By Ian S. Port
Assistant Editor
The event was all-but-inevitable — yet somehow unbelievable.
On Monday, Oct. 22, a wildfire birthed in the scrubby chaparral northeast of Ramona whipped westward from the mountains and, fanned by speeding Santa Ana winds and parched fall air, surged into Rancho Santa Fe, leaving behind 76 smoldering properties and hundreds of acres of blackened open space.
Named the “Witch fire” after the area near Witch Creek where it started, that wave of speeding flames and embers forced the evacuation of not just Rancho Santa Fe, but a vast quadrant of San Diego County for the better part of a week. With many other parts of San Diego and Southern California evacuated or burning as well, the Santa Ana-fueled wildfires of 2007 captured the concern of the entire world.
But one would not have known it from the sight of things. With all residents and employees under mandatory evacuation, the Rancho Santa Fe area took on a post-apocalyptic air, aided by the ever-presence of odiferous smoke and orange-gray skies. Fire engines, National Guard humvees and Sheriff’s vehicles patrolled the streets, adding to the eeriness.
When residents were finally able to return around midday Oct. 25, many found their homes and belongings in smoldering ruin. While firefighters from around California staged a terrifically successful defense of all communities of Rancho Santa Fe, the fire won in a few places. A total of 55 structures were lost in the blaze; most of them homes. Another 21 were damaged. But no one was hurt.
The fire exacted its cruelty at random. Flames ran through creek beds and gullies, up hillsides and through trees to claim some houses and leave others untouched. Heroic residents resisted calls for evacuation to stay and save their own and neighbors’ homes. Others returned from afar to find nearby structures incinerated while their own home stood, miraculously untouched.
Some came back to little more than an up-thrust chimney and their possessions gone or disfigured, remnants spread on the ashy ground. And then they faced that daunting question — what to do next?
“I don’t know, maybe slit my wrists,” said Kevin Arms, a resident who lost all his things in a house on Zumaque, one of the hardest-hit streets in the Rancho Santa Fe Covenant area. Holding a shovel on Oct. 25, Arms’ eyes and face covered to protect him from the fumes emanating from the spot where his desk used to be, the former renter managed a resigned chuckle: “I’ll get another place to live.” He didn’t sound totally convinced.
The myriad emotions of residents grappling with the loss of their material lives are nearly unfathomable. But local fire experts say the rush of wildfires into Ranch Santa Fe was just a matter of time — as is another, similar event in the future.
The call to evacuate eastern portions of the Rancho Santa Fe Fire District, including the Crosby, went out before dawn on Oct. 22, though it didn’t become mandatory for the RSF Covenant until 10 a.m. By midday the evacuation area had grown to include all of Carmel Valley, and later that night Del Mar was added.
The impetus for the huge evacuation area was fearsome Santa Ana winds. With gusts up to 60 mph, the Santa Anas supercharged the brushfires, whipping them into 200-ft. walls of flame that sent burning embers shooting even higher and farther.
The Witch Fire had moved from the backcountry into Ramona, into Poway and across I-15 by the morning of Oct. 22nd. By that evening, with the help of the frenzying Santa Anas, the fire was burning in Rancho Santa Fe.
‘Highways of Fire’
It happened just like Irwin Wills thought. The former chief of the Rancho Santa Fe Fire District strongly advocated for better fire protection during his 13-year tenure — fearing the same set of circumstances that shuffled in the Witch fire. Like many knowledgeable observers, Willis also didn’t believe that the Witch fire would stop at Rancho Santa Fe.
“The predictions that we made as to how the fire would occur —it’d come from the east, it’d go down the San Dieguito river, it’d come out of the river on both sides, it’d hit Fairbanks, it’d hit Rancho – were very, very accurate,” Willis said.
Fire District Director Jim Ashcraft has his own name for the riverbeds: “We have what I call the highways of fire – the San Dieguito creek area and the Escondido creek area. They’re extraordinarily dangerous.”
The Witch took those routes on its blitz into the Ranch. But unlike other wildfires where a wall of flames works its way somewhat predictably toward an area, the finicky Santa Ana winds kept firefighters on their toes — and residents of areas from Olivenhain to Fairbanks Ranch guessing about their homes’ fate.
Surrounded on three sides by open space and chaparral-covered hillside, the R.E. Badger Water Filtration Plant off of Aliso Canyon lay exposed to what would become an ocean of flames.
The plant, surrounded by fencing and built of cement, uses hazardous chemicals to treat water for Rancho Santa Fe and Solana Beach — the same water that pours out of fire hydrants and hoses in a wildfire. “The main thing there is, we want to keep the plant on, because we need the water for firefighting,” Santa Fe Irrigation District General Manager Mike Bardin said.
Winds brought the flames to Bardin’s plant around 7 p.m. Monday evening. The glowing towers of orange shot embers up into the wind, spraying all around and threatening the “tank farm” where hazardous chemicals are stored.
By 10 p.m., the plant was surrounded by fire and firefighters, and operating on its diesel generators because the surrounding electricity poles had been incinerated.
“It burned right up to our fence line and then right around our plant and right up the rest of the hillside,” Bardin said. “Three-fourths of the way around our plant was open space and all that was burned. It’s surreal when you see it.”
But emergency planning with the fire district — and a pre-fire warning call to remind fire fighters to come up and protect the chemical tanks — had carried the day. Bardin’s cement plan survived unharmed. “We kept that plant manned 24 hours a day and produced water the whole time.”
The Battle of Rancho Santa Fe
Farther south, another branch of the Witch fire had run from Lake Hodges into the San Dieguito riverbed, where it raced toward homes on the eastern side of Rancho Santa Fe.
“Those drainages are kind of like chutes and they tend to funnel the fire, especially the San Dieguito river bottom,” RSF Fire District Chief Nick Pavone later recounted. “You have those really steep slopes and the fire just whips through those open space areas.”
The fire moved so fast Monday night that it didn’t completely burn the vegetation that transported it. But once in the river bottom, homes at the tops of nearby hillsides in Rancho Del Rio and the Covenant made easy targets.
Zumaque street lies on the far southeast corner of the Rancho Santa Fe Covenant: a steep, downhill-sloping single lane that ends close to the San Dieguito river. The homes on the west side of the street sit high on the edge of a hilltop, overlooking the river and mountain areas to the east.
Six of them were the Witch fire’s first victims in the Covenant. Two other homes on Zumaque were damaged. It would be the hardest-hit street in the area.
The fire raced through the Covenant Monday night, spreading through trees and embers catapulted from high-rise walls of fire. The high winds created the possibility that the flames could end up nearly anywhere.
“The problem with this fire is that it didn’t come in a straight line, it was like a chessboard or a checkerboard,” recounted Jim Ashcraft, who observed the blaze from RSF Fire District Station No. 1. “It bounced to different spots. So even if you had your resources at one area it would go somewhere else. We could have had triple the resources and we still would’ve had losses.”
From Zumaque the flames moved both north and south, engulfing homes on El Vuelo, Via Monalex, Las Cuestas, Las Colinas and other streets. But the southerly winds prevailed, pushing the Witch fire straight for the RSF Village.
Duncan Hadden’s family has owned The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe for 50 years. So when the call for evacuation came on Monday, Hadden didn’t leave — he set up shop in a central room of his business and waited. When winds freshened around midnight, the fire was headed for The Inn — and him.
“At 3 a.m. I was sitting in the living room of The Inn seeing these flames coming over the tops of the eucalyptus trees in the park — they were that tall — and all the hot embers coming into town,” Hadden remembered. “The front lawn was just sparklers of ashes and burning embers … I didn’t dare get closer than here, but you could hear propane tanks exploding from down there, eucalyptus trees exploding from the sap, it was just unbelievable.”
Standing alone on the lawn of his family’s Inn, wearing ski goggles to see through the smoke while watching towers of flame shooting into the sky, Hadden feared the worst.
He was seeing the fire at Camino Selva, a small street off of Via De Santa Fe less than a block from Stump’s Market and the Mobile station in the village. With flames so close to the middle of Rancho Santa Fe, the firefighters had a choice: work like hell to stop the fire there, or see the village and perhaps a large swath of the Ranch in smoldering ruin by sunrise. So the fire crews — many of whom were slaving through their second straight night of battling blazes around Southern California — turned their hoses straight up in the air.
“They caught their embers and at least got water on them — and then God was with us, because they didn’t land on a bad spot,” Ashcraft remembered. “Their energy was down just enough that nothing caught.”
For Hadden, the firefighters’ valiant efforts and upturned hoses also proved miraculous — his family business and the village it relied on were saved.
“I would’ve bet every penny in my pocketbook that we would’ve lost the town and The Inn if they hadn’t been down there,” he said.
Three hours later, the sun rose over a Rancho Santa Fe that looked largely like as it had the previous day. Three houses on Camino Selva, and many others in the eastern Covenant were gone. Only two homes were lost in Fairbanks Ranch, where the fire again jumped the riverbank and raced up a dry hillside.
The village, the schools, the churches, many businesses and most of the area’s homes had survived the night. But the Witch’s wrath was far from over.
The Command Center
When orders for evacuation were announced Oct. 22, law enforcement and fire protection officers poured into Rancho Santa Fe Fire District Station No. 1 near the Rancho Santa Fe School. The building that normally serves as a station for the RSF Patrol, local firefighters and other law enforcement was teeming with badges — many worn by individuals from out of town. Because RSF District fire fighters had gone out earlier to do battle on the eastern side of the district, some crews in the station early Monday also lacked in-depth knowledge of the Ranch.
That’s why, according to many who spent time there, RSF Patrol Chief Matt Wellhouser ran the show at the command center. When authorities wondered how to find seniors and others with special needs, Wellhouser knew where to find the list. When fire crews needed quick access to a creek or gulley threatened by fire, Wellhouser pulled out the maps and gave directions.
