A homeowner's perspective of the fires ripping through Escondido. From our back porch, we could see a miles long continuous line of fire approaching us.
I was only 6 when this happened, but I remember it with incredible clarity. I lived across the street from Felicita Park back then, and I remember from our window we could see the line of fire glowing on the hills like this. I believe we evacuated around 3 AM that night. I wanted to bring all my stuffed animals but was only allowed to fill a small hamper with some of them (I remember being particularly upset about losing my giant unicorn plushie- I forget if, eventually, I was able to bring it, but I think my grandma wanted my parents to let me regardless). We went to the Westfield mall parking lot first- I'm not sure why- and the smoke was so thick that it hurt to breathe and your eyes and throat and nose would burn and sting just to step outside of the car. The air was glowing reddish, but this was probably from the lanterns in the lot shining through the smoke. We managed to evacuate to San Marcos High School, but my dad stayed behind and was hosing the house down to keep the fire from burning it. There were blue mats there that we slept on with a lot of other people, and a whole area dedicated to keeping pets (we had four dogs at the time, and possibly two cats as well- I forget exactly when we got them). We went back home after just a day because my father insisted it was safe. It was, and the flames ultimately didn't come close to our house or neighborhood, but I remember closer to Hodges there were whole areas of houses completely burned to the ground. Family friends who lived over there were lucky that their house was okay- if I remember correctly, most of the houses along the road up to their home were completely destroyed. I don't know why, but the image of a ceramic clay flower pot sitting perfectly amongst the smoke and rubble and surrounded by shards of other pots particularly stands out to me. Sorry that was so long; I've never gotten to share this before, so I suppose it just all came out. This is just my personal experience with the fire.
I know this was 2 years ago, but I was 5 when this happened and had the exact same thing. I've since moved to Utah, but I lived on Anaheim Street, right up the street from San Pasqual High / Kit Carson park. At probably 10:30 at night I watched the flames move towards us. We has a mini canyon type thing in our yard, and saw 2 houses start to burn down across the canyon and that's when we left. I brought one stuffed animal and we went to the LDS Stake Center to evacuate, and my grandpa helped save a couple homes
Wow - excellent video, good quality, nice captions and overall excellent direction. I am also in the area - was this shot from the west side of lake hodges? I am also looking from some who has first hand knowledge of when the fire burned the west side of Lomas Serenas. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Just wow.... from 1:12 - 2:02, you panned left, left, left, left, left, and more left, It couldn't be, but it sure looks like you did a complete 360, or damn well near it, and there were fires everywhere. I'm happy you were so lucky!
My late mother lived in Rancho Bernardo at the time. The night the fire first broke out, I spoke with her just before her bedtime. We both agreed there wasn’t too much cause for concern, as the fire was east of Ramona and would have had to burn about 15 miles through some urbanized areas to get anywhere near her. We did make a joke about how we hoped there would be no need to evacuate at least that night, but neither of us were taking it too seriously. The next morning, I got a call from her caregiver, telling me not to worry, she was safe in a downtown SD hotel. What??? It turns out the call to evacuate came through around 3 in the morning, and her next-door neighbors helped her get out, as she was unable to drive. I'd become familiar with SoCal wildfires as a child, but it was simply unbelievable to me that a fire could move that fast in so short a time. As it turns out, her home was undamaged, but several people a few blocks away, further up in the hills, weren’t so lucky. When we visited the next spring, you could still see the blackened scars on the eucalyptus trees lining Pomerado about a block or two from her home.
I drive for san diego transit and know what Chev gas station you're talking about. I haven't driven that route (20) since the fires, but I'm pretty sure they didn't go through that area, because the route was cut off at Rancho Carmel Dr during the fires, which is just beyond that area (northeast, across the 15 fwy).
North-west side of Hodges. Panned all the way to the right, you're looking over a nearby ridge, over which is lake Hodges. The night-time shot with the continuous fireline was around 4:30am on Monday.
Btw, I live in spring valley as well (jamacha blvd) and had to be evacuated from the Harris fire, which burned over much of nearby mt san miguel. Fortunately by the time it had gotten that far, the wind had died down, and they were able to stop it before it got to the base of the mountain to burn any homes there.
