The City is Burning

Man, I go away for one weekend and what happens? The whole darn city catches fire! I mean, come on! Can't the people here do anything right when I'm not around?

On the real side; Things around here in San Diego are pretty tense. 250k people evacuated, hundreds of houses gone, and no end in sight. So far me and mine are safe and it looks like we are gonna catch a break. Both of the big fires look like they are gonna pass by on the north and south of our house. Down side, the fire department says the blaze is going to burn through to the ocean. Means thosands more are gonna be displaced and many are going to lose everything they have. Keep all of us in your thoughts and prayers, every little bit helps in times like this.

Ben

Dinbin said:

Can't the people here do anything right when I'm not around?

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The problem is that people are doing things right.....like starting fires.

I am an ex wildland fire-fighter up here in British Columbia. I understand all too well the stress that you must being going through.

Just know that there are hundreds if not thousands of people working their hearts out to try and save your homes. We in B.C. have been called many times to help out with fires in California, and there are wildland fire-fighters all over the globe ready to be deployed.

Take care

Morning update. We are still here. However, the fires have changed direction overnight. we can now see the fire from the bedroom window. We are not yet under evacuation since the fire is still on the east side of the local reservoir, but they have notified our community to be prepaired for volentary evacuation later this morning. So we all called work and told them not to expect us. (Woo Hoo! No work today! )

Just know that there are hundreds if not thousands of people working their hearts out to try and save your homes.

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We are all in awe of the men and women who are so selflessly risking their lives to keep our community safe. Our thanks and prayers are with them all. Last report was that upwards of 15 firefighters have been injured, a few of them critacaly. If you know a fire fighter, shake their hand today and thank them for what they do. It is a special type of humanbeing that runs into a fire when everything else is running away. God Bless them all.

So now we wait. Going to hunker down inside unless told to do otherwise. I think its almost time for a HB. It's noon somewhere right?

I'll check back in and post any updates as we get them. Untill then, cheers!

Good luck.

That's scary stuff. I think I'd do a quick inventory of pictures and other family items that aren't replacable just in case you need to leave quickly. I have no idea how much time they give you in a situation like that, but it's probably best to be prepared.

Good luck!

Good luck! I hope the winds die down soon. My daughter is at SDSU and they've canceled classes and she has to stay in the dorm.

Mid-day update. Still here at home, the evacuations near us have not moved any closer all morning. Still watching the news for updates every half hour or so. All packed and ready to go if we get the call. Keeping the family here at the house for now, city is asking everyone to stay put. Trying to keep busy and not watch the news continuously because its just depressing. Wanted to say thanks for the support.

Ed, your daughter is in a good place if she is still on campus. My sister is a student there as well and she said that things there are fine, the school is nowhere near any of the fire zones.

Good news for the day is the calming weather. The choppers and fixed wing tankers are able to fly and are getting to the areas where they are needed the most.

County electrical services are asking everyone to conserve power because they are losing transmition lines to the blaze. So if we don't need it we have it off or unplugged. Only keeping one tv on at a time and the fans running to try and keep cool. Using the internet for most of our comunicating with family and friends because they are asking us to stay off the cell phones since the emergency service teams need what service is still available. Everyone using the cell phones yesterday was jamming up the system pretty badly.

But for now, things are looking better, there are a few neighborhoods that are being allowed back into their homes, but thats contrasted by new areas that are still being evacuated. Going to sign off for now, my wife wants to check in with the family again, so untill later, be safe and keep San Diego in your thoughts.

Thanks for the update! San Diego is in our prayers!