According to Association Manager Pete Smith, who also worked long hours at the RSF command center, Wellhouser and his Patrol officers served as the authority on Rancho Santa Fe for Sheriff’s deputies, Border Patrol, California Highway Patrol Officers, Firefighters and the National Guard.
“The next three days all flowed into one, and Matt stayed at his post for up to 20 hours per day,” Smith said. “All other agencies had organized shifts realizing that people perform best if they are rested, but for Matt there simply wasn’t anyone else that could do what Matt does. The people in the room — to their credit — they all deferred to Matt.”
As the second day of evacuations began, security became a key concern. Many Ranch residents were evacuated far from their homes and wouldn’t be allowed to return for days. But with many driveway gates left open, the National Guard on its way, and few people around, the area was ripe for looting — until authorities blocked off all entrances.
Even then, trespassers were found. Association Director Tim Sullivan had two saddles stolen from his barn. A CHP officer chased down two looters who ran through a roadblock. And the Patrol caught four suspected arsonists late on the night of Oct. 23.
Though firefighters had stopped flames in the Covenant early Tuesday morning, the heat was by no means off Rancho Santa Fe. With winds rising during the daylight hours, the Witch fire came around the other side of Lake Hodges and headed again down Del Dios — this time toward Rancho Cielo and the northeastern corner of the Covenant.
“Once it jumped Del Dios highway east of the fruit stand, it again started to go on the backside of Rancho Cielo and then went the back way towards the Escondido drainage,” Pavone said. “And that was high priority for us to stop it on the backside so it did not get into that Escondido drainage — so it never got to the Bridges. It got stopped around Aliso Canyon and Via Del Las Flores.”
By the end of Tuesday, the fire was out — sort of. Though a front of fast-moving flames no longer threatened to move west, numerous hot spots periodically thrust columns of blue smoke into the sky. Fire crews would spend another day and a half trolling residential streets as wind whipped heat held below the ground into fresh fires, any one of which could flare up and threaten more homes.
Even on Wednesday, with camouflaged National Guard humvees giving a wartime feel to the village of Rancho Santa Fe and fire engines everywhere, hot spots flared up around Las Colinas and Via De La Valle, burning trees and brush. The area was literally still smoldering from the heat of the fires.
‘It’s Going To Happen Again’
Vast areas east the Covenant were singed by the flames, but no homes were lost in Cielo, the Crosby or the Bridges — all of which were built after the fire district implemented fire protective building regulations.
Those rules, known as “shelter-in-place,” were the brainchild of former RSF Fire Chief Irwin Willis, who says the Witch fire provided fantastic validation for what remains a controversial idea: That if trapped by wildfires, residents of well-designed communities would be safer in their fire-resistant homes than fleeing on roadways. That scenario didn’t occur in the Witch fire, but Willis says the homes’ survival speaks volumes about the effectiveness of the guidelines.
“The [Cielo] houses were right at the top of the ridgeline, so it was kind of a worst-case scenario for a fire — you don’t want the structures above the fire with heavy fuels below,” Willis said. “So those structures withstood worst-case scenario fire and were untouched, totally untouched.”
Of course, the safest way to get people through a fire is to get them away from it — and that appeared to be the strategy with the massive evacuations for the Witch fire. But an equally important strategy is protection and defense — subjects Willis emphasized as fire chief.
“I said it hundreds of times at homeowners’ association meetings and any kind of group that I could get together and people would listen. I would say look, first of all Rancho Santa Fe burned once in the 1940s. And if you look at the history of fire, it tends to repeat itself.”
But Willis said that there were still as many as 400 shake-shingle roofs going into the Witch fire, and he knows of three that burned (including at least one on Camino Selva). Shake-shingle roofs are dangerous because embers that land on them can catch the shingles on fire in situations where tile or ceramic wouldn’t ignite.
“At least those three structures and probably a lot more didn’t need to burn. They burned just because the owners wouldn’t change their shake roofs,” Willis said. Although new development is required to meet stricter standards, many existing older homes are still around, waiting for the day when a nearby wildfire reduces them to ash. And Willis warned that such a day will come.
“There are certain areas that are fire-prone — they burn. Well Rancho Santa Fe, if you look at it, it has every single aspect that has led to major fires,” Willis said. “It’s got the heavy vegetation, it’s got the narrow winding roads. It’s built in. It’s only a
matter of time … it’s going to happen again.”
Thursday, November 1, 2007
The long road (block) home—residents found a frustrating return to RSF
Ian S. Port
Assistant Editor
The line stretched over 40 cars deep, from the intersection of Calzada Del Bosque and Via De Santa Fe over a bridge and back towards Fairbanks Ranch. At the northern end, behind signs sternly warning “road closed,” stood three National Guard troops shouldering assault rifles.
Having been forced from their homes over three days earlier, the crowd was irritable. But the troops were helpless — under orders.
Twenty minutes earlier, the Rancho Santa Fe Fire District had announced via its Web site that Rancho Santa Fe was open to repopulation, that the evacuation of 21,000 residents from the Witch fire was over. A few minutes later, that message was taken down. The roadblocks set up by the National Guard were still in place, because of a snafu among higher-ups in command of the fire response.
But almost no one sitting in their cars waiting to return home that Thursday morning knew those details — or cared much about them. The frustration and anticipation among homesick residents was palpable. People wanted to know if they had a home left.
“We’ve all been operating with this high level of anxiety now for four days,” said Annemae Kelleher, sitting in her black Mercedes SUV a few minutes before the Via De Santa Fe checkpoint opened. “You try to temper your frustration with patience, but even the most patient person is tested right now.”
The delay in opening the roadblocks — which was caused by a serious disagreement between the Sheriff’s department, who managed the National Guard presence, and the RSF Fire District, Patrol and Association, who wanted to let residents in — lasted about two hours.
The delay may have put a bad taste in residents’ mouths as they reentered Rancho Santa Fe. But for the owners and residents of 18 homes in the Covenant (and more outside), the ache of a frustrating return was deepened by pain and shock of finding rubble where their home used to be. Save for a chimney and a pile of blackened soot and metal, some found nothing in the place they’d left everything.
One of those was Via Monalex resident John Rikkers. He moved his family to Rancho Santa Fe from New York City two months ago, and they were happy with a newer home they bought overlooking a small canyon. Having evacuated to Laguna Beach, Rikkers heard initially that his home was safe — only to get a call some hours later saying it had been completely destroyed.
“My guess is that they were just so outmanned and unable to summon any other resources in, and everything available was dealing with other things in that area,” Rikkers said. “That canyon looks like the moon right now.”
On the other end of the luck spectrum was a Rancho Del Rio resident named Theresa, who returned to find the exterior of her home burned — just barely — and her yard scorched black. Her neighbor, Scott Jacobs, tore a burning pile of firewood and a flaming deck chair away from her home when he was supposed to be evacuated. Four homes on their street were lost completely to the Witch fire. With a strong arm and a garden hose, Jacobs saved Theresa’s.
“I am so lucky. You do not know how happy I feel,” said Theresa, as she made arrangements Wednesday, Oct. 24, to cook dinner for her neighbor and his family. She and her husband bought the house on July 29, 1969 — the day Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon. “And now it looks like a moonscape,” Theresa chuckled, looking over her pitch-colored yard.
Jacobs, who lives across Rancho Del Rio road from her, had goodwill to spare the day he saved his neighbor’s house. He’d seen television crews reporting from his street while evacuated, though he could see only the burned tops of the palm trees in his front yard. He returned — on his birthday — to find his land blackened, but his house completely unharmed.
“That’s what I got. I got a house for my birthday,” Jacobs chuckled.
Others’ fire returns brought a mix of glee and sadness. Realtor Patrick Galvin returned Oct. 26 to find his own house completely untouched — but his two rental properties completely destroyed.
“I suppose we’re not as emotionally involved, as it’s a rental property,” Galvin said. He estimated the houses’ worth at around $2.5 million each. “But the land is still there.”
And finding his own home intact was a relief. Galvin also had seen news reports from Rancho Santa Fe that described the houses destroyed. When they gave the number of his home, Galvin’s heart sank. “I thought it was ours. I said holy shit – there’s our life gone.” But the house on the news was on Camino Selva, and Galvin lives on Paseo Arbolado.
“It could have been a lot worse,” he said.
Then there was Kevin Arms, who spent much of Thursday reluctantly scraping through the remnants of his rented home on Zumaque. He found fused glass and lots of blackened wood, but the only possessions he uncovered were an old license plate and an antique bicycle, its pedals melted nearly into the single remaining wheel.
“My mom gave that to me,” Arms said softly. “I’ll tell her where to find it.”
Assistant Editor
The line stretched over 40 cars deep, from the intersection of Calzada Del Bosque and Via De Santa Fe over a bridge and back towards Fairbanks Ranch. At the northern end, behind signs sternly warning “road closed,” stood three National Guard troops shouldering assault rifles.
Having been forced from their homes over three days earlier, the crowd was irritable. But the troops were helpless — under orders.
Twenty minutes earlier, the Rancho Santa Fe Fire District had announced via its Web site that Rancho Santa Fe was open to repopulation, that the evacuation of 21,000 residents from the Witch fire was over. A few minutes later, that message was taken down. The roadblocks set up by the National Guard were still in place, because of a snafu among higher-ups in command of the fire response.
But almost no one sitting in their cars waiting to return home that Thursday morning knew those details — or cared much about them. The frustration and anticipation among homesick residents was palpable. People wanted to know if they had a home left.
“We’ve all been operating with this high level of anxiety now for four days,” said Annemae Kelleher, sitting in her black Mercedes SUV a few minutes before the Via De Santa Fe checkpoint opened. “You try to temper your frustration with patience, but even the most patient person is tested right now.”
