Blue Crab Boulevard

San Diego Burning

Bruce Henderson over at And Still I Persist has a post up about the tremendous fires roaring through southern California. Bruce has some dramatic photographs he took of the fires and the smoke. Bruce's wife Tammi spent all night rescuing horses - only to find that the evacuation site may now be under threat. (When I was out in San Diego a little while back, the hills were tinder dry. Looks like they finally got the wrong spark.) Bruce also has maps posted that show the extent of the fires - they are huge.

Be safe, Bruce. (UPDATE: Bruce Webster just sent me a link to the continuous updates.)

UPDATE: Los Angeles Times coverage - the fires are not just in San Diego.

Unrestrained fires stoked by gale-force winds raged across San Diego County today, forcing more than 250,000 people from their homes and scorching 100,000 acres, a county official said, in the worst of more than a dozen blazes racing across Southern California.

"If you see a fire, please evacuate immediately. Don't wait to be told to leave," San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said at a news conference this morning.

Among those evacuated were hundreds of patients at Pomerado Hospital and a nursing home in suburban Poway, officials said.

Qualcomm Stadium and the Del Mar Fairgrounds opened as evacuation centers, and officials made 120,000 "reverse 911" calls to tell people to evacuate. Schools throughout the county and at UC San Diego were closed. At least a dozen homes were lost. County Supervisor Ron Roberts gave the latest totals on evacuations and acreage.

"I could see the flames when I was trying to get the cats in the car. I couldn't breathe unless I pressed my face into the car. I'd just take a deep breath and run back into the house to get more things. It was very scary," said Shannon Spilman, 31, who had evacuated to Escondido High School north of San Diego late Sunday night.

It's already too late for a lot of homes, but it would seem that some of this product would have been helpful - and might still be. (Some is already in use in a few areas.)

(AP) — It was the most intense fire ever recorded in the Black Hills National Forest, but nearly all homes coated with a slimy gel were saved while dozens of houses nearby burned to the ground.

The gel was a super-absorbent polymer that can hold many times its weight in water and clings well to vertical surfaces and glass. It is mixed with water and then can be sprayed on homes with a truck-mounted hose or a backpack apparatus, or dropped from a plane.
The substance is relatively new to firefighting, having been developed about a decade ago, and is not widely used. But some firefighters who have tried it are impressed, saying it offers longer-lasting protection than the foam retardants that have been around for many years.

"This stuff really works," Ed Waggoner of Reno, Nev., a retired California fire boss who now helps direct attacks on large forest fires in the Black Hills. "We're talking about a water bubble that you put on your house two or three hours before the fire gets there, and it'll save it when the fire gets there."

Kim Zagaris, fire chief in the California Office of Emergency Services, said all 122 of the fire trucks under his command carry gel. And county officials in San Diego recently gave the Palomar Mountain volunteer fire department a grant to buy gel that residents can spray on their homesThe substance is relatively new to firefighting, having been developed about a decade ago, and is not widely used. But some firefighters who have tried it are impressed, saying it offers longer-lasting protection than the foam retardants that have been around for many years "This stuff really works," Ed Waggoner of Reno, Nev., a retired California fire boss who now helps direct attacks on large forest fires in the Black Hills. "We're talking about a water bubble that you put on your house two or three hours before the fire gets there, and it'll save it when the fire gets there."

Kim Zagaris, fire chief in the California Office of Emergency Services, said all 122 of the fire trucks under his command carry gel. And county officials in San Diego recently gave the Palomar Mountain volunteer fire department a grant to buy gel that residents can spray on their homes.

UPDATE: Lex from Neptunus Lex is also under threat from the fires and may have to evacuate. Stay safe, Lex.

Blogosphere, News | Gaius Monday, 22 October , 2007

By sam, Monday, 22 October , 2007 @ 1:54 pm

Thanks. The best coverage of the fires that I have seen yet.
By terrence, Monday, 22 October , 2007 @ 2:39 pm

We should all thank the eco-fascists for these fires. They sue the forest service to stop ALL clearing of underbrush that would PREVENT this kind of fire. They claim fire is a “benign influence”, and ALL logging, even brush clearing is EEVVIIILL.
By checkers, Monday, 22 October , 2007 @ 4:32 pm

Not to be paranoid but how do we know these are not being set on purpose by certain agents of a certain peaceful religion??
By lex, Monday, 22 October , 2007 @ 4:47 pm

Thanks, brother.
By steve, Tuesday, 23 October , 2007 @ 4:52 pm

I was linking to Bruce’s blog and his server went down. Any info? I heard a campus supercomputer was shut down because of the fires but don’t know if related.
By Gaius, Tuesday, 23 October , 2007 @ 4:57 pm

I got nothing right now - I’ll see if I can find anything out.
By Gaius, Tuesday, 23 October , 2007 @ 4:58 pm

Might be a server crash - try again in 15 minutes of so.