San Diego Union-Tribune Map showing the burn zones indicating where I and where Declan live

October 26, 10:13am PST
Three fires currently burning, in Valley Center, about 10 miles north of Poway; in Scripps Ranch, just south of Poway; in Lakeside, about 10 miles southeast of Poway (including the Barona indian reservation.)

As of 10:13am PST, my southern sky is clear, the fire burning south of the South Poway Business Park has died out, but MCAS Miramar is on fire, and I-15 is closed crossing it.

October 27, 7:55 am PST
The fires continue to burn. The Valley Center ("Paradise Hills") fire and the Ramona/Lakeside ("Cedar") fire have hooked up into one. This is something I wrote for a mailing list last night (but note I-15 and CA-163 are again open:)

The county is badly hamstrung. Freeways are the only way to get between some parts of town, and half of them are closed. The other half, plus a lot of 2-lane surface streets, are overloaded trying to pick up the slack. It is already impossible to leave town to the east. The Otay Mesa fire has closed I-8 and CA-54. The 2-lane state highways that would get you out the scenic way are cut off by the Cedar fire here in north county. That fire also threatens to close I-15 to Riverside County. That would leave only I-5 through Camp Pendleton, which is a choke point on a good day.

Many business, including half the grocery stores (whose staffs were on strike to begin with,) are closed, as are many gas stations. The highway situation hampers those stores' and stations' ability to resupply. San Diego's mayor has asked employers to give their employees the day of tomorrow. All city and county offices are closed, including schools, pools, and libraries, except for water, sewer, and life safety services.

Eastern Poway is burning. I know people who have lost homes. CDF, US Forestry, Poway, and Orange County firefighters have been doing their best, but it's not enough.

Southwest Airlines has canceled all flights in and out of southern California. There is literally no place to stand at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas. They have moved tonight's Chargers-Dolphins game to Phoenix, but since I-8 is closed, it's nearly impossible for people to get there in time.

My house is about two miles from what the fire line was last night. Here, it is not advancing very fast at all. (In one case, the fire department hooked up hoses and handed them to residents to fight the fire, successfully, along Tierra Bonita Rd.) I don't think I could be in danger until late today, if at all. Nonetheless, I'm packed to evacuate on five minutes' notice.

October 27, 9:39am
The County board chairman just gave these air pollution figures: on a normal day, the pollution figure is between 15 and 20 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter of air. They consider 40 ug/m^3 to be unhealthy. The current figure in Escondido is 90 ug/m^3.

October 27, 5:23pm
The fires in Poway are out, also in neighborhoods of the city of San Diego. There's some "after" photos here taken from the same places as photos last night. Fires still burn in the east county and deep rural north county. Parts of Ramona have just been evacuated, as well as part of Julian. I-8 and CA-94 close and reopen sporadically as the fire spreads out east. It also spreads north into Valley Center. The shelter at Ramona HS and its neighboring junior high was evacuated to Julian HS; with the evacs in Julian, that shelter may evacuate to Borrego Springs, or possibly back to Ramona. It is at least a half-hour's drive between each set of points there. Julian has no power, and thus cannot cook food nor get gas pumped into cars. The Julian HS shelter has about 300 people. The shelter at Mountain Empire HS is over 750 and looks to be blossoming to 1500. I haven't heard a headcount at the Mira Mesa HS shelter housing a lot of Scripps Ranch and Tierrasanta (SD neighborhoods) residents, but that should drop dramatically as all of Tierrasanta and most of Scripps Ranch have been reopened.

I still have my things packed to leave on short notice, just in case. While the Poway fires are out, there have been a couple of cases where an area that was burned once catches fire again. The winds have been favorably calm in Poway and Scripps Ranch today, unlike the daytime bluster we had yesterday. We could get right back to that again tomorrow for all anyone knows. But I still think I won't have any problems.