The delay in opening the roadblocks — which was caused by a serious disagreement between the Sheriff’s department, who managed the National Guard presence, and the RSF Fire District, Patrol and Association, who wanted to let residents in — lasted about two hours.
The delay may have put a bad taste in residents’ mouths as they reentered Rancho Santa Fe. But for the owners and residents of 18 homes in the Covenant (and more outside), the ache of a frustrating return was deepened by pain and shock of finding rubble where their home used to be. Save for a chimney and a pile of blackened soot and metal, some found nothing in the place they’d left everything.
One of those was Via Monalex resident John Rikkers. He moved his family to Rancho Santa Fe from New York City two months ago, and they were happy with a newer home they bought overlooking a small canyon. Having evacuated to Laguna Beach, Rikkers heard initially that his home was safe — only to get a call some hours later saying it had been completely destroyed.
“My guess is that they were just so outmanned and unable to summon any other resources in, and everything available was dealing with other things in that area,” Rikkers said. “That canyon looks like the moon right now.”
On the other end of the luck spectrum was a Rancho Del Rio resident named Theresa, who returned to find the exterior of her home burned — just barely — and her yard scorched black. Her neighbor, Scott Jacobs, tore a burning pile of firewood and a flaming deck chair away from her home when he was supposed to be evacuated. Four homes on their street were lost completely to the Witch fire. With a strong arm and a garden hose, Jacobs saved Theresa’s.
“I am so lucky. You do not know how happy I feel,” said Theresa, as she made arrangements Wednesday, Oct. 24, to cook dinner for her neighbor and his family. She and her husband bought the house on July 29, 1969 — the day Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon. “And now it looks like a moonscape,” Theresa chuckled, looking over her pitch-colored yard.
Jacobs, who lives across Rancho Del Rio road from her, had goodwill to spare the day he saved his neighbor’s house. He’d seen television crews reporting from his street while evacuated, though he could see only the burned tops of the palm trees in his front yard. He returned — on his birthday — to find his land blackened, but his house completely unharmed.
“That’s what I got. I got a house for my birthday,” Jacobs chuckled.
Others’ fire returns brought a mix of glee and sadness. Realtor Patrick Galvin returned Oct. 26 to find his own house completely untouched — but his two rental properties completely destroyed.
“I suppose we’re not as emotionally involved, as it’s a rental property,” Galvin said. He estimated the houses’ worth at around $2.5 million each. “But the land is still there.”
And finding his own home intact was a relief. Galvin also had seen news reports from Rancho Santa Fe that described the houses destroyed. When they gave the number of his home, Galvin’s heart sank. “I thought it was ours. I said holy shit – there’s our life gone.” But the house on the news was on Camino Selva, and Galvin lives on Paseo Arbolado.
“It could have been a lot worse,” he said.
Then there was Kevin Arms, who spent much of Thursday reluctantly scraping through the remnants of his rented home on Zumaque. He found fused glass and lots of blackened wood, but the only possessions he uncovered were an old license plate and an antique bicycle, its pedals melted nearly into the single remaining wheel.
“My mom gave that to me,” Arms said softly. “I’ll tell her where to find it.”
RSF residents/officials share their fire experiences
Duncan Hadden, Owner of The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe
The Rancho Santa Fe Fire Dept. saved this town of Rancho Santa Fe. It was on Monday night at 3 a.m. I was the only one in town, in the living room of The Inn keeping an eye on the hotel. They’d evacuated everybody. At 12 o’clock the Santa Ana winds picked up and drove that fire up from Las Colinas and Via De La Valle toward Camino Selva. I was sitting in the living room of The Inn, seeing these flames coming over the tops of the eucalyptus tress in the park— they were that tall — and all the hot embers coming into town. The Fire Department was unbelievably good at putting fire hoses straight in the air to cool the embers down before they came back down and landed all over the front lawn of The Inn and the village. And I would’ve bet every penny in my pocket book that we would’ve lost the town and in The Inn if they hadn’t been down there.
It was just unbelievable watching that. I could not even walk down there, it was too hot and too smoky. I was wearing ski goggles here on the front lawn of The Inn just so I could see. I didn’t dare get closer than here, but you could hear propane tanks exploding from down there, eucalyptus trees exploding from the sap — it was just unbelievable. And it’s hard to get a depth perception at night but then when I found out the next morning it was Camino Selva — that’s incredibly close to the post office and Stump’s. If they hadn’t have stopped it there it would’ve just gone right over into the town.
Irwin Willis, Former RSF Fire Chief
The firefighters did an absolutely phenomenal job of stopping that fire. I went out and looked at places that they stopped the fire and I don’t know how they did it. I was in the fire service for 33 years and I have no idea how they were able to stop the fire like they did. My predictions were that the fire wouldn’t get stopped and that it would just continue basically to Solana Beach and the pacific.
What I was never able to really get people to believe is that it can happen here, it can happen to them. I really think it’s a human defense mechanism that we have this built-in belief — ‘It won’t happen to me. I’m not going to be the person to get into a car accident. I’m not going to get hit by a drunk driver. My house isn’t going to burn down.’ So [people] don’t take the precautions [they] could take to save their homes. But if people would replace their shake roofs, look at the vegetation around their homes and get rid of the highly flammable stuff, they could make their homes 10 times more fire safe than they are today.
Rev. Jack Baca, Pastor, RSF Village Presbyterian Church
We were checking out the church and saw that the fire crews were parking in the lot of the church, which was great. There’s not that many places to park in Rancho Santa Fe. The crews were kind of laying around on the grass trying to get some rest and all, so at that point we said hey, this is crazy. So we got out and stopped and invited the guys to come into our fellowship center. We’ve got restrooms and showers. They were extremely appreciative of the showers especially. That really got them excited. Some of the crews had been up for 48 hours at that point.
We started cooking in the kitchen and bringing in sodas and Visine and Advil and hamburgers as well as cots — 40 cots and air mattresses. And the fire crews just started coming through. If they had a few hours off they’d come in and we’d feed them and give them a place to sleep and a shower and just a place to be. That basically just kind of escalated. We had a supply chain going, and the guys at the Rancho fire department and the Patrol and the Sheriff’s department were all extremely helpful in helping us arrange to get the stuff in here and have a few people here. So we just kind of kept that going.
Jim Ashcraft, RSF Fire District Director
There were some extraordinary efforts. The firefighters of Rancho Santa Fe — and I mean out entire district — they worked 60 straight hours. It’s beyond anything that I’ve ever witnessed as a personal commitment to an area, and I don’t mean just the Covenant. I’ve talked to neighbors at the Summit, at Fairbanks, 4S Ranch —it’s just unbelievable what’s occurred.
Every home in the Covenant was in danger, particularly Tuesday morning at 3 o’clock. At that point I thought that probably my house was gone. I figured that there was a good chance it would go through the Covenant and through Solana Beach.
Probably the one where our odds were the worst — and I don’t know which fire group was involved — was the battle of Fairbanks Ranch. Monday night the feeling was we’d lost 15 houses at Fairbanks because the Lazardi creek area and San Dieguito river – those two were filled with fire and they were coming at high velocity, and we figured we’d lost 15 houses. We lost [two]. Four were damaged. It was extraordinary. I don’t know how many groups were there – probably 3,4,5 trucks at the most. We needed 15. But they did it.
John Rikkers, Rancho Santa Fe Covenant Resident (Via Monalex)
We then got a call from the previous owners who’re on the East Coast right now, who had heard from someone that one house had burned on the cul de sac, but that it wasn’t ours. But then within a couple of hours my wife gets the call on her cell phone and she knew the moment she saw his name on the ID that they only reason he would’ve been calling was to say no, in fact it was.
Then we began calling the fire department, the RSF Patrol, the whole thing and we obviously weren’t getting through. But we did get a call back from someone at the Patrol who just left a nice message on my cell phone just saying, ‘Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but your house has been destroyed. But that’s all he said. He didn’t say ‘Call me back if you have any further questions,’ or anything like that. So there was just this sense of HUH?
Nick Pavone, RSF Fire District Chief
The fire moved so quickly through [drainages] that it burned the lower portions of the vegetation, right along the surface. It didn’t even get into some of the trees. If you go along Del Dios Highway and you look in the river bottom there, you’ll see where some of those trees are still green at the top. The fire moved so fast, with such a rapid spread because of the wind, that it basically burned everything at the surface and hardly got into the tree areas.
We definitely had the potential [to lose the village]. There’s no doubt about that. But we were able to prevent it from getting into that core area of the village and the Ranch. If you look at El Vuelo, Las Colinas, El Mirador, we took some pretty substantial hits there. If we would not have been able to keep it confined to that area and it would’ve started to move a little bit north and west, then that would’ve probably created a situation where it would have probably run through the rest of the Ranch.
Dave Abrams, Fairbanks Ranch General Manager
There were two Fairbanks homes lost — anybody can figure more or less what that would be. The rest of the problems in the community were basically wind-damaged trees uprooted themselves and snapped off, created a fair amount of damage. Most of the severe fire damage occurred Monday night. [Residents] would certainly call [with questions] and we’d answer as best as we could, although we didn’t know that much either — it was just whatever the public authorities would tell us and what we learned ourselves off the TV, radio, etc. It was very frustrating because people were anxious to get home, and they couldn’t, and so that created some raw nerves. But they’re back in now, trying to pick up the pieces.
Al Frowiss, Hacienda Santa Fe
Just before I left on Monday, I took a quick tour through the neighborhood. One of the palm trees was on fire in our neighborhood and I turned around and got on my cell phone to call 9-1-1 and couldn’t get through to the fire dept. But about a half a block away was a fire truck coming my way, so I flagged him down and told him about the tree that was on fire. Other than that I’m seeing fires across the street over on the Sahm property as I was leaving. Everybody went different places — some people were in Orange County and so on. I basically kept our neighborhood up to date through group e-mails. Ninety percent of all residents are on my e-mail list, and I was able to keep people informed. We lucked out — it looks like so far, anyway. We never saw [Hacienda Santa Fe] mentioned and thank goodness.
