Cedar Fire from Scripps Ranch  26 Oct 2003
    

Sally and I woke up Sunday morning to the smell of  smoke in the air. You could see the smoke to east and south. It apparently started some 10 or 15 miles east of here and burned all night. By 8AM Sunday, homes on the south side of Scripps Ranch were burning.

9:34 AM
Taken from the end of our street. Looking towards the south (eastern end of Miramar Marine Corps Air Station). The fire is burning east to west (left to right).

We immediately packed up Sal's car and my truck. At this point, I didn't think we would have to evacuate.
10:01 AM
A picture of our house with the smoke in the background. This is facing the southeast.
10:03 AM
Taken from the end of our street. Looking south.
10:03 AM
This is the house on the end of our street. Looking southeast.
10:26 AM
Taken from the end of our street. Looking southwest.
10:34 AM
Taken from the roof of our house. Looking east.
10:34 AM
Taken from the roof of our house. Looking  east. That's 350 houses going up in smoke. This shot is exactly the same direction as the previous one but zoomed in. The street going up the hill is Avenida Magnifica.
10:38 AM
Taken from the roof of our house. Looking south.
10:38 AM
Taken from the roof of our house. Looking east. Again the street going up the hill is Avenida Magnifica.
11:08 AM
Taken from the roof of our house. Looking southeast.

Sal's mother lives about 1/4 mile from us and her sister, Mary, lives about a mile away. Her mother started feeling nervous being home alone so Sally picked her up she joined us here.
12:05 PM
Taken from the roof of our house. Looking west.

Around 1:00 PM, the fire turned north and started burning in our direction. We could see the smoke starting to increase. About then, Mary and Anna left their home and with their 3 cats and dog in tow, joined us. They were here about 20 minutes when I decided we should all leave. As we were driving out of the street, a  police car came by and was telling everyone to leave.

We could not go south since the fire had already crossed I-15 and CA-163 and those highways were closed. We drove west to I-5 and then went to Mary's office near downtown. After a while it was clear we needed a place to stay for the night and moved to a hotel.

We stayed the night and through the next day. We were let back in our neighborhood about 5 PM on Monday.

As the time passed, we learned the extent of the damage. The fire burned about 350 homes in Scripps Ranch.  It got to somewhere between 1/2 mile and 1 mile from our house. It got even closer to Mary's house. But none of us suffered any damage.

For more Scripps Ranch photos, click here. For general Scripps Ranch information, click here. Here is the local paper Union-Tribune.
 
We did a hike in the burned area a few weeks after the fire. Click here for that.

This site prepared and maintained by Mark DiVecchio

email :  markd@silogic.com

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