October 28, 5:03pm
It was very dim today, as you'll see in the photos at the bottom. With the exception of a small segment of northeastern Escondido, the incorporated cities of the county are safe. The fires continue to rage in the unincorporated areas to the east and northeast. This is CHP's continually-updated list of road closures. I-15 and CA-67 are again wide open, these are the road closures closest to me. CA-52 is open again into Santee.

The Cedar fire has now burned over 210,000 acres. Over a thousand homes have been destroyed. The Sheriff just got done on TV saying essentially, "If you're still at home in Julian, GET THE FUCK OUT NOW." That evacuation was first ordered two hours ago. Alpine and Valley Center north of CA-76 are threatened, as is Palomar Mountain. I-8 opens and closes hourly. The Cedar fire is uncontained, they hope to contain it by November 5th. The Otay fire down south is 90% contained, the Paradise fire furthest north is 15% contained. The Cedar fire is zero percent contained. The fire line stretched 45 miles at 1:00 this afternoon, it is certainly longer now.

The sky is a big thick blanket of smoke. Parts of town look like photos from Mars. All around Poway, it looks like dusk, and has looked that way all day long. It's dim enough that photocells have turned on most streetlights and building signs, as well as automatic headlights found on some cars. The smoke is much thicker than yesterday, visibility is below one mile. You can taste something sipping an open-topped drink outdoors (like a can of pop.)

continuing 5:51pm
This just appeared across the Channel 8 ticker: "ENTIRE COMMUNITY OF CUYAMACA DESTROYED -- INCLUDING ALL 100+ HOMES". The Cedar fire is now the largest fire in the state today.

October 29, 12:14pm
Poway Unified has officially closed until Monday. All sports practices are off as well. It sounds like they're going to start cleaning up the campus tomorrow, I'll probably stick my head in to lend a hand.

Julian is still standing at the moment. They've been defending it all night. I watched on TV this morning as a CDF helicopter dropped water on a house. After the copter left, fire broke through the roof outside the area that got wet. The fire quickly stretched from the front to the back of the house, following a path about eight feet wide. The copter returned a couple of minutes later and made another drop. The water fell straight down the fire line and extinguished it.

My skies are clear for the first time since Saturday, photos below.

November 3, 8:40pm
Jim Madaffer got a helicopter ride over the fire-ravaged sections of the county and took some great aerial photos.<

If you're in the top/small-images directory, here are full-size photos, if you're looking at the larger ones, then here are the smaller photos