Robert Barron, City of Del Mar firefighter.
“It was amazing. We started at the Wild Animal Park area. We got diverted to Coronado Hills fire, in San Marcos, a spot fire from Witch fire, a 300-acre fire. We got it out fast. Then we were diverted to the Witch fire, to the south end, we started in Del Dios. Power lines were down, so we went around to Cielo, started fighting the fire in Cielo, working down Del Dios through Rancho Santa Fe, to Fairbanks Ranch. I went out Sunday afternoon and got back Thursday. It was constant. The longest rest we had was six hours of sleep, before that we got two hours. We were exhausted. We were on a type-one engine, focused on structure protection. We had to move. Pull up to a structure, if we can save it, put out the fire and brush around it, pick up our hoses, find a fire hydrant, fill up our tank, and go to next house. That’s what we did, over and over. Five of us in a strike team. Most of the time we were in the midst of flame. We actually saved all of the houses we protected and we only lost one outbuilding in Rancho Santa Fe. We saved about 20, a little over 20, in Rancho Santa Fe, the yards are so big, it takes a lot more time. It definitely feels pretty good, at least 20 homes, probably more. It was like standing on top of a chimney, with firebrands and embers flying past your face. You really don’t have time to think about (being in danger). You know what your job is... you really don’t think about your health or safety. There is so much you need to do. Your mind is constantly racing on what you have to do in that particular moment and where you’re going next. (There are) tons of adrenaline. You’re basically relying on your training. You don’t have time to think. You just act.”
Bruce Pollett, San Diego firefighter, based at Station 24 on Del Mar Heights Road.
“We wanted to say thank you to our community for thinking of us and taking care of us. It’s just awesome. We haven’t been able to cook for ourselves. They brought food. We have more cookies than we could eat in two lifetimes. They thank us as we’re out and about. The community, the outpouring of support, there are people that lost everything and they’re still saying thanks for everything we’ve done. I’ve been to the Guejita fire in Escondido, I was on the Cedar fire. This was a bigger one. This was huge. It was so fast-moving… We’ve given some stuff to people. One guy today showed up, they drove from Austin, Texas. They had collected stuff, their car was packed up with toiletries and bags of dog food. They were trying to give it to us, we sent them to the fairgrounds. We gave them a bunch of cookies and cakes to bring to people. We want to say thanks to everyone. Little girls came with a nice sign and music CDs, Queen and AC-DC. They had obviously taken a lot of time and effort to make us something to say thank you. We just wanted to say thanks to the community. We see this as the job we are paid to do. We’re not jumping over tall buildings in a single bound, we’re just trying to do the best we can. There were times when we couldn’t stop the fire, buildings burned to the ground, we wish we could have done more.”
Mark Conley, horse trainer and owner of Concord Equestrian Center at the Del Mar Horsepark.
“I helped, volunteered at the race track Monday morning, about 7 a.m., I helped unload horses. The animals were freaked, and the owners were on edge, from the smoke, and it was so early in morning. It was extremely busy. It went fairly well, 2,000 horses were evacuated to the race track. My house was being evacuated, I live in Del Mar Heights. Several horse trainers stayed at the horse park all night long. We were concerned Monday afternoon. The horse park had 700 horses, it would be tough to move them. There are a lot of eucalyptus and palm trees, our worry was if those started catching fire and there was a high wind, it would just run down the river bed. (If the fire came) we figured we would let (the horses) out to the reserve. It was our last resort. We would calmly lead them out to the open area and have people be with them, in the dirt. We had set out drums of water and hay for them. That was the fallback plan. To move 700 horses under a panic situation, where are you going to put them? I was giving it a 15 percent chance we were going to have to do this. We were up, cat-napping in vehicles.
I kept driving back as far as possible, at 3:30 a.m., at the backside of Fairbanks, I could see the fire, and I was talking to police. The wind was calm near the horse park, but at the fire it was blowing hard. We just kept checking on it and kept a cool head… by early Tuesday, the firefighters had done such a great job beating the fire back in Rancho Santa Fe and Fairbanks, we were 100 percent confident we were not going to have to evacuate. I’ve been in tornadoes, I’ve been in hurricanes, I’ve been in floods…. All I have to do now is be in an earthquake and a tsunami, neither one do I want to be in. I don’t want any more natural disasters, thank you. As far as I know, no horses have lost their lives, that I know.”
—Compiled by Ian S. Port and Joe Tash
The Rancho Santa Fe Fire Dept. saved this town of Rancho Santa Fe. It was on Monday night at 3 a.m. I was the only one in town, in the living room of The Inn keeping an eye on the hotel. They’d evacuated everybody. At 12 o’clock the Santa Ana winds picked up and drove that fire up from Las Colinas and Via De La Valle toward Camino Selva. I was sitting in the living room of The Inn, seeing these flames coming over the tops of the eucalyptus tress in the park— they were that tall — and all the hot embers coming into town. The Fire Department was unbelievably good at putting fire hoses straight in the air to cool the embers down before they came back down and landed all over the front lawn of The Inn and the village. And I would’ve bet every penny in my pocket book that we would’ve lost the town and in The Inn if they hadn’t been down there.
It was just unbelievable watching that. I could not even walk down there, it was too hot and too smoky. I was wearing ski goggles here on the front lawn of The Inn just so I could see. I didn’t dare get closer than here, but you could hear propane tanks exploding from down there, eucalyptus trees exploding from the sap — it was just unbelievable. And it’s hard to get a depth perception at night but then when I found out the next morning it was Camino Selva — that’s incredibly close to the post office and Stump’s. If they hadn’t have stopped it there it would’ve just gone right over into the town.
Irwin Willis, Former RSF Fire Chief
The firefighters did an absolutely phenomenal job of stopping that fire. I went out and looked at places that they stopped the fire and I don’t know how they did it. I was in the fire service for 33 years and I have no idea how they were able to stop the fire like they did. My predictions were that the fire wouldn’t get stopped and that it would just continue basically to Solana Beach and the pacific.
What I was never able to really get people to believe is that it can happen here, it can happen to them. I really think it’s a human defense mechanism that we have this built-in belief — ‘It won’t happen to me. I’m not going to be the person to get into a car accident. I’m not going to get hit by a drunk driver. My house isn’t going to burn down.’ So [people] don’t take the precautions [they] could take to save their homes. But if people would replace their shake roofs, look at the vegetation around their homes and get rid of the highly flammable stuff, they could make their homes 10 times more fire safe than they are today.
Rev. Jack Baca, Pastor, RSF Village Presbyterian Church
We were checking out the church and saw that the fire crews were parking in the lot of the church, which was great. There’s not that many places to park in Rancho Santa Fe. The crews were kind of laying around on the grass trying to get some rest and all, so at that point we said hey, this is crazy. So we got out and stopped and invited the guys to come into our fellowship center. We’ve got restrooms and showers. They were extremely appreciative of the showers especially. That really got them excited. Some of the crews had been up for 48 hours at that point.
We started cooking in the kitchen and bringing in sodas and Visine and Advil and hamburgers as well as cots — 40 cots and air mattresses. And the fire crews just started coming through. If they had a few hours off they’d come in and we’d feed them and give them a place to sleep and a shower and just a place to be. That basically just kind of escalated. We had a supply chain going, and the guys at the Rancho fire department and the Patrol and the Sheriff’s department were all extremely helpful in helping us arrange to get the stuff in here and have a few people here. So we just kind of kept that going.
Jim Ashcraft, RSF Fire District Director
There were some extraordinary efforts. The firefighters of Rancho Santa Fe — and I mean out entire district — they worked 60 straight hours. It’s beyond anything that I’ve ever witnessed as a personal commitment to an area, and I don’t mean just the Covenant. I’ve talked to neighbors at the Summit, at Fairbanks, 4S Ranch —it’s just unbelievable what’s occurred.
Every home in the Covenant was in danger, particularly Tuesday morning at 3 o’clock. At that point I thought that probably my house was gone. I figured that there was a good chance it would go through the Covenant and through Solana Beach.
Probably the one where our odds were the worst — and I don’t know which fire group was involved — was the battle of Fairbanks Ranch. Monday night the feeling was we’d lost 15 houses at Fairbanks because the Lazardi creek area and San Dieguito river – those two were filled with fire and they were coming at high velocity, and we figured we’d lost 15 houses. We lost [two]. Four were damaged. It was extraordinary. I don’t know how many groups were there – probably 3,4,5 trucks at the most. We needed 15. But they did it.
John Rikkers, Rancho Santa Fe Covenant Resident (Via Monalex)
We then got a call from the previous owners who’re on the East Coast right now, who had heard from someone that one house had burned on the cul de sac, but that it wasn’t ours. But then within a couple of hours my wife gets the call on her cell phone and she knew the moment she saw his name on the ID that they only reason he would’ve been calling was to say no, in fact it was.
Then we began calling the fire department, the RSF Patrol, the whole thing and we obviously weren’t getting through. But we did get a call back from someone at the Patrol who just left a nice message on my cell phone just saying, ‘Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but your house has been destroyed. But that’s all he said. He didn’t say ‘Call me back if you have any further questions,’ or anything like that. So there was just this sense of HUH?
Nick Pavone, RSF Fire District Chief
The fire moved so quickly through [drainages] that it burned the lower portions of the vegetation, right along the surface. It didn’t even get into some of the trees. If you go along Del Dios Highway and you look in the river bottom there, you’ll see where some of those trees are still green at the top. The fire moved so fast, with such a rapid spread because of the wind, that it basically burned everything at the surface and hardly got into the tree areas.
