Dear friends and family, I am on my way out the door to go babysit for a friend, so I can’t write much at the moment. I know how many of you are checking my blog for updates so I offer this small glimmer of hope: The fires are still burning, but after checking this morning’s fire map, it really looks as if they are slowing down. The winds returned to normal yesterday which helps, although the hot and dry conditions still persist in the areas where the fires are active. The fires continue to burn north and east at this point. They expect to have full containment of the Harris and Rice Fires by Halloween. There was no date given for expected containment of the Witch Creek or Pumacho Fires.
One downside to the winds returning to their normal offshore-to-inland flow is that it has made the air quality worse where I live. What happened is that the Santa Anas blew all the smoke from the fires out over the ocean, and then when the winds resumed their normal pattern they brought it all back with them. So I still can’t go outside; the air pollution levels remain at “unhealthy” today.
Here are those links if you’d like more news:
SD County Emergency website
local air quality website
11:56 a.m.
I am at Kiki's house right now, and I can really appreciate how much cleaner the air is at my place. I was hoping to hang out here for a while and visit once she gets home, but I don't think I'll be able to stay. I must head home for my stuffy little HEPA-filtered refuge. When I first went out to get in my car on the way over here, I noticed a fine layer of ash on the hood and roof. I couldn't see it so much on the sidewalk, but my car is black so it shows up quite plainly. Even though these fires are worse than the ones in 2004, the ash in my area is much less than it was then. During the Cedar Fires, the ash was so thick that when you walked outside you left footprints in it.
The kids and I are making sugar cookies for the firefighters right now. We've got a production line going--shaping the balls of dough, rolling them in sugar, and then smashing the balls flat on the cookie sheet with a glass. The funny part is that the glass we're using is a Shrek glass that was from McDonald's (they don't eat there; where did it come from?!) and the bottom of the glass left little "M" imprints on the tops of all the cookies. We decided that having the McDonald's logo on our cookies was a terrible thing, so Ivvy rubbed the tops with sugar to erase them. It worked; the cookies are out of the oven and McDonald's-free.
7:08 p.m.
We took the cookies over to the fire station a few hours ago. Three firemen were there, and told us that things were definitely getting better. They wouldn't have been at the station at all if the fires were still at their worst. They were quite appreciative of the cookies, but I'm not sure I trust them to save any for the firefighters who are still out there--they were eyeing those cookies pretty hungrily. And they called Ivvy a girl. He actually took it quite well; he says he gets it all the time. People just aren't used to 9 year-old boys with ponytails, I guess.
In fire news, I have some very sobering statistics to report. There have been 14 deaths so far, seven of which are directly attributed to the fire. Four of the victims haven't been identified yet. Nearly three dozen firefighters have been injured fighting the fires, but none have been killed. About 325,000 acres have been burned in San Diego County. I don't know anything yet about how many homes have been destroyed; I'm sure that they haven't even began an accurate count yet.
To leave you on a more positive note, generally speaking, the fire situation is really looking much better. Here is the latest fire map:
If you compare this one with the one from yesterday you can see that the active fire areas are much smaller. I am hopeful.
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