Witch Creek Fire Aftermath

Witch Creek Fire

Monday 10/22/07

4:30am -- Julie and I were awakened by police megaphones and car horns in the neighborhood. I got out of bed and looked out our bedroom window to see orange sky and flames on the hill behind our house (Battle Mountain). We quickly threw some clothes on, grabbed the external hard drive from our computer, a few important documents and the bags of clothes that we had not unpacked from the camping trip that we returned from on Sunday night about 9:00pm. I opened the garage door which flooded with smoke from the neighborhood. I pulled my shirt up over my face and we ran to the truck. I laid my hand on the horn to hopefully wake the neighbors as we bailed out of the neighborhood.

5:00am -- After getting gas at a nearby gas station, Julie and I drove to our friends home (Mark and Kristen) in 4S ranch. 4S ranch is about 5 miles away from our house (as a crow files) and we felt safe there for the time being. We were glued to the television in their house while Mark and Kristen began to pack themselves. Other friends also came over to Mark's place along with their dog and cat. At this point blue was still in the Kennel in Lakeside, CA, and we had no idea what the conditions were at the kennel.

7:00am -- We evacuated 4S ranch, as the smoke was becoming intolerable and potential for fire was increasing. We sat in traffic for 30 minutes creeping an inch at a time before turning around and heading back to I-15. We were attempting to take Camino Del Norte to SR-56, but so was everyone else. The reason that roadway was so congested is because the news and radio reports stated that interstate 15 was shut down, and it wasn't until later that they clarified that it was NOT closed to evacuees, but only to through traffic. At this point we didn't know where we were going, except that we were heading south and west, away from the inferno. Another friend of ours contacted us and invited us to his parents home next to Mt. Soledad in La Jolla, CA. We decided to go there as opposed to camping at Qualcomm Stadium or another evacuation center.

8:30am -- We arrived at Kermit and Paula Harcos' home in La Jolla and they accepted us with open arms. The gave us warm coffee, gave us doughnuts and even cooked up some eggs. We were glued to the news to see if we could catch a glimpse about what had happened to our homes. In watching the news reports the phrases Rancho Bernardo, and "fire", "burnt to the ground", "destroyed", "tragedy", were used all too frequently.

10:00pm -- A long day ended with a lot of uncertainty. Julie and I crashed on separate couches in the living room.

Tuesday 10/23/07

This day began and ended with the same sort of uncertainty for Julie and I. They media and city council members began posting lists of destroyed homes in Rancho Bernardo. Luckily, as the day wore on, our home and street name did not show up on any of the lists.

The whole crew camping out at the Harcos' home took a field trip to the nearby Target for supplies. Julie and I bought shorts and flip flops - it was rather warm in all of San Diego. We also bought a large bag of candy to boost the morale of the evacuees. I think it worked. It even boosted the morale of the hosts (Paula especially :).

We played Yahtzee, and even treated the Harcos' to dinner at a local Chinese restaurant that night. It was apparent that we would not be retuning home this night.

Wednesday 10/24/07

The first news that we heard today was that some Rancho Bernardo residents would be able to return home.

We went out to breakfast at a local restaurant, which was quite delicious. We returned to the Harcos' after breakfast and the news announced that a small section of Rancho Bernardo was being let back in. All of us were getting anxious to return home to see what remained. We were hopeful that our house would remain, but until we could see it, there was no telling...

2:00pm -- Kyle received an email from one of his neighbors in 4S letting him know that his neighborhood was open and that the police blockade had been removed. We decided to all pack up and try to get back to our respective homes.

3:00pm -- Julie and I attempted to drive north on Escala Dr. and were met by a police blockade. We were turned around with the news that it would probably be after 12:00pm on Thursday that our neighborhood would be re-opened. We called our friends who were able to get back into 4S (Mark and Kristen) and we headed over to their place to wait it out.

5:00pm -- Julie and I attempted to drive into our neighborhood again from a different road, but again were stopped by the police blockade with the same message (noon on Thrusday). We called Mark and Kristen back, and they offered to keep us for the night. We brought over some pizza and rum.

Thursday 10/25/07

6:30am -- Julie and I woke up and it took me about 30 minutes to get the Senseo coffee maker to work. The news was covering the visit that President Bush was going to make to our neighborhood to tour the devastation. It began to become apparent, based on the timeline of his visit, that the neighborhood was under lockdown until noon so the president could tour without residents in the area.

7:30am -- Julie and I made another attempt to get to our house, and were stopped at the blockade with the same message as before, 12pm. This time we took it seriously (considering the presidents timeline) and would not return until after noon.

11:30am -- We met some friends at a local Greek restaurant for lunch to burn some time before we tried to return home again.

12:30pm -- We drove past where the blockades used to be and began to see burned homes and surrounding vegetation. We pulled into our driveway shortly there after to see a completely undamaged home. Julie and I hugged and walked around inside and out to make sure that everything was alright. Our front and back yards were covered in ash and burned out embers, the inside of the garage was covered in ash as was the surrounding area near each external door and window. After we made sure the house was ok, we went to the kennel and picked up Blue. We all came home and cleaned until dark (including emptying the contents of our refrigerator and freezer), where due to the power still being out, all we could do is read by well-contained-candle light. At least we were all home and safe.

Friday 10/26/07

Power was still out, so I brewed coffee using the power inverter in the bed of my truck. We spent over half of the day cleaning, stopped by work to check in with folks there, and use computers to check email and the status of the fire. We grilled steak this night, and ate by candle light and flash light.

Saturday 10/27/07

We noticed that the power came back on about 2:00am, we later found out that it came back about 10:00pm on Friday night. By the time we got up in the morning, we were able to transfer contents of our cooler back into the refrigerator. More cleaning today, and catching up with school work. It's amazing how stuff piles up when you take a week off...

The following are pictures that I took around our home and neighborhood

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