Witch fire, Harris fire, Rice fire updates - 23rd October, Part 1
Other SD Firestorm 2007 updates
Updates here have been resorted and are now in reverse chronological order.
Afternoon updates will be a 23rd October - Part 2 post.
11:55a: I mentioned a Valley Center evacuation earlier this morning... evacuation orders are also being issued to residents on Palomar Mountain (not sure if it's some, or all).
The UT fireblog says that residents can return to their homes in the following areas: south of Via de la Valle, west of Interstate 5, and north of Torrey Pines State Beach; south of Beeler Canyon Road, west of Sycamore Canyon Road, east of Interstate 15 and north of MCAS Miramar. I haven't seen confirmation from a second source yet, but I'm looking.
There's some confusion regarding the reopening parts of Poway - per jonthegm, CBS8 has been saying that they're not letting people back in. However, the Poway website, UT fireblog, and at least one TV news broadcast (KUSI) is saying that they ARE letting people back in. I'm trying to find more about it on other news channels, but haven't succeeded yet... I'll keep you guys posted.
Witch Fire is at 1% containment.
11:45a: Active fire in the Sweetwater Reservoir area.
So far, approximately 513,000 county residents have mandatory evacuation orders; an additional 12,000 are under voluntary evacuation.
11:16a: The city of Poway website has a map of reopened areas.
11:14a: Fire has reached Del Dios.
Evacuation of Rolling Hills Ranch in Chula Vista is now mandatory.
11:09a: Mandatory evacuation in Chula Visa in the area of Paseo Los Gatos & Paseo Vera Cruz.
Mandatory evacuation of the De Luz area in Fallbrook. This includes the Rainbow community.
Some areas of Poway have been reopened. Residents of the following areas may return home: south of Twin Peaks Road, west of Ipava Drive, west and north of Poway Road, east of Community Road between Tierra Bonita Road on the north and Donard Drive on the south.
10:56a: Mandatory evacuation for San Miguel Ranch (Chula Vista) is, more specifically, for the area near east H Street, where it intersects with Mount Miguel Road.
10:33a: Evacuation of Fairbanks Ranch is mandatory. Evacuees can go to the Encinitas Senior Center and Carlsbad High.
The latest map I can see on the SD County Emergency site is as of 5:30a this morning. I can't load SignOnSanDiego at all right now, so I don't know if their map is any better.
10:20a: Poomacha fire has burned approximately 15 houses on the Rincon reservation and 25 at the La Jolla reservation. Houses on the Barona reservation are also reported as burned, though no figure has been made available yet.
Newer evacuation shelters include New Community Church, Lemon Grove Community Church, The Rock Church, Faith Chapel of Spring Valley, Serra Mesa Christian Fellowship. This list is not exhaustive (I missed a few as they read them out).
10:10a: Estimated 245,000 acres burned and 1200 homes destroyed in San Diego County.
KPBS is broadcasting on FM94.9 - 94.9 does have online broadcasting on their website, but I don't know if it's limited to SD residents only.
meatballsoda has compiled a list of wildfire online resources. Most of these sources are what I've been using to get news, though I've also been going back and forth between different TV broadcasts (and KPBS, now that their broadcast is also on cable TV).
10:08a: Conflicting reports of McCoy fire containment - I'm seeing 50% in many places now, but it had been previously reported as 100% contained. Personally, I'm going to assume the lower number just to play it safe.
9:56a: Valley Center evacuation underway, due to Witch Fire.
Eastlake (Chula Vista) is now under mandatory evacuation.
9:46a: Poomacha fire at 1,000 acres, 0% containment.
9:36a: Cat Dirt Sez posted a map of the Harris fire. Don't know the time this map is for, it just says "early this morning." So it's probably more up to date than the SD Emergency map from last night.
Fire by Wildcat Canyon was near some power poles. Seems to be under control now, per NBC7/39 news.
Having trouble finding real news again... need more sources, none of the ones I've been using so far have much.
9:25a: Escondido evacuations in effect for: Via Rancho Parkway north to Hamilton and west to Valley Parkway; northeast Escondido in Mountain View north to Citrus, then up to Bear Valley Parkway to Lake Wohlford.
Chula Vista evacuations: still mandatory in Bella Lago, still voluntary in Woods at Eastlake, San Miguel Ranch and Rolling Hills Ranch.
9:19a: Fire threatening the Quiet Hills neighborhood in Escondido - the fire is burning north of Lake Hodges toward Felicita Park.
9:09a: Mandatory evacuation still in effect for the following areas of Del Mar: All areas east of Crest Road, San Dieguito Drive, Oribia Road, Avenida Primavera (along Crest Road), Serpentine Drive, Gatun Street, Balboa Avenue, Zapo Street
Voluntary evacuation in Solana Beach, for all areas east of the 5 and canyon areas in the northh of the city.
