The Witch Fire
I awoke at 4:30 this morning with a sense of dread, quickly remembering that there is a firestorm raging in the communities around our home in La Costa.
Yesterday afternoon, the Reverse 911 system called to inform us we are under “volunteer evacuation” guidance. We chose to remain home because the fires are distant and the ocean even closer. A half-packed suitcase sits by the bedroom door, and we are ready to leave with little notice.
As I tiptoed downstairs, I wondered which of out sons had been burning incense. I then realized that threads of smoke from the fires had slipped into our home.
Stepping outside in the pre-dawn hours, I saw reassuring stars in the sky. Yesterday the sun was red as it glowed behind huge layers of smoke. The air is still full of floating ash and other waste from the fires. The winds are still, there are fewer lights in the hills and the bottoms of my feet are black.
The news from early morning television is not encouraging. Over 300,000 people in San Diego County have been evacuated, 25,000 are without power and we all hanging onto news reports and trying to sort out the rumors that are raging with the fires.
I am following the aptly-named Witch Fire, because it is the one endangering our own community. It started in distant Ramona and has devoured its way
Coastal Del Mar, Encinitas, La Jolla, Solana Beach, Carlsbad and Oceanside are still intact–at least for the moment. Rancho Santa Fe is in dire danger–and has been evacuated. News reports are coming in that parts of The Bridges are in flames; that several homes off Via de la Valle and across from Morgan Run Golf Club are burning; that Fairbanks Ranch is in the path of flames, that if this fire jumps Escondido Creek, Encinitas will also be in the path of danger.
The Witch Fire has very expensive taste.
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