I was only 6 when this happened, but I remember it with incredible clarity. I lived across the street from Felicita Park back then, and I remember from our window we could see the line of fire glowing on the hills like this. I believe we evacuated around 3 AM that night. I wanted to bring all my stuffed animals but was only allowed to fill a small hamper with some of them (I remember being particularly upset about losing my giant unicorn plushie- I forget if, eventually, I was able to bring it, but I think my grandma wanted my parents to let me regardless). We went to the Westfield mall parking lot first- I'm not sure why- and the smoke was so thick that it hurt to breathe and your eyes and throat and nose would burn and sting just to step outside of the car. The air was glowing reddish, but this was probably from the lanterns in the lot shining through the smoke.
We managed to evacuate to San Marcos High School, but my dad stayed behind and was hosing the house down to keep the fire from burning it. There were blue mats there that we slept on with a lot of other people, and a whole area dedicated to keeping pets (we had four dogs at the time, and possibly two cats as well- I forget exactly when we got them).
We went back home after just a day because my father insisted it was safe. It was, and the flames ultimately didn't come close to our house or neighborhood, but I remember closer to Hodges there were whole areas of houses completely burned to the ground. Family friends who lived over there were lucky that their house was okay- if I remember correctly, most of the houses along the road up to their home were completely destroyed. I don't know why, but the image of a ceramic clay flower pot sitting perfectly amongst the smoke and rubble and surrounded by shards of other pots particularly stands out to me.
Sorry that was so long; I've never gotten to share this before, so I suppose it just all came out. This is just my personal experience with the fire.
I know this was 2 years ago, but I was 5 when this happened and had the exact same thing. I've since moved to Utah, but I lived on Anaheim Street, right up the street from San Pasqual High / Kit Carson park. At probably 10:30 at night I watched the flames move towards us. We has a mini canyon type thing in our yard, and saw 2 houses start to burn down across the canyon and that's when we left. I brought one stuffed animal and we went to the LDS Stake Center to evacuate, and my grandpa helped save a couple homes
Wow - excellent video, good quality, nice captions and overall excellent direction. I am also in the area - was this shot from the west side of lake hodges? I am also looking from some who has first hand knowledge of when the fire burned the west side of Lomas Serenas. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Just wow.... from 1:12 - 2:02, you panned left, left, left, left, left, and more left, It couldn't be, but it sure looks like you did a complete 360, or damn well near it, and there were fires everywhere. I'm happy you were so lucky!
My late mother lived in Rancho Bernardo at the time. The night the fire first broke out, I spoke with her just before her bedtime. We both agreed there wasn’t too much cause for concern, as the fire was east of Ramona and would have had to burn about 15 miles through some urbanized areas to get anywhere near her. We did make a joke about how we hoped there would be no need to evacuate at least that night, but neither of us were taking it too seriously. The next morning, I got a call from her caregiver, telling me not to worry, she was safe in a downtown SD hotel. What??? It turns out the call to evacuate came through around 3 in the morning, and her next-door neighbors helped her get out, as she was unable to drive. I'd become familiar with SoCal wildfires as a child, but it was simply unbelievable to me that a fire could move that fast in so short a time. As it turns out, her home was undamaged, but several people a few blocks away, further up in the hills, weren’t so lucky. When we visited the next spring, you could still see the blackened scars on the eucalyptus trees lining Pomerado about a block or two from her home.
I drive for san diego transit and know what Chev gas station you're talking about. I haven't driven that route (20) since the fires, but I'm pretty sure they didn't go through that area, because the route was cut off at Rancho Carmel Dr during the fires, which is just beyond that area (northeast, across the 15 fwy).
I was only 12 but I remember getting woken up at 4am with my neighborhood on fire and I have neeever been so scared
And fires are sprouting again. I remember this like it was yesterday. Horrible fire
North-west side of Hodges. Panned all the way to the right, you're looking over a nearby ridge, over which is lake Hodges. The night-time shot with the continuous fireline was around 4:30am on Monday.
Btw, I live in spring valley as well (jamacha blvd) and had to be evacuated from the Harris fire, which burned over much of nearby mt san miguel. Fortunately by the time it had gotten that far, the wind had died down, and they were able to stop it before it got to the base of the mountain to burn any homes there.
im so lucky i was far away from the fire
We were stuck right in the Middle of it in Esco Certainly a scary 5 days.