8:25a: Mandatory evacuations still in place for areas north of the 56. They will be re-evaluating other evacuation zones, to see if it's safe to let residents back in.
8:23a: Erratic and shifting wind patterns are expected today (per KPBS Twitter feed). As such, fire movement can be unpredictable.
8:00a: Still playing catchup.
Another voluntary evacuation due to the Harris fire, ordered within the past hour. This area is east of the 805, west of Alta Rd, south of Chula Vista's Main Street, and north of the US/Mexico border. Evacuees are being sent to Qualcomm Stadium.
Most recent fire stats: Harris Fire is at 70,000 acres, 5% containment. Rice Fire is at 6,100 acres, 0% containment. Witch Fire is at 164,000 acres, 1% containment.
Per SDGE, there's a electricity transmission crisis, since several lines were taken out of service by the fires. Please restrict use of non-essential appliances and otherwise keep electricity usage down.
7:15a: Meant to wake up earlier... trying to catch up on news now, as a lot's been going on over the past few hours.
There's a new fire map up on the SD County emergency site, so you can see the fire and evacuation activity as of 11:30p last night. Map's several hours behind, of course, and a lot's happened since then, but it does illustrate what was going on in my past few updates, at least. The emergency site is loading slightly better for me this morning, but I may back the map up to my Flickr account anyway.
Early this morning, mandatory evacuations were ordered for the following areas due to the Harris fire: North Jamul, Indian Springs, neighborhoods near Point Parkway on the east side of Jamacha Boulevard, San Miguel, the Sunnyside community of Bonita.
Also early this morning, mandatory evacuations were ordered for Wildcat Canyon (between Muth Valley Road to Willow Road), due to the Witch Fire.
Over 6,000 people total are affected by the aforementioned evacuations.
The Harris fire reached Mount San Miguel a few hours ago.
The Witch fire continued to burn in Rancho Santa Fe overnight.
The McCoy fire in Cleveland National Forest reached 100% containment sometime yesterday, but I don't think I reported it.
A new fire hit the La Jolla Reservation in Pauma Valley early this morning; it was reported around 4:10a. The fire, called the Poomacha fire, has burned 1,000 as of 6:50a and is 0% contained. Evacuations are in effect along the 76 corridor for the following areas: Vista, Hidden Meadows, Valley Center and Deer Springs.
If I've missed any major overnight developments, please share and I'll add them to this post.
Again, afternoon updates can be found in the 23rd October - Part 2 post.
Updates here have been resorted and are now in reverse chronological order.
Afternoon updates will be a 23rd October - Part 2 post.
11:55a: I mentioned a Valley Center evacuation earlier this morning... evacuation orders are also being issued to residents on Palomar Mountain (not sure if it's some, or all).
The UT fireblog says that residents can return to their homes in the following areas: south of Via de la Valle, west of Interstate 5, and north of Torrey Pines State Beach; south of Beeler Canyon Road, west of Sycamore Canyon Road, east of Interstate 15 and north of MCAS Miramar. I haven't seen confirmation from a second source yet, but I'm looking.
There's some confusion regarding the reopening parts of Poway - per jonthegm, CBS8 has been saying that they're not letting people back in. However, the Poway website, UT fireblog, and at least one TV news broadcast (KUSI) is saying that they ARE letting people back in. I'm trying to find more about it on other news channels, but haven't succeeded yet... I'll keep you guys posted.
Witch Fire is at 1% containment.
11:45a: Active fire in the Sweetwater Reservoir area.
So far, approximately 513,000 county residents have mandatory evacuation orders; an additional 12,000 are under voluntary evacuation.
11:16a: The city of Poway website has a map of reopened areas.
11:14a: Fire has reached Del Dios.
Evacuation of Rolling Hills Ranch in Chula Vista is now mandatory.
11:09a: Mandatory evacuation in Chula Visa in the area of Paseo Los Gatos & Paseo Vera Cruz.
Mandatory evacuation of the De Luz area in Fallbrook. This includes the Rainbow community.
Some areas of Poway have been reopened. Residents of the following areas may return home: south of Twin Peaks Road, west of Ipava Drive, west and north of Poway Road, east of Community Road between Tierra Bonita Road on the north and Donard Drive on the south.
10:56a: Mandatory evacuation for San Miguel Ranch (Chula Vista) is, more specifically, for the area near east H Street, where it intersects with Mount Miguel Road.
10:33a: Evacuation of Fairbanks Ranch is mandatory. Evacuees can go to the Encinitas Senior Center and Carlsbad High.
The latest map I can see on the SD County Emergency site is as of 5:30a this morning. I can't load SignOnSanDiego at all right now, so I don't know if their map is any better.
10:20a: Poomacha fire has burned approximately 15 houses on the Rincon reservation and 25 at the La Jolla reservation. Houses on the Barona reservation are also reported as burned, though no figure has been made available yet.
