The Witch Creek Fire

by Roberta Murphy

I awoke at 4:30 a.m. yesterday morning with a sense of dread, quickly remembering that there is a demon called the Witch Creek Fire raging in the communities around our home in La Costa. It is just one of several mega firestorms raging in San Diego County–but is the one we fear(ed) the most.

Monday afternoon, our Reverse 911 system called to inform us we are under “volunteer evacuation” guidance. We chose to remain home because the fires were distant and the ocean even closer. A half-packed suitcase still sits by the bedroom door, and we are ready to leave with minimal notice.

As I tiptoed downstairs in the dark, I wondered which of our sons had been burning incense. I then realized that threads of smoke from the fires had slipped into our home. Why did it smell almost-fragrant?

Stepping outside in the pre-dawn hours, I saw reassuring stars in the sky. Monday, 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 stay black because of barefoot habits.

Television news stays on. Over 500,000 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 which endangered our own community.

Coastal Del Mar, Encinitas, La Jolla, Solana Beach, Carlsbad and Oceanside are still intact. Rancho Santa Fe has suffered losses. Parts of The Bridges were in flames; several homes off Via de la Valle and across from Morgan Run Golf Club were burned; that Fairbanks Ranch was in the path of flames, and it appears firefighters were able to stop the Witch Fire at Escondido Creek, which would have put Encinitas and South Carlsbad in danger.

The Witch Fire, as it is now called, has very expensive taste.