Holly and I walked out of the grocery store yesterday afternoon and saw a large plume of smoke in the air. After some digging, we learned about two brush fires burning in East SD County that grew rapidly. When we woke up this morning, 6 more fires had sprung up overnight and now the entire county is maxed out trying to deal with fires all over. So far, 25o THOUSAND people have been evacuated and it doesn't look like the winds will die off until tomorrow and may continue to Wednesday. The National Guard and Military have activated personnel to help fight the fires and Gov. Schwarzenegger has declared a State of Emergency. Emergency agencies are calling this the worst fire disaster California has ever seen. The Del Mar Fair Grounds is being used as an evecuation center and it's full. Evacuees are now being asked to go to Qualcomm Stadium.
As for me, I'm safe since all the fires are well North of me. Still, there's a lot of smoke and ash in the air that's forcing us to stay inside. School (UCSD) has been cancelled for today and tomorrow and one of my midterms has been moved due to the missed class time (woo!). No training, my throat gets irritated if I'm outside for more than 10 minutes. I had a choice this Summer to wok for USFS on a Wildland Fire crew or with State Parks as a Lifeguard. My Dad said he'd feel better with me as a Lifeguard, so that's the job I took. If I had taken the USFS job, I'd be on the fireline right now eating smoke. Crazy.
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