Fire Update

Once we heard that our neighboring community was under mandatory evacuation last night, we decided that we should pack up some stuff. Initially, I told Megan she should go to her mom's house but we decided that we'd wait until there was more immediate danger.

I ended up having to go into work at around 9pm to help run a shelter across town and when I was leaving, I drove about a mile towards where the fire was coming from. All across the hillside directly east of us, the flames were jutting above the houses. Since there were quite a few houses between where the flames were and our house, I felt fairly safe leaving Megan and Ryan.

At the shelter I was working at, there was a TV on with coverage of the fire and they mentioned that the fire was coming from Sweetwater Reservoir up to Chula Vista. The thing about our place is that directly across the street, there is a hillside that goes right down to Sweetwater Reservoir. I decided it was time to go pick up Megan.

For some reason, there weren't mandatory evacuations for this area but the flames were directly across the street. Before I picked up Megan, I drove all around the mountain that had the fire to see how far from our place it was. It was probably less than 100 yards so I thought it necessary to grab the family and take them to Donna's.

I went back to the shelter and a lot of the people who were evacuated from Bonita and Sunnyside started coming in so we had to set up another shelter. I got back around 1am and was off at 4am so I wasn't gone too long. On the way home, I drove by our place again and the flames were closer but were definitely spreading away from us. It was eerie watching the flames whip up and spread along the top of the mountain.

I finally got to bed around 5:30am but didn't sleep too well. I woke up tons of times needing water but too lazy to get some, plus a few phone calls didn't help. When I woke around 11:00am, Rolling Hills Ranch (north side of Proctor Valley Road) was under mandatory evacuation. Basically, right across the street from us was being ordered out. The flames seemed to be MUCH further away from the homes this time but I think because they were flying the helicopters with the fire retardant, plus the wind was starting to blow back towards us, they wanted to be on the safe side....

Actually, watching the news right now, they said they were on the ground in Rolling Hills Ranch and the flames were very close to the homes. They showed coverage where there were flames just southwest of the Auld Golf Course (basically a few hundred feet from our pastor's home - he's evacuated). So, apparently, I was a little too optimistic about the situation but they did say it seems to be heading away from Chula Vista. Yeah!!!

We decided to head back to our place around 1pm. We just needed the comfort of our own home. Everybody on our side of the complex seems to be gone. It's like a ghost town here. The flames still seem well out of reach but all of our stuff is still packed just in case.

I got to get some rest right now. I go back into work tonight from 8pm-4am. I'll try to keep updated.