We definitely had the potential [to lose the village]. There’s no doubt about that. But we were able to prevent it from getting into that core area of the village and the Ranch. If you look at El Vuelo, Las Colinas, El Mirador, we took some pretty substantial hits there. If we would not have been able to keep it confined to that area and it would’ve started to move a little bit north and west, then that would’ve probably created a situation where it would have probably run through the rest of the Ranch.
Dave Abrams, Fairbanks Ranch General Manager
There were two Fairbanks homes lost — anybody can figure more or less what that would be. The rest of the problems in the community were basically wind-damaged trees uprooted themselves and snapped off, created a fair amount of damage. Most of the severe fire damage occurred Monday night. [Residents] would certainly call [with questions] and we’d answer as best as we could, although we didn’t know that much either — it was just whatever the public authorities would tell us and what we learned ourselves off the TV, radio, etc. It was very frustrating because people were anxious to get home, and they couldn’t, and so that created some raw nerves. But they’re back in now, trying to pick up the pieces.
Al Frowiss, Hacienda Santa Fe
Just before I left on Monday, I took a quick tour through the neighborhood. One of the palm trees was on fire in our neighborhood and I turned around and got on my cell phone to call 9-1-1 and couldn’t get through to the fire dept. But about a half a block away was a fire truck coming my way, so I flagged him down and told him about the tree that was on fire. Other than that I’m seeing fires across the street over on the Sahm property as I was leaving. Everybody went different places — some people were in Orange County and so on. I basically kept our neighborhood up to date through group e-mails. Ninety percent of all residents are on my e-mail list, and I was able to keep people informed. We lucked out — it looks like so far, anyway. We never saw [Hacienda Santa Fe] mentioned and thank goodness.
Robert Barron, City of Del Mar firefighter.
“It was amazing. We started at the Wild Animal Park area. We got diverted to Coronado Hills fire, in San Marcos, a spot fire from Witch fire, a 300-acre fire. We got it out fast. Then we were diverted to the Witch fire, to the south end, we started in Del Dios. Power lines were down, so we went around to Cielo, started fighting the fire in Cielo, working down Del Dios through Rancho Santa Fe, to Fairbanks Ranch. I went out Sunday afternoon and got back Thursday. It was constant. The longest rest we had was six hours of sleep, before that we got two hours. We were exhausted. We were on a type-one engine, focused on structure protection. We had to move. Pull up to a structure, if we can save it, put out the fire and brush around it, pick up our hoses, find a fire hydrant, fill up our tank, and go to next house. That’s what we did, over and over. Five of us in a strike team. Most of the time we were in the midst of flame. We actually saved all of the houses we protected and we only lost one outbuilding in Rancho Santa Fe. We saved about 20, a little over 20, in Rancho Santa Fe, the yards are so big, it takes a lot more time. It definitely feels pretty good, at least 20 homes, probably more. It was like standing on top of a chimney, with firebrands and embers flying past your face. You really don’t have time to think about (being in danger). You know what your job is... you really don’t think about your health or safety. There is so much you need to do. Your mind is constantly racing on what you have to do in that particular moment and where you’re going next. (There are) tons of adrenaline. You’re basically relying on your training. You don’t have time to think. You just act.”
Bruce Pollett, San Diego firefighter, based at Station 24 on Del Mar Heights Road.
“We wanted to say thank you to our community for thinking of us and taking care of us. It’s just awesome. We haven’t been able to cook for ourselves. They brought food. We have more cookies than we could eat in two lifetimes. They thank us as we’re out and about. The community, the outpouring of support, there are people that lost everything and they’re still saying thanks for everything we’ve done. I’ve been to the Guejita fire in Escondido, I was on the Cedar fire. This was a bigger one. This was huge. It was so fast-moving… We’ve given some stuff to people. One guy today showed up, they drove from Austin, Texas. They had collected stuff, their car was packed up with toiletries and bags of dog food. They were trying to give it to us, we sent them to the fairgrounds. We gave them a bunch of cookies and cakes to bring to people. We want to say thanks to everyone. Little girls came with a nice sign and music CDs, Queen and AC-DC. They had obviously taken a lot of time and effort to make us something to say thank you. We just wanted to say thanks to the community. We see this as the job we are paid to do. We’re not jumping over tall buildings in a single bound, we’re just trying to do the best we can. There were times when we couldn’t stop the fire, buildings burned to the ground, we wish we could have done more.”
Mark Conley, horse trainer and owner of Concord Equestrian Center at the Del Mar Horsepark.
“I helped, volunteered at the race track Monday morning, about 7 a.m., I helped unload horses. The animals were freaked, and the owners were on edge, from the smoke, and it was so early in morning. It was extremely busy. It went fairly well, 2,000 horses were evacuated to the race track. My house was being evacuated, I live in Del Mar Heights. Several horse trainers stayed at the horse park all night long. We were concerned Monday afternoon. The horse park had 700 horses, it would be tough to move them. There are a lot of eucalyptus and palm trees, our worry was if those started catching fire and there was a high wind, it would just run down the river bed. (If the fire came) we figured we would let (the horses) out to the reserve. It was our last resort. We would calmly lead them out to the open area and have people be with them, in the dirt. We had set out drums of water and hay for them. That was the fallback plan. To move 700 horses under a panic situation, where are you going to put them? I was giving it a 15 percent chance we were going to have to do this. We were up, cat-napping in vehicles.
I kept driving back as far as possible, at 3:30 a.m., at the backside of Fairbanks, I could see the fire, and I was talking to police. The wind was calm near the horse park, but at the fire it was blowing hard. We just kept checking on it and kept a cool head… by early Tuesday, the firefighters had done such a great job beating the fire back in Rancho Santa Fe and Fairbanks, we were 100 percent confident we were not going to have to evacuate. I’ve been in tornadoes, I’ve been in hurricanes, I’ve been in floods…. All I have to do now is be in an earthquake and a tsunami, neither one do I want to be in. I don’t want any more natural disasters, thank you. As far as I know, no horses have lost their lives, that I know.”
—Compiled by Ian S. Port and Joe Tash
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
RSF Review, RSF Foundation, and other community organizations join forces to help fire victims
To assist local fire victims recover, the RSF Review has teamed with the Rancho Santa Fe Foundation and several other community organizations, including Kids Korps, RSF School, RSF Community Center, the Village Church, RSF Rotary Club, RSF Association and NeighborHelp. This effort is being coordinated through the RSF Foundation, which has several options in place for donors who wish to provide funding for effective, focused assistance to the victims. This drive is designed to reduce duplication of effort, make the most efficient use of resources, and provide immediate assistance to those most in need.
To find out how you can help or make donations, visit www.rsffoundation.org.
To find out how you can help or make donations, visit www.rsffoundation.org.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Focusing on the Heart of the Community
The Rancho Santa Fe Community Center is deeply saddened by the destruction and damage of homes in the Rancho Santa Fe community this past week due to the Witch Creek Fire. We wish to extend our condolences to our many friends, neighbors, supporters and members who have lost everything.
In response to this sad development in our community, the Rancho Santa Fe Community Center is assisting relief services headed up by the RSF Foundation and other local organizations, including the RSF Presbyterian Village Church. In addition, the Community Center is also coordinating a "Child to Child" drive to assist the children of our community whose homes have been destroyed. (All of the most current information is available on our website at
The Community Center is still closed as of Friday, October 26. Currently, members of the staff are performing a thorough cleaning that meets state standards in order to mitigate the environmental impact of ash and smoke. This is an important step in providing an environmentally safe place for the children to return to as of Monday, October 29.
As of Friday, October 26 at 2 pm, the Rancho Santa Fe School District is tentatively planning to open on Monday. The Solana Beach School District had yet not decided whether they were resuming classes on Monday.
If for some reason, the schools are not open on Monday, the Community Center will be offering child care from 9 am to 5 pm, which will be FREE OF CHARGE to our members. If the schools resume their normal scheduling, the Center will begin providing our planned Fall Session II classes as scheduled on Monday, October 29. Members can continue to sign up for classes throughout the first week of the session, and no programs will be cancelled during this time. Please note that all outdoor activities in the next few weeks will be curtailed in response to air quality standards.
Also the Community Center will be offering FREE after-school programs for our members who are victims of the fire in Rancho Santa Fe. Please contact Lori Brockett, our Executive Director, at 756-2461 or by email at lbrockett@rsfcc.org for information on receiving this service. In order for the Center to provide adequate staffing to provide our members with these importance services, please contact the Center at 858-756-2461.
The Rancho Santa Fe Community Center is also assisting the RSF Foundation in its mission to supply monetary donations and relief services to victims of the fire. The Center along with such community organizations such as the RSF Review, Kids Korps, the RSF School and the Village Church are coordinating their efforts through the RSF Foundation. Please go to the RSF Foundation website at www.rsffoundation.org for more information on the services that are being provided and how you can help.
In addition, at the bequest of one of our members, Lori Cooper, the Rancho Santa Fe Community Center will be coordinating a "Child to Child" Drive. "My heart went to the children that do not understand what is happening," Lori Cooper said in an email she sent this week. "I'd like to start a 'Child to Child' drive for our families in RSF that have lost their homes or are displaced at this time."
"The drive will collect toys and/or other items of comfort to help the children through the immediate crisis. The idea is to have our children give of themselves, by choosing one of their own toys or items they believe would be special to a child going through this crisis. These items will then be given to their friends and neighbors with an attached note written by our children. If they could do this when they return home we will put together items in age groups and distribute to the community." The Rancho Santa Fe Community Center will be the drop off point for this "Child to Child" Drive, beginning on Monday, October 29. An end date for the drive will be announced later.
The Rancho Santa Fe Community Center is committed to providing whatever aid and assistance we can for our friends and neighbors in this community during this time of crisis. The outside bulletin board of the RSF Community Center will be made available for the community to post information as it relates to the fire relief and information. Please stop by the Community Center office at 5970 La Sendita with notices or information you wish to post.
