accidentally) caused. But really I'm just glad that they seem to be getting under control, and the people who were affected can start to rebuild their lives.