Blog # 9 Fire

Blog #9 Fire
This week class was canceled due to the various wild fires that plagued Southern California during the last week of October of 2007. There was little guidance regarding what to blog about so I am going to reflect on my experience with the fires.

Sunday: Arriving from Northern California.
I took an aircraft late in the day taking off from Arcata, California to Los Angeles. Before I boarded, I was informed by my significant other that the sky was very smoky. My family and several friends told me that there were fires all over Southern California. I previously knew about the huge fires raging in Malibu, however did not hear any thing about San Diego. When I arrived to L.A., I immediately called my relatives to see how they were doing. I was informed that everything was fine, and that the fires were located directly towards the east and that our houses were safe. Flying into San Diego, black smoke covered the landscape. My house as well as most of North County was not in view. Arriving home, the air was filled with smoke and it was difficult to breath. However, due to the assurance of the news media and my parents I decided to stay at home.

Sunday night: Strong winds
That night it was very difficult to sleep. I knew that the fire was east of where I lived. The strong Santa Ana winds frightened me as well as my animals. I ended up watching any piece of news media I could, in order to reassure my self that I was fine. By three am, I was frantically calling my friends in San Marcos and in Escondido trying to warn them of the small fire that was moving towards the school. Finally at five am, word had spread that the big fire, the “witch creek” fire, was spreading in to Rancho Bernardo.

Monday morning: Evacuate
My mother came bursting into my room ordering me to pack up my things and evacuate. I quickly grabbed my schoolbooks and materials as well as articles of clothing, although I was already packed from my business trip. Promptly at six-thirty we were in a mad dash to escape from Rancho Bernardo. After about an hour of navigating though a huge traffic jam, we arrived safely to my mom’s friend’s house in UTC. We unpacked our backpacks and plated ourselves in front of the television.

RBurning!!!
We spent most of Monday glued to the television hoping for good luck with our house. In the process, we watched many of our friend’s houses burn down. Finally after about 8 hours of television, I went to sleep not wanting to know more.

Return to find our house
On Wednesday we were given the all clear. Our family was very fortunate to find our house 100 percent intact. All we had to do was to clean up from all the ash that seeped in through the cracks in our doors and windows. Some of our neighbors were not so fortunate. I like to take this time to express my condolences for any hardship any one in our class might have experienced though this time. For me this was the closest a fire has ever come to my house and it has reminded me that as we are not all immune from the incredible forces of nature. I expect to be taking the mid term next week along with the rest of the class. See you all next week