Newer evacuation shelters include New Community Church, Lemon Grove Community Church, The Rock Church, Faith Chapel of Spring Valley, Serra Mesa Christian Fellowship. This list is not exhaustive (I missed a few as they read them out).
10:10a: Estimated 245,000 acres burned and 1200 homes destroyed in San Diego County.
KPBS is broadcasting on FM94.9 - 94.9 does have online broadcasting on their website, but I don't know if it's limited to SD residents only.
meatballsoda has compiled a list of wildfire online resources. Most of these sources are what I've been using to get news, though I've also been going back and forth between different TV broadcasts (and KPBS, now that their broadcast is also on cable TV).
10:08a: Conflicting reports of McCoy fire containment - I'm seeing 50% in many places now, but it had been previously reported as 100% contained. Personally, I'm going to assume the lower number just to play it safe.
9:56a: Valley Center evacuation underway, due to Witch Fire.
Eastlake (Chula Vista) is now under mandatory evacuation.
9:46a: Poomacha fire at 1,000 acres, 0% containment.
9:36a: Cat Dirt Sez posted a map of the Harris fire. Don't know the time this map is for, it just says "early this morning." So it's probably more up to date than the SD Emergency map from last night.
Fire by Wildcat Canyon was near some power poles. Seems to be under control now, per NBC7/39 news.
Having trouble finding real news again... need more sources, none of the ones I've been using so far have much.
9:25a: Escondido evacuations in effect for: Via Rancho Parkway north to Hamilton and west to Valley Parkway; northeast Escondido in Mountain View north to Citrus, then up to Bear Valley Parkway to Lake Wohlford.
Chula Vista evacuations: still mandatory in Bella Lago, still voluntary in Woods at Eastlake, San Miguel Ranch and Rolling Hills Ranch.
9:19a: Fire threatening the Quiet Hills neighborhood in Escondido - the fire is burning north of Lake Hodges toward Felicita Park.
9:09a: Mandatory evacuation still in effect for the following areas of Del Mar: All areas east of Crest Road, San Dieguito Drive, Oribia Road, Avenida Primavera (along Crest Road), Serpentine Drive, Gatun Street, Balboa Avenue, Zapo Street
Voluntary evacuation in Solana Beach, for all areas east of the 5 and canyon areas in the northh of the city.
8:25a: Mandatory evacuations still in place for areas north of the 56. They will be re-evaluating other evacuation zones, to see if it's safe to let residents back in.
8:23a: Erratic and shifting wind patterns are expected today (per KPBS Twitter feed). As such, fire movement can be unpredictable.
8:00a: Still playing catchup.
Another voluntary evacuation due to the Harris fire, ordered within the past hour. This area is east of the 805, west of Alta Rd, south of Chula Vista's Main Street, and north of the US/Mexico border. Evacuees are being sent to Qualcomm Stadium.
Most recent fire stats: Harris Fire is at 70,000 acres, 5% containment. Rice Fire is at 6,100 acres, 0% containment. Witch Fire is at 164,000 acres, 1% containment.
Per SDGE, there's a electricity transmission crisis, since several lines were taken out of service by the fires. Please restrict use of non-essential appliances and otherwise keep electricity usage down.
7:15a: Meant to wake up earlier... trying to catch up on news now, as a lot's been going on over the past few hours.
There's a new fire map up on the SD County emergency site, so you can see the fire and evacuation activity as of 11:30p last night. Map's several hours behind, of course, and a lot's happened since then, but it does illustrate what was going on in my past few updates, at least. The emergency site is loading slightly better for me this morning, but I may back the map up to my Flickr account anyway.
Early this morning, mandatory evacuations were ordered for the following areas due to the Harris fire: North Jamul, Indian Springs, neighborhoods near Point Parkway on the east side of Jamacha Boulevard, San Miguel, the Sunnyside community of Bonita.
Also early this morning, mandatory evacuations were ordered for Wildcat Canyon (between Muth Valley Road to Willow Road), due to the Witch Fire.
Over 6,000 people total are affected by the aforementioned evacuations.
The Harris fire reached Mount San Miguel a few hours ago.
The Witch fire continued to burn in Rancho Santa Fe overnight.
The McCoy fire in Cleveland National Forest reached 100% containment sometime yesterday, but I don't think I reported it.
A new fire hit the La Jolla Reservation in Pauma Valley early this morning; it was reported around 4:10a. The fire, called the Poomacha fire, has burned 1,000 as of 6:50a and is 0% contained. Evacuations are in effect along the 76 corridor for the following areas: Vista, Hidden Meadows, Valley Center and Deer Springs.
If I've missed any major overnight developments, please share and I'll add them to this post.
Again, afternoon updates can be found in the 23rd October - Part 2 post.