In response to this sad development in our community, the Rancho Santa Fe Community Center is assisting relief services headed up by the RSF Foundation and other local organizations, including the RSF Presbyterian Village Church. In addition, the Community Center is also coordinating a "Child to Child" drive to assist the children of our community whose homes have been destroyed. (All of the most current information is available on our website at
The Community Center is still closed as of Friday, October 26. Currently, members of the staff are performing a thorough cleaning that meets state standards in order to mitigate the environmental impact of ash and smoke. This is an important step in providing an environmentally safe place for the children to return to as of Monday, October 29.
As of Friday, October 26 at 2 pm, the Rancho Santa Fe School District is tentatively planning to open on Monday. The Solana Beach School District had yet not decided whether they were resuming classes on Monday.
If for some reason, the schools are not open on Monday, the Community Center will be offering child care from 9 am to 5 pm, which will be FREE OF CHARGE to our members. If the schools resume their normal scheduling, the Center will begin providing our planned Fall Session II classes as scheduled on Monday, October 29. Members can continue to sign up for classes throughout the first week of the session, and no programs will be cancelled during this time. Please note that all outdoor activities in the next few weeks will be curtailed in response to air quality standards.
Also the Community Center will be offering FREE after-school programs for our members who are victims of the fire in Rancho Santa Fe. Please contact Lori Brockett, our Executive Director, at 756-2461 or by email at lbrockett@rsfcc.or
The Rancho Santa Fe Community Center is also assisting the RSF Foundation in its mission to supply monetary donations and relief services to victims of the fire. The Center along with such community organizations such as the RSF Review, Kids Korps, the RSF School and the Village Church are coordinating their efforts through the RSF Foundation. Please go to the RSF Foundation website at www.rsffoundation.org for more information on the services that are being provided and how you can help.
In addition, at the bequest of one of our members, Lori Cooper, the Rancho Santa Fe Community Center will be coordinating a "Child to Child" Drive. "My heart went to the children that do not understand what is happening," Lori Cooper said in an email she sent this week. "I'd like to start a 'Child to Child' drive for our families in RSF that have lost their homes or are displaced at this time."
"The drive will collect toys and/or other items of comfort to help the children through the immediate crisis. The idea is to have our children give of themselves, by choosing one of their own toys or items they believe would be special to a child going through this crisis. These items will then be given to their friends and neighbors with an attached note written by our children. If they could do this when they return home we will put together items in age groups and distribute to the community." The Rancho Santa Fe Community Center will be the drop off point for this "Child to Child" Drive, beginning on Monday, October 29. An end date for the drive will be announced later.
The Rancho Santa Fe Community Center is committed to providing whatever aid and assistance we can for our friends and neighbors in this community during this time of crisis. The outside bulletin board of the RSF Community Center will be made available for the community to post information as it relates to the fire relief and information. Please stop by the Community Center office at 5970 La Sendita with notices or information you wish to post.
Boil Water Order issued for Del Dios Mutual Water Company
A Boil Water Order has been issued for the community of Del Dios, affecting approximately 151 customers.
Due to the fires, this public water system lost pressure in the water distribution system. The Boil Water Order will remain in effect until the distribution system has been disinfected and samples confirm the absence of bacteria in the water supply.
For more information on the Boil Water Order, please contact Darrell Connelly, at (760) 745-7869.
Due to the fires, this public water system lost pressure in the water distribution system. The Boil Water Order will remain in effect until the distribution system has been disinfected and samples confirm the absence of bacteria in the water supply.
For more information on the Boil Water Order, please contact Darrell Connelly, at (760) 745-7869.
Del Mar Fairgrounds becomes Red Cross Shelter today
Qualcomm Stadium will be ceasing its operation today at noon. Evacuees at the stadium are requested to move to the Del Mar Fairgrounds shelter. Other Red Cross shelters continue to receive evacuees as well.
These facilities will remain open as long as there is a need. Residents will be provided a safe place to stay, meals and snacks, and basic health services at these locations. Additional shelters are being opened and operated by municipal and partner organizations. Residents in the potential path of fire should monitor local media for the latest information about services, or call 211.
Residents are urged to place their household pets in carriers or crates plus supplies such as food and leashes if they are brought to Red Cross shelters. Bring all necessary daily medications, supplies for your children, and any other critically needed items for the next 24 to 72 hours with you to the shelter.
Residents with large animals are instructed to contact the Del Mar Fairgrounds at 858-509-5245 to find out if there is room to house the animals. Another option for large animals is the Lakeside Rodeo Grounds, located at Highway 67 and Mapleview Street.
If you would like to volunteer or donate items for fire victims, please contact the following organizations:
American Red Cross to replenish supplies at www.sdarc.org
Community Resource Center at 760-753-1156
Volunteer San Diego at 858-636-4131
At this time, the Fairgrounds and the American Red Cross shelter do not need volunteers or donations of supplies for the evacuees.
The Del Mar Fairgrounds appreciate the volunteer care and support through this difficult time for San Diego County residents.
The 22nd District Agricultural Association is a State of California agency that falls under the Department of Food and Agriculture and oversees operations at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. For more information, visit www.sdfair.com
These facilities will remain open as long as there is a need. Residents will be provided a safe place to stay, meals and snacks, and basic health services at these locations. Additional shelters are being opened and operated by municipal and partner organizations. Residents in the potential path of fire should monitor local media for the latest information about services, or call 211.
Residents are urged to place their household pets in carriers or crates plus supplies such as food and leashes if they are brought to Red Cross shelters. Bring all necessary daily medications, supplies for your children, and any other critically needed items for the next 24 to 72 hours with you to the shelter.
Residents with large animals are instructed to contact the Del Mar Fairgrounds at 858-509-5245 to find out if there is room to house the animals. Another option for large animals is the Lakeside Rodeo Grounds, located at Highway 67 and Mapleview Street.
If you would like to volunteer or donate items for fire victims, please contact the following organizations:
American Red Cross to replenish supplies at www.sdarc.org
Community Resource Center at 760-753-1156
Volunteer San Diego at 858-636-4131
At this time, the Fairgrounds and the American Red Cross shelter do not need volunteers or donations of supplies for the evacuees.
The Del Mar Fairgrounds appreciate the volunteer care and support through this difficult time for San Diego County residents.
The 22nd District Agricultural Association is a State of California agency that falls under the Department of Food and Agriculture and oversees operations at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. For more information, visit www.sdfair.com
Bridal Bazaar ticket proceeds to be donated to Red Cross
Since many brides rely on the Bridal Bazaar to plan their weddings and many San Diego area companies depend on the show to meet engaged couples and book business, the Bridal Bazaar will go on as scheduled this Sunday at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. All ticket proceeds will be donated to the Red Cross, giving attendees the opportunity to plan their weddings and help their neighbors who have been affected by the fires and evacuations.
In one day and one place, San Diego area couples can meet top wedding professionals specializing in making weddings meaningful and memorable. The show will take place in the Exhibit Hall at the Del Mar Fairgrounds Sunday, October 28, 2007 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $10. Tickets and discount coupons are available at www.BridalBazaar.com
In one day and one place, San Diego area couples can meet top wedding professionals specializing in making weddings meaningful and memorable. The show will take place in the Exhibit Hall at the Del Mar Fairgrounds Sunday, October 28, 2007 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $10. Tickets and discount coupons are available at www.BridalBazaar.com
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Kids Korps USA joins relief effort for victims
Kids Korps USA, San Diego’s leading resource for youth volunteerism, has joined efforts to help victims of this week’s wildfires.
Key relief initiatives include the following:
• Purchasing and assembling toiletry kits for displaced men, women, and children
• Assembling care packages and thank you cards for our firefighting heroes
•Coordinating Halloween parties and costume donations for child evacuees
• Assembling Thanksgiving care packages and gift cards for displaced families
Kids Korps’ members are asked to write thank you cards for our heroes, firefighters, military, National Guard, and volunteers who are on the front lines.
Kids Korps supports the following organizations that are involved in the relief efforts: American Red Cross, San Diego Food Bank, North County Food Bank, Angel’s Depot, Bread of Life, St. Vincent de Paul, San Diego Rescue Mission, Interfaith Community Services, Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, Encinitas Community Resource Center, Habitat For Humanity, Senior Community Center, Helen Woodward Animal Center, San Diego Humane Society.
For more information on Kids Korps’ relief efforts and how you can support the community, contact the Kids Korps USA office at (858) 259-3602 or visit our website at www.kidskorps.org
Key relief initiatives include the following:
• Purchasing and assembling toiletry kits for displaced men, women, and children
• Assembling care packages and thank you cards for our firefighting heroes
•Coordinating Halloween parties and costume donations for child evacuees
• Assembling Thanksgiving care packages and gift cards for displaced families
Kids Korps’ members are asked to write thank you cards for our heroes, firefighters, military, National Guard, and volunteers who are on the front lines.
Kids Korps supports the following organizations that are involved in the relief efforts: American Red Cross, San Diego Food Bank, North County Food Bank, Angel’s Depot, Bread of Life, St. Vincent de Paul, San Diego Rescue Mission, Interfaith Community Services, Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, Encinitas Community Resource Center, Habitat For Humanity, Senior Community Center, Helen Woodward Animal Center, San Diego Humane Society.
For more information on Kids Korps’ relief efforts and how you can support the community, contact the Kids Korps USA office at (858) 259-3602 or visit our website at www.kidskorps.org
Missing horses? Contact RSF Polo Club
San Diego Polo Club wishes to thank all those people in the community who came in this drastic time of need with donations of hay, apples, sunscreen, manpower, food for the staff, and overall support and good wishes.
The Club grounds offered shelter for over 500 horses from around the community. The regular polo season just came to an end September 30th, allowing for plenty of stall space for the refugees of the fire.
