Fire Photo

Here is my only photo of the fires. This was at Camp Pendleton just south of the Border Patrol checkpoint. The flames were mainly on the east side of the freeway but there were some on the west side as well. The San Onofre campground was empty.

Fire Story

As everyone knows, San Diego was consumed by several spectacular wildfires over the past few days. Here is our story.

Sunday afternoon

I had read on the internet about a fire starting in Ramona but didn't give it much thought. We left for the kids piano recital in Del Mar. In the space of just a few miles, the air got very thick and smoky. The recital was canceled due the the air so we went to George's beach to walk the dog. The air there was getting bad and in fact you could see the smoke cloud starting to creep northward. Went to bed without any concern.

Monday morning

I woke up as usual and headed to the office before dawn. It was smelly but I still wasn't concerned.

Monday 1000

Jyoti calls and says the air is getting very bad. I have been watching the news all morning and now it seems the Witch Fire has started to head west. Jyoti says a neighbor got a voluntary evacuation call, but we never receive one.

Monday 1100

Jyoti packs the car and kids and heads up to my parents in Orange County (they are well away from the fires there).

Monday 1200

I decided to leave work and head up to OC as well. I first stop by the house to see what is going on. The air is almost unbearable with ash and smoke.

Monday night

I spend most of the evening checking the news for information. The following are my best resources:

• UT's Fire Blog - once they moved it to blogspot it became the best news sources


• SD County Emergency - had the best maps (better than the Google mashups IMHO)


• Cat Dirt Sez - the best blogger following the fire


• Channel 10 News - had live streaming video, covered the western edge of the Witch Fire

Tuesday morning

Things got pretty tense as the Witch Fire headed westward into the Rancho Santa Fe. If you look at the map, we live a couple miles directly west of the Bridges community. The fire looked like it would wipe out a few estates in RSF and Olivenhain and head for us. Later reports said that the fire would have most likely follow Escondido Creek to the ocean. That is about a half mile from our house. Since our area is more dense than the areas to the east, I doubted that the fire would actually get to our neighborhood.

Tuesday afternoon

The wind died down and with it, the fire's advance. The flames headed back eastward towards Del Dios. A coworker of my mom's who lives in Encinitas and stayed the entire time, says the air is already getting better.

Tuesday night

The decision is made for me to go back tomorrow morning and see how things are. If they look ok, then the family will come down as well.

Wednesday morning

I got up early anticipating getting back home. My dad, says the 5 has been closed due to fires in Camp Pendleton. I wait until the freeway is open again and cruise the near-empty highways to home. The house is dusty but looks fine. Off to the office for a few hours work.


I was here during the 2003 fires and it is interesting to compare this event to that.

• Reverse 911 - although we didn't get a call, this great idea undoubtedly saved lives


• Evacuations - it seems that people evacuated sooner and in greater numbers; this might be due to the memories of 2003


• Air Support - the criticism of air support has already started, just like in 2003. I know the high winds prevented some flights on the first couple days, but it still seems that there is still some work to do to get Federal/Military assets to the scene


• Big Government - useless as usual. Didn't anyone care that FEMA had arrived? Most of the relief effort was already organized and rolling within hours. Is anyone else sick of those worthless interviews with governors, senators and presidents?


• Firefighters - continue to amaze me in their ability to handle multiple huge fires at the same time; our friend is a Cal Fire fighter and we know he was in the Ramona area but we will have to wait for details

I wonder if the Natural History Museum will update their Cedar Fire exhibit?

Israeli Air Strike on Syria Update

Yet more updates on this growing story.

• War and Piece blog quotes Intelligence Online in saying that the attack targeting an arms depot rather than a nuclear facility. The depot was apparently receiving a shipment of parts for Scud missiles. I seriously doubt Israel would risk an operation like this on Scuds. Everyone has Scuds, why were this so special?


• Arms Control Wonk thinks they were Scuds as well.

Israeli Air Strike on Syria Update

Some more updated on the Israeli air strike:

• It seems that some satellite TV broadcasts have been disrupted, possible due to EW jamming.
  


• Some more on the alleged jamming of the Russian-made Syrian AA systems. I find the story of the SAM countermeasures to be almost as interesting as the strike itself. It seems as though the Israelis, and by extension the US, have an ace-up-the-sleeve when dealing with even the newest Russian systems. If there is an eventual strike on Iranian targets, we will likely have tons of intel on the capabilities of the SAM's and the means to overcome them. This undoubtedly enhances our position when negotiating with the Iranians.

Del Mar Beach

First Guides trip of the year!

Wagner Baby

Looks like 4 got it right!

Israeli Air Strike on Syria Update

David Fulghum speculates on the reason that the Israelis so easily penetrated Syrian air defense. He mentions a system call "Suter" that infiltrates enemy air defense systems and discombobulates them. Very interesting stuff. I can imagine the Russians getting some frantic phone calls from their SAM customers right about now.