Boy am I late on this thread. Been a bit busy.
Hey Dinbin, are you north or south county (or middle or east or wherever the F*** else we are burning)
I'm in Carlsbad, which I estimate will be the last place in the county to burn. I can always go stand in the ocean I guess.
Anyway, if the smoke is making your lungs burn, you won't find any air purifiers in any stores. I went to WalMart this morning and the hardware guy said that Home Depot was calling him to see if they had any. I have the inlaws (from Poway and their dog packed in my place) and they and my kids were all visibly suffering.
Enter cheapskate DIY ingenuity. For less that the cost of one commercial purifier, I walked out of there with 3 box fans and 3 HEPA rated central HVAC filters. 20 minutes and 30 feet of duct tape later and I have much more filtration throughput than 3 expensive units. This is what I have done before to keep dust down in the woodshop (aka the brewery and very infrequently, the garage) They are doing an excellent job.
The moral of my rambling is, even though doing it yourself may not always be 100% cost justified, there is the invaluable benefit of knowing what to do when you have no other options.
Keep tweaking those systems folks.
Cheers,
Jeremy

Hey Guys-
I'm North of you, near San Bernardino/Riverside (also on fire) but work right near Fallbrook. I had to fly like the wind to keep from getting trapped. You may have already done this, but pack your stuff up, and put it in your car! Those fires are spreading so quickly, you're not gonna have time to get emergency supplies/valuables together! Stay safe!

We are just on the edge of Rancho San Diego/Lemon Grove. Just had a small scare, they called for an evac of Rancho San Diego a bit ago, so I had everyone get ready to head for the cars, then they came on the news and said it was a mistake. lol, someone hit the wrong button or something.
Air Quality inside is still very good, but the fan/filter is a great idea. I have plenty of box fans and blankets to whip one up if need be, thanks for the inovation.
FYI our evac destination if push comes to shove is to head for the beach in Coronado. We can party at the Hotel Del.

Glad to hear your OK dinbin. If you're ever up North County-ish, let me know and I'll get a homebrew sampling ready.
Jeremy

I'm glad to hear that you and your family are safe as well Germey. We were all very tense here just a bit ago, but the latest report says the Haris Fire here in the south has begun to turn east with the change in the winds. I can tell my wife is feeling a little better because she is finaly feeling hungry, she has not eaten since breakfast, so I'm gonna take that as a good sign.
I think we need a tension breaker around here, so Im gonna go try and spread a few smiles around the house. Good Luck to all of you out there. I'll check back in again in a couple of hours.

Dinbin said:

Ed, your daughter is in a good place if she is still on campus. My sister is a student there as well and she said that things there are fine, the school is nowhere near any of the fire zones.

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They've cancelled school through Saturday and her regatta is cancelled too.

I'm bringing her home to Austin. She's out on the first flight in the morning.

SWMBO is very happy now.

That's great, Ed. Things are only going to get worse. New fires keep popping up here and there, which is really scary to me. I've been checking my homeowner's policies, and talking with SWMBO about what we'll do should fires start coming our way. I'm calling the insurance company in the morning, just to straighten things out. We have HOA, which covers the outside of the house and the structure (studs,etc.) from what I understand. Then we have a separate homeowner's policy with USAA. Our "dwelling" coverage is what confuses me. Is that the price to replace drywall, plumbing, floors, cabinets, etc.? I thought 100 g's would be enough to do this in a 1500 sq. ft. condo, but now I'm not so sure. Anyone got any insight?

Good for you Ed, and Steve I hope you get the answers you need and have no need to ever use them.
Things here are quiet, everyone else is gone to bed, but I'm not having an easy time of it myself. Its quiet times like this when everyone else is not around that the strength seems to seep out of me. I'm tired man. lol Its a hard job being a cheer leader.
A part of me says I'm being silly and that the news on TV has been good for me the last few hours, but this has been very trying. We have a new baby on the way and I'm worried about the additional stress on the wife. Long story short, this has been a crappy two days. God willing the winds stay quiet for the night. I've been checking and rechecking the burn maps so often I see them when I close my eyes. :cross:
OK, end of rant. I've got everthing we need, I've done everthing I can to protect my family, and I'm going to go turn off the TV and try to sleep for an hour or six.

Goodnight everyone, I'll check in tomorrow.

Ok, I guess I can help return the favor for all the help that I have been getting on here. I am actually an insurance agent so I can help you with just about any questions you have. First I would sugest that anyone that feels they maybe evacuated or in danger you should take a video camera (or a regualr camera at least) and record just about everything you own for any claims pusposes. Its alot easier to give that to a claims rep than to argue with them about what you had and what kind of condition it is in.

That's great, Ed. Things are only going to get worse. New fires keep popping up here and there, which is really scary to me. I've been checking my homeowner's policies, and talking with SWMBO about what we'll do should fires start coming our way. I'm calling the insurance company in the morning, just to straighten things out. We have HOA, which covers the outside of the house and the structure (studs,etc.) from what I understand. Then we have a separate homeowner's policy with USAA. Our "dwelling" coverage is what confuses me. Is that the price to replace drywall, plumbing, floors, cabinets, etc.? I thought 100 g's would be enough to do this in a 1500 sq. ft. condo, but now I'm not so sure. Anyone got any insight?

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To help you out scuba, what you are thinking is probably pretty much accurate. Im my opinion a condo policy is the hardest policy to do. As you said the HOA will cover something but that something is different with every association. Some cover just the structure others cover everything behind the drywall and some cover EVERYTHING (with the execption of your belongins) and others do in between this. You would really need to find out what your association covers for sure then your policy with usaa would need to do the rest. From the sounds of it though (keep in mind i do inurance on the other side of the country) you should have enough coverage but when in doubt increase it. On the condo policy, especially with usaa, it is very inexpensive to increase the coverage.

I hope this helps and if anybody ever has any insurance questions just let me know and ill do what I can to help.

Best day this week! Without a doubt. While the fires continue to burn east and north of our house, and there are still many homes and lives still being threatened, the fires have moved away from us. The cities and the county are starting to move people back into their homes. Thank goodness for all the people who have been stuck in shelters with no way to know if they had homes to go back to. The total damages here are very high and growing still, but thanks to the hard work and effort of alot of good people, there is an end in sight.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to read and respond to this thread, I found that this was a good place for me to vent out my stress at a situation that I had little and no control over.

While we are by no means finished with this disaster here in San Diego County, we are getting through it and we will work together to rebuild our comunities. I will continue to post if and when things change here, but for now we are going to sit down and enjoy a nice family dinner without a black cloud over our heads.

Thanks again guys, I'll check back again soon.

That's good news! Glad to hear it. We had a nice family dinner for the first time since my daughter left for school. She'll be around till Sunday before heading back to school.

dataz722 said:

Ok, I guess I can help return the favor for all the help that I have been getting on here. I am actually an insurance agent so I can help you with just about any questions you have. First I would sugest that anyone that feels they maybe evacuated or in danger you should take a video camera (or a regualr camera at least) and record just about everything you own for any claims pusposes. Its alot easier to give that to a claims rep than to argue with them about what you had and what kind of condition it is in.



To help you out scuba, what you are thinking is probably pretty much accurate. Im my opinion a condo policy is the hardest policy to do. As you said the HOA will cover something but that something is different with every association. Some cover just the structure others cover everything behind the drywall and some cover EVERYTHING (with the execption of your belongins) and others do in between this. You would really need to find out what your association covers for sure then your policy with usaa would need to do the rest. From the sounds of it though (keep in mind i do inurance on the other side of the country) you should have enough coverage but when in doubt increase it. On the condo policy, especially with usaa, it is very inexpensive to increase the coverage.

I hope this helps and if anybody ever has any insurance questions just let me know and ill do what I can to help.

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Thanks for the info! I'm definitely lucky that I'm out of the direct path (for now) but I want to make sure we're not gonna go bankrupt should the neighborhood burn.

If the winds stay down, we've got a chance. Where I live, there haven't been fires, but the winds have bent trees over and broken stop signs in half. The real problem is arson! They've arrested a few people who were witnessed starting fires....for what reason I can't imagine, but I hope they go to prison.

Yea, I heard they killed another one that tried to run.

The last mention I saw about the one who was killed was that he was out in the bushes acting suspicious and then ran/tried to assault police, but that it wasn't clear whether or not he started any fires. The news around here isn't saying jack about arrests.

how are things going over there? I guess it's insensitive to say it's been raining its brains out here.

Here is another insensitive comment....anyone have any pics of the fires? I'm just a curious prick

But saving the most important comment for last, I'm glad that people are doing alright, I have some friends in the area, and I have been worried sick everyday!