Around 11:00 a.m. this morning, the SDPC office received news that parts of Rancho Santa Fe and other outlying areas, were opening back up for people and their animals to return home.
Dozens of the horses were heading home today after four days of camping out here at the San Diego Polo Club. There are still over 100 horses here at the Club, many without owners.
If you are missing horses, or know people who are missing animals, please give Madeleine or Heather a call in the office at 858-481-9217.
The Club and staff extend warm wishes to all those who have suffered in this tragedy.
The Club grounds offered shelter for over 500 horses from around the community. The regular polo season just came to an end September 30th, allowing for plenty of stall space for the refugees of the fire.
Around 11:00 a.m. this morning, the SDPC office received news that parts of Rancho Santa Fe and other outlying areas, were opening back up for people and their animals to return home.
Dozens of the horses were heading home today after four days of camping out here at the San Diego Polo Club. There are still over 100 horses here at the Club, many without owners.
If you are missing horses, or know people who are missing animals, please give Madeleine or Heather a call in the office at 858-481-9217.
The Club and staff extend warm wishes to all those who have suffered in this tragedy.
Lines Moving Into Rancho Santa Fe
We've received word from a Review photographer that the line of cars on Lomas Santa Fe was moving into the Ranch as of 11:30 a.m. It looks like people are finally being let back in.
Of course we'll be covering the return of residents throughout the afternoon.
Of course we'll be covering the return of residents throughout the afternoon.
Final Reopening Approvals Obtained, 5-10 Min. Until Open, Smith Says
Pete Smith said the Fire District has obtained the final approvals to reopen Rancho Santa Fe and that the area would be open in five to ten minutes. The final few minutes will be spent arranging interior checkpoints: Only residents will be allowed to enter the burned areas on the Southeast side of the Covenant.
Julie Taber also just phoned and said it will be open at 11:30 a.m.
Julie Taber also just phoned and said it will be open at 11:30 a.m.
Pete Smith: Association Doesn't Support Keeping Members Out
Just got off the phone with Pete Smith, who says the powers that be above the Sheriff's Dept. aren't lifting the evacuation orders for Rancho Santa Fe. Smith said the lower levels of the Dept. were OK with it, but some commanders in the system had not signed off yet. He would not say when he thought the orders might be lifted.
"The Association and the Patrol, we were comfortable letting people in yesterday," Smith said. "The Fire District concurred this morning — from a fire standpoint they were OK with it. We still as of right now have not gotten the Sheriff or whatever their authority above them is to open or take down the checkpoint. We had told them that as of 9 am this morning that the Association is no longer going to provide support for checkpoint activities that were keeping members out of our community."
He also stressed that the Sherrif's Department and the National Guard had done an "unbelievable" job of proving support during the wildfire crisis.
"I couldn't begin to state when it would be over," Smith said of the evacuation. "What we don't support right now is the position of keeping our members out of our community."
"The Association and the Patrol, we were comfortable letting people in yesterday," Smith said. "The Fire District concurred this morning — from a fire standpoint they were OK with it. We still as of right now have not gotten the Sheriff or whatever their authority above them is to open or take down the checkpoint. We had told them that as of 9 am this morning that the Association is no longer going to provide support for checkpoint activities that were keeping members out of our community."
He also stressed that the Sherrif's Department and the National Guard had done an "unbelievable" job of proving support during the wildfire crisis.
"I couldn't begin to state when it would be over," Smith said of the evacuation. "What we don't support right now is the position of keeping our members out of our community."
Addario: Sheriff's Dept. Is Delaying Rancho Opening
We caught up with RSFA Board President Marie Addario as she was convincing the National Guard to let her into the Ranch at the intersection of Via De Santa Fe and Calzada Del Bosque. Though she got in, Addario was clearly frustrated that members were being kept out after the Fire District had called off the evacuations on its website — a call that has since been taken off the web. She said that the Fire District had declared it all clear, but the Sherriff's Dept. was constraining things.
There was a line of at least 40 cars at Via De Santa Fe and Calzada waiting to get home. But the National Guard was still holding the intersection closed.
"All the other communities are in," Addario said. "It's time to get our members in."
Please be patient
We are publishing information as fast as authorities can give it to us--they did say RSF was open but, as is usual with any situation of this magnitude, delays do arise. They are now saying it may be about 20-30 minutes so please be aware it is opening but you may have to wait a little bit. Authorities are just trying to make this as SAFE a process as possible for everyone.
Ranch To Open In 20-30 Min., Taber Says
Rancho Santa Fe will likely be open to residents in 20 to 30 minutes, according to FD Spokesperson Julie Taber.
We reported a few minutes ago that the evacuation orders had been lifted, but heard from residents that the National Guard was still keeping people out of the RSF Covenant. As of this moment, it IS NOT open to residents.
Taber said, however, that it will be shortly. The various authorities involved are working out details of their repopulation scheme and as soon as that's done, Taber said, residents will be let back in. Her guess was that it would be less than half an hour.
We will of course post word as soon as people are actually getting in.
We reported a few minutes ago that the evacuation orders had been lifted, but heard from residents that the National Guard was still keeping people out of the RSF Covenant. As of this moment, it IS NOT open to residents.
Taber said, however, that it will be shortly. The various authorities involved are working out details of their repopulation scheme and as soon as that's done, Taber said, residents will be let back in. Her guess was that it would be less than half an hour.
We will of course post word as soon as people are actually getting in.
Fairbanks Residents Can Return, Others Still Evacuated
The RSF Fire District declared a few minutes ago that residents of Fairbanks Ranch may return to their homes via San Dieguito Rd. All other areas of the district are still under evaluation. They're saying another update could come around 10 a.m.
We'll have more information in a few minutes.
We'll have more information in a few minutes.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Taber: RSF Evacuation Likely To End Thursday, Not During Night
Since the afternoon is wearing on, I checked in with FD spokesperson Julie Taber about when the evacuation might end:
"I don’t think they would do it [repopulation] during the night," Taber said. "At this point I would look for them to start sometime tomorrow. That’s unofficial. I wouldn’t plan on it for today."
Once again, this is NOT official and we do not know for sure when people will be allowed back into RSF. But with the sun descending in the bright-orange sky and long evening shadows coming on here in Rancho Santa Fe, it looks like it might be another day before residents can return to their homes.
"I don’t think they would do it [repopulation] during the night," Taber said. "At this point I would look for them to start sometime tomorrow. That’s unofficial. I wouldn’t plan on it for today."
Once again, this is NOT official and we do not know for sure when people will be allowed back into RSF. But with the sun descending in the bright-orange sky and long evening shadows coming on here in Rancho Santa Fe, it looks like it might be another day before residents can return to their homes.
Updates on Rancho Del Rio
Along with the other burned-out addresses I just listed for Rancho Del Rio, I noticed that the Fire District is listing these below as well. This brings the total confirmed in Rancho Del Rio to eight; though we heard of one more from a neighbor.
17511 Caminito de los Escoses
17516 Caminito de los Escoses
17555 Caminito de los Escoses
Damaged or Destroyed Homes in Fairbanks
The Fire District has recently listed the addresses of homes burned in Fairbanks Ranch — the first confirmation of this we've heard of. Here are the addresses as listed on the FD's website:
6103 Avenida Picacho
5990 Calle Camposeco
6039 Calle Camposeco
6139 Calle Camposeco
6146 Calle Camposeco
6151 Calle Camposeco
El Mirador Details
Kevin, a reader, just phoned in with specific info on El Mirador homes that some of you have requested:
- 17077 El Mirador: Kevin says the house is fine, but a truck parked in the front was destroyed by the fire.
- 17153 El Mirador: Again, the house itself is fine. Some scrub brush in the ravine was burned, but the landscaping near the structure and the house itself sustained no damage.
Kevin says the flames got "pretty darn close" to both of these homes, but they're fine.
- 17077 El Mirador: Kevin says the house is fine, but a truck parked in the front was destroyed by the fire.
- 17153 El Mirador: Again, the house itself is fine. Some scrub brush in the ravine was burned, but the landscaping near the structure and the house itself sustained no damage.
Kevin says the flames got "pretty darn close" to both of these homes, but they're fine.
The Rancho Del Rio Situation
This is NOT a confirmed number, but an honest-seeming Rancho Del Rio resident told me a few minutes ago that nine homes in the area were burned. I counted five, but I didn't check out every driveway on every street:
- On Rancho Del Rio: 17400, 17403, 17417 and 17455 (pictured at bottom).
- On La Brisa: 17345
The homes listed on Rancho Del Rio were the only homes on that street burned. I drove down La Brisa and saw only the one house at the end burned, but I'm not completely sure that's all.
Empty Disaster Streets
The emptiness of the village area in Rancho Santa Fe is startling. The only people around are the RSF Patrol, who suspiciously eye anyone not in an official vehicle, and the various fire crews still hanging around. The Village Presbyterian Church parking lot has become their de facto rest stop. The lot is filled with parked engines and resting fire fighters . Yesterday I saw some sleeping on the lawn in front.We're still waiting for word on when the evacuations will be over. Right now the National Guard is still posted everywhere to keep people out.
Message from Supervisor Bill Horn
Message from Supervisor Bill Horn
October 24, 2007
· I want to express my deep sympathies to those who have lost property during the fires that have ravaged North County. I also want to say how proud I am of the tremendous job public safety people have done responding with heroism to save lives and property under near-combat conditions.
· I was able to work with Pete Smith of the Rancho Santa Fe Association in assessing the initial damage done to that historic area
· Today, Supervisor Jacob and I asked the Board to waive fees for permits of those who will need to rebuild in the unincorporated areas of our county and asked that the building process be expedited for fire victims. They unanimously agreed.
· Chairman Ron Roberts has shown great leadership and I have been in contact with him as he has coordinated the effort with federal, state and local officials. This afternoon at 4 PM, I will appear at a news briefing at the Office of Emergency Services to give my perspective on North County.
· When it is safe for people to return to their homes, we will give out specific information as fast as we can
· I am so proud to be your Supervisor and to be with you during this catastrophic event. Together we will rebuild and together we will return our North County to the gem it was before the fires. God bless all of you.
October 24, 2007
· I want to express my deep sympathies to those who have lost property during the fires that have ravaged North County. I also want to say how proud I am of the tremendous job public safety people have done responding with heroism to save lives and property under near-combat conditions.
· I was able to work with Pete Smith of the Rancho Santa Fe Association in assessing the initial damage done to that historic area
· Today, Supervisor Jacob and I asked the Board to waive fees for permits of those who will need to rebuild in the unincorporated areas of our county and asked that the building process be expedited for fire victims. They unanimously agreed.
· Chairman Ron Roberts has shown great leadership and I have been in contact with him as he has coordinated the effort with federal, state and local officials. This afternoon at 4 PM, I will appear at a news briefing at the Office of Emergency Services to give my perspective on North County.
· When it is safe for people to return to their homes, we will give out specific information as fast as we can
· I am so proud to be your Supervisor and to be with you during this catastrophic event. Together we will rebuild and together we will return our North County to the gem it was before the fires. God bless all of you.
Mandatory Evacuation Still In Place For RSF
Fire district spokeswoman Julie Taber says the mandatory evacuation is still in place for Rancho Santa Fe. Many have hoped that it will be lifted with the easing of winds this afternoon, but there are still many downed trees and other hazards in the area. Taber said they're "working on a plan," presumably for repopulation, but she didn't know when they'll put it into action.
Of course, we will post an update as soon as we get word that the evacuation is over.
Of course, we will post an update as soon as we get word that the evacuation is over.
Tell Us Your Story
What's been happening to you and your family during the fire crisis? We at the Review want to hear your story! Write us at ian@sdranchcoastnews.com or editor@sdranchcoastnews.com, or call us at 858/756-1451. Over the next few days we'll be trying to get in touch with as many Rancho Santa Fe Residents as possible to capture what happened to the community in this time of great crisis. We're already planning an expansive post-fire issue that will be rich with residents' stories and images of the 2007 wildfires. We'd love to have your experiences be part of it!
RSF Foundation and RSF Review partner to aid local fire victims
Once again, the RSF Foundation has partnered with the RSF Review to receive donations for victims of local wildfires. Visit their website for more information.
Check Updates at right
Dear readers,
Make sure to check the column at thr right hand side of this page to see a complete list of updates that may interest you.
Just click on the title of interest and the update will come up. Or scroll down this page and you will see most stories.
Make sure to check the column at thr right hand side of this page to see a complete list of updates that may interest you.
Just click on the title of interest and the update will come up. Or scroll down this page and you will see most stories.
Luck Or Lack Thereof
One of the many shocking things about this fire is the randomness with which it burned through Rancho Santa Fe. Only in a small number of places, such as on the east side of Zumaque, did the fire claim several neighboring structures. In other areas, one can drive for a while without seeing any sign of fire ... and suddenly run across a swath of blackened land and a home completely destroyed. The flames seem to have traveled through the low-lying creek and canyon areas, such as the one off of Via Monalex, above. The house from whose driveway I took that image — 7098 — was totally unharmed, though the flames came within feet of it. But the structure next door, 7097 (seen at top) was totally destroyed.
Another burned-out creek area (above) behind Avenida Luis.
Utilities crews from SDG&E and AT&T are in the area today checking on power and telephone lines. Shown above are Dan and Benny, two Primary Assessors for SDG&E who are reporting downed power lines. It's not the easiest job in the world — they said they had to make four or five calls to various authorities to figure out where to go. And then they have to contend with hotspots, hidden areas in the ground that aren't smoking but may be very, very hot and still in danger of flaring up. "I just feel sorry for all these people," Benny, at right, said about the fire and evacuation. "But it's for their own safety." He said his own home was full of relatives fleeing Ramona blazes. Below, the house they were working near: 16910 Avenida Luis.
Readers' Unharmed Homes
We've been getting requests to check out specific homes in the fire area. The following homes are completely unharmed (NOTE: These are not nearly ALL the unharmed homes in the Ranch, just those we've been asked to check into.)
6427 La Valle Plateada — OK
16501 Los Barbos — OK
17474 El Vuelo — OK
6427 La Valle Plateada — OK
16501 Los Barbos — OK
17474 El Vuelo — OK
Insurance contact numbers for wildfire victims
Insurance Contact Numbers for San Diego County Wildfire Victims
Updated as of 10/24/2007 11:26 AM
AAA 1(800) 672-5246
AIG 1(877) 638-4244, 1(888) 244-6163
Allstate Insurance 1(800) 255-7828, 1(800) 547-8676
http://www.allstate.com/catastrophe/state/ca.aspx
Amica Mutual Insurance 1(800) 242-6422
Century-National Insurance 1(800) 733-1980
CNA 1(877) 262-2727
Chubb 1(800) 252-4670
Farmers Insurance 1(800) 435-7764, 1(866) 813-7551
http://www.farmers.com/FarmComm/WebSite/html/common/catpage.html
Mobile Centers are also located at the following sites:
Mira Mesa High School
San Marco High School
Mission High School
Escondido High School
Carlsbad High School
Del Mar Fairgrounds
Qualcomm Stadium, near Gate A
Chula Vista High School
Fireman’s Fund 1(888) 347-3428
GeoVera Specialty 1(800) 631-6478
Hartford AARP 1(800) 423-0567
(Santee office location is closed as of 10/24, 8:22 a.m.)
Hartford (Other) 1(800) 624-5578
Liberty Mutual 1-800-225-1567
Mercury Casualty Group 1(888) 913-6372
http://www.mercuryinsurance.com/claims/
MetLife Auto and Home 1(800) 854-6011
Nationwide/Allied 1(800) 421-3535, 1(800) 282-1446
http://www.nationwide.com/nw/newsroom/on-your-side/california-wildfires/california-wildfires.htm?oys=ca_wildfires&pos=1
A booth is being set up at Qualcomm Stadium. A Mobile Claims Unit is expected to be in San Diego on Friday.
Progressive Casualty Group 1(800) 776-4737
Safeco 1(800) 332-3226
State Farm 1(877) 734-2265, 1(800) 732-5246
http://www.statefarm.com/about/part_spos/community/sflocal/california/home.asp
Travelers Home and Auto 1(800) 252-4633
Business Claims can call 1(800) 238-6225
USAA 1(800) 531-8222
Updated as of 10/24/2007 11:26 AM
AAA 1(800) 672-5246
AIG 1(877) 638-4244, 1(888) 244-6163
Allstate Insurance 1(800) 255-7828, 1(800) 547-8676
http://www.allstate.com/catastrophe/state/ca.aspx
Amica Mutual Insurance 1(800) 242-6422
Century-National Insurance 1(800) 733-1980
CNA 1(877) 262-2727
Chubb 1(800) 252-4670
Farmers Insurance 1(800) 435-7764, 1(866) 813-7551
http://www.farmers.com/FarmComm/WebSite/html/common/catpage.html
Mobile Centers are also located at the following sites:
Mira Mesa High School
San Marco High School
Mission High School
Escondido High School
Carlsbad High School
Del Mar Fairgrounds
Qualcomm Stadium, near Gate A
Chula Vista High School
Fireman’s Fund 1(888) 347-3428
GeoVera Specialty 1(800) 631-6478
Hartford AARP 1(800) 423-0567
(Santee office location is closed as of 10/24, 8:22 a.m.)
Hartford (Other) 1(800) 624-5578
Liberty Mutual 1-800-225-1567
Mercury Casualty Group 1(888) 913-6372
http://www.mercuryinsurance.com/claims/
MetLife Auto and Home 1(800) 854-6011
Nationwide/Allied 1(800) 421-3535, 1(800) 282-1446
http://www.nationwide.com/nw/newsroom/on-your-side/california-wildfires/california-wildfires.htm?oys=ca_wildfires&pos=1
A booth is being set up at Qualcomm Stadium. A Mobile Claims Unit is expected to be in San Diego on Friday.
Progressive Casualty Group 1(800) 776-4737
Safeco 1(800) 332-3226
State Farm 1(877) 734-2265, 1(800) 732-5246
http://www.statefarm.com/about/part_spos/community/sflocal/california/home.asp
Travelers Home and Auto 1(800) 252-4633
Business Claims can call 1(800) 238-6225
USAA 1(800) 531-8222
Update From RSF Association board president Marie Addario
I just spoke to our RSF Association Manager Pete Smith who has been at the fire department in town since early Monday. The Covenant is still in lock down and will probably be until Thursday. National guard is protecting our boarders from looters. Today there will be a major clean up. Debris and felled trees are an issue. No one can enter the Covenant area. Winds are erratic and there is still a chance that small fires could flare up. We lost 16 covenant homes, and damaged to others exist, but that information is not yet conclusive. Use the fire department's web site: rsf-fire.org to check on evacuation status- if you don't have access, call them at 858 756 5971. Good luck to you all.
Marie Addario
RSF Association board president
Marie Addario
RSF Association board president
Update from RSF Patrol Chief Matt Wellhouser
The RSF Review just spoke with Rancho Santa Fe Patrol Chief Matt Wellhouser who assures residents that security teams are patrolling the area to keep homes as safe as possible. He adds that while it is hoped that Rancho Santa Fe residents may be able to begin returning home later today and tomorrow, please do not return at this time. Wellhouser said there are still certain “hot spots” in the Ranch that need to be addressed and, until it is safe, emergency personnel do not want the roads to get clogged with people returning. Wellhouser said that while there are parts of Rancho Santa Fe that are no longer affected by fire they need to keep those roads open to be able to access the hