The fires in San Diego

What a strange experience to go through such intense wild fires. The whole area around us went up in flames, hundreds of homes (mostly beautiful homes & estates), already burned and almost half of million people were evacuated. A total of more than 500,000 acres burned from Los Angeles, to San Bernardino, to San Diego county. The county of San Diego was declared Federal Disaster. All the world media was here, as well as our governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and President Bush today.

The fire started far away, near Julian, maybe more than an hour by car from here. The Santa Ana winds made an electrical pole fall and the sparks lighted a fire. No one thought for a moment that this fire will spread so quickly and widely. Sunday afternoon, there was smoke in the air and the sun in the sky looked pink. A very eerie sight. The smoke at that point was already near Del Mar, by the sea. All night on Sunday, the winds blew strongly, all the windows & doors were shaking, and with the dry season and high temperatures that's why the fire spread so fast.

Faced with the enormity of this situation, one feels insignificant, overwhelmed and dazed and only takes a few things when leaving their homes. The thoughts go to family mementos, mainly family & friends pictures, and important papers. All the rest, is left behind.

The fires spread from almost Julian to Ramona, Poway, Scripps Ranch, Carmel Valley, Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Santa Fe, Del Mar, Tecate, Spring Valley, Chula Vista, Fallbrook, and Camp Pendleton (communities in San Diego county). They roared for days and they are still not contained. Walls of fire of 20 and more feet built up. But what was so strange is how the fire destroyed all the houses in one street and left all the others one on another street standing, or how every house burned but one house in an area, or how the fire jumped houses, one burned, the other near it was untouched.

I have the good fortune to live in an area not affected by the fires although the smoke and ashes did not spare anyone. We were glued to the TV, the Internet, and the radio since Sunday. We worried about the friends and the people who lost everything and how long this will last! We worried about our place of work and our employees and how the deadlines will be met now that we could not go back to work. Because of the smoke and even if we were not evacuated, we went to spend two nights at a friend near the beach in Point Loma.


I thank you for your emails, calls and concerns. I am grateful to have been spared the destruction of our home and little by little life is going back to normal. Almost everyone is back to work, and that's a good feeling. All this happened on Anais birthday celebration and in almost the same way than 4 years ago on her birthday too. She will remember her 10 year old birthday!