10/26 9:21am East from home	10/26 9:22am South from home	10/26 9:22am Southeast from home	10/26 9:22am Southeast from home
10/26 9:22am East from home	10/26 11:47am East from home	10/26 11:47am Southeast from home	10/26 11:47am East from home
10/26 2:15pm East from corner	10/26 2:59pm South from fire station	10/26 3:00pm Southeast from fire station	10/26 3:04pm East on Poway Rd
10/26 3:05pm Poway & Garden Rds	10/26 3:05pm Poway & Garden Rds	10/26 3:06pm Northeast from Nissan	10/26 3:22pm South from Wal*Mart
10/26 3:24pm Wal*Mart Relief	10/26 3:30pm Busted sprinkler	10/26 3:40pm East from corner	10/26 3:40pm East from corner
10/26 3:41pm South from corner	10/26 3:48pm Southeast from Twin Peaks MS	10/26 3:48pm South from Twin Peaks MS	10/26 3:48pm East from Twin Peaks MS
10/26 3:50pm Southeast from Twin Peaks	10/26 3:50pm Southeast from Twin Peaks	10/26 3:51pm East from Twin Peaks	10/26 3:51pm Southeast from Twin Peaks
10/26 3:51pm East from Twin Peaks	10/26 3:52pm East from Twin Peaks	10/26 4:00pm Horse at Twin Peaks	10/26 4:01pm Horses at Twin Peaks
10/26 4:05pm Southeast of Espola	10/26 4:06pm Wet roof	10/26 4:06pm East of Espola	10/26 4:07pm Mountain Rd Evac
10/26 4:08pm East of Espola	10/26 4:15pm New construction!	10/26 4:15pm Poway Water Polo	10/26 4:35pm Evacuating horses
10/26 4:45pm Waiting fire engine	10/26 4:46pm Waiting fire engine	10/26 4:47pm Engine and fire	10/26 5:20pm Smoke from In N Out
10/26 6:34pm South of Twin Peaks	10/26 6:35pm East of Espola	10/26 6:36pm South of Twin Peaks	10/26 6:49pm East of Espola
10/26 6:49pm East of Espola	10/26 6:49pm East of Espola	10/26 6:49pm East of Espola	10/26 7:31pm Hilltop embers
10/26 7:31pm Hilltop embers	10/26 7:31pm Hilltop embers	10/26 7:32pm Blown-over trees	10/26 7:32pm Blown-over trees
10/26 7:32pm Blown-over trees	10/27 7:15am East from home	10/27 9:45am Northeast from home	10/27 9:45am East from home
10/27 9:45am Southeast from home	10/27 9:45am South from home	10/27 10:29am Packed to leave	10/27 10:51am Ashy driveway
10/27 12:06pm East Poway house	10/27 12:06pm Plume from Ramona	10/27 12:10pm High Valley closed	10/27 12:13pm East of Espola
10/27 12:14pm East of Espola Hills burned, compare with last night	10/27 12:18pm Red dot sun	10/27 12:29pm South of Twin Peaks	10/27 12:29pm South of Twin Peaks
10/27 12:29pm South of Twin Peaks	10/27 12:29pm Southeast of Twin Peaks	10/27 12:29pm East of Espola	10/27 12:29pm East of Espola
10/27 12:20pm Northeast of Twin Peaks	10/27 12:30pm Southwest of Twin Peaks	10/27 12:41pm East from Twin Peaks MS	10/27 12:41pm Southeast from Twin Peaks MS
10/27 12:42pm Souther-east from Twin Peaks	10/27 12:42pm Southest-east from Twin Peaks	10/27 12:43pm South from Twin Peaks	10/27 12:52pm Spared house
10/27 12:52pm East of Tierra Bonita	10/27 12:53pm Nast of Tierra Bonita	10/27 12:59pm South from Southern Hills Ln	10/27 12:59pm Southeast from Southern Hills
10/27 1:00pm ESE from Southern Hills	10/27 1:00pm East from Southern Hills	10/27 1:00pm Southeast from Southern Hills	10/27 1:00pm West into Southern Hills
10/27 1:01pm Phones down	10/27 1:01pm Southeast from Southern Hills	10/27 1:01pm ESE from Southern Hills	10/27 1:02pm Blown trees
10/27 1:02pm East towards Espola	10/27 1:03pm Northeast past Espola	10/27 1:04pm Patchy burns	10/27 1:09pm Back of Tierra Bonita
10/27 1:09pm Again	10/27 1:10pm Back of Tierra Bonita	10/27 1:10pm Back of Tierra Bonita	10/27 1:10pm Back of Tierra Bonita
10/27 1:24pm Dinner!	10/27 1:29pm Under repair	10/27 1:52pm DOOM!	10/27 2:44pm Waiting to go home
10/27 3:01pm Red dot sun	10/27 3:04pm Hugs, not guns!	10/27 3:40pm Southwest of Pomerado	10/27 3:41pm South of Pomerado
10/27 4:09pm Waiting to go home	10/27 4:11pm No wind	10/27 4:35pm Business park	10/27 4:35pm Business park
10/27 4:35pm Business park	10/27 4:35pm Business park	10/27 4:50pm South from fire station	10/27 4:50pm Southeast from fire station
10/28 11:52am Ralph's Picketers	10/28 1:33pm South from home	10/28 1:33pm East from home	10/28 1:52pm South from driveway
10/28 1:55pm Community at Poway Rd	10/28 2:48pm Twin Peaks and Espola	10/28 2:48pm Twin Peaks and Espola	10/29 11:52am South from home
10/29 11:52am East from home