Bruce & Winnie

[steve heckert]

Does any one know how close the fires are to Bruce & Winnie's home?

[allen pierce]

According to the So Cal TV news reports.... Relatively close. Close enough that Valley Center is under mandatory evacuation since late last night. I should add, that mandatory evacuation, in this particular situation according the the TV news, is when the officials, usually peace officers, stop letting people into an area and ask those in an area to leave. There have been many reports of residents staying, i.e. not leaving, and because the fire and peace officers are stretched to the maximum, they have not been offically able to remove residents. So, if the threat was not immediately extreme, Bruce and Winnie could have had time to gather what ever they needed before leaving the area. I'm about 4 hours north of them, but, I'll bet they had a pretty good network of local friends to get them out safely (at least I hope so). If I hear more on the TV news, I'll post it here. Let's hope for the best.

[1856]

I've tried to call them ... voice mail.. From the attached fire map they should ok. http://bp0.blogger.com/__NndqGjqNRc/Rx3 ... 2witch.gif

[ralphdjeeper]

thanks for all the post on this, i have watched all the News,and wondered about them also, Hope and pray all is fine.

[GotManx]

I haven't talked with Bruce and Winnie, but I've got other friends that live around them. The fires so far have not reached up into Valley Center, just around the fringes. Right now things are looking a little more positive other than a pretty stong fire in the Palomar Mountain area. The winds have died down some but we still have a Santa Ana blowing today. I had to evacuate my home above the Wild Animal Park in Escondido on Sunday night. With help from friends I was able to get all of my cars, kids, wife and the cat and dog out safely. I got a chance to get back up to our house yesterday afternoon, and the fire had completely circled the house. We were fortunate and did not have any damage other than some burned vegitation. We are hoping that maybe today we can start moving back in.

[Tom-Kathleen]

Jon - glad to hear everthing worked out. That sounds like a very close call. I have been to your house and I am sure you will get it looking as great as it was in a matter of time. So many have lost it all. Tom

[allen pierce]

There are two fires near Valley Center; to the south is the Witch fire and to the east is the Poomacha fire. The changing conditions... now that the winds are supposed to die down, the fire will not be "forced" in a certain direction, but will go where ever it wants to go. That can make it harder or easier, depending on where it is currently at. More fuel (brush, etc.) and it will burn hotter there and cover more ground (thus harder to battle), and the opposite is true as well. Still we don't have enough fire personel to battle all these fires, so we're in selective protection mode, not containment mode. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Here's some fire map info, posted on the DSB forum... From DesertWRX Google Fire Map - San Diego County You can zoom in and move around on this map. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - From Mike & Mel GEOMAC Wildland Fire Support Click on "Wildfire Mapping," then when the map comes up, click on the area you want to zoom in onto. There are different things you can click on from the right side of the screen, then refresh to show what you selected. During busy times, the site does go down though, so be patient. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Note from AP... The one I liked the best is clicking on the "View Perimeters in Google Earth", on the GEOMAC screen. If you don't have Google Earth, you can download it right from the next window. I've had it about 18 months and haven't had any problems with the FREE version. Google Earth is also pretty neat for just viewing the earth from space and viewing the stars from earth and a lot of other cool things. Oh, once you've got Google Earth, find the Witch Fire in the pull down list, go to the bottom listed one (by date). Google Earth will start right up. Valley Center is North - North East of Escondido. You can use your mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out, click and hold, to drag the view around in any direction. The view in Google Earth is better than the photo below, just wait until the full image loads (see the bottom of the screen for the "Streaming %", it should eventually be 100%). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Here's a pic from Google Earth of Bruce & Winnie's place in Valley Center. See if you can find it. Ah, here is a tip... Faraway Place, Valley Center, CA 92082. You can plug that into the "Fly To:" box on the upper left corner of Google Earth or any other map program. If not that, look sort of North - North East of Valley Center (like a line from Escondido, thru Valley Center and out the other side of Valley Center).

[allen pierce]

Update, Saturday AM, from San Diego County Emergency web site. The Poomacha fire is closest to Bruce's place... - - - - - - - - - - - - - Poomacha Fire 42,000 acres 35% contained Full containment and control on October 29th There are 1,794 firefighters assigned 14 injuries to firefighters 78 homes, 19 outbuildings destroyed The fire was active near Pauma Reservation and Palomar Mtn. The fire has entered the Aqua Tibia Wilderness. Control operations within this area are difficult given the steep terrain and inaccessibility. Active structure protection occurring in the Mt. Palomar area. In residential areas where the overall threat has lessened, some displaced residents are being allowed to return. - - - - - - - - - - - - - The following area is now to open to residents and the general public alike. The area is specified by a box created by: I-15 to the west Valley Center to the east Old Castle Road to the south Riverside County to the north (Note from AP, I'm not sure if that include Bruce's place.)

[1856]

Winnie called today ... all is good, there back at the ranch and glad to be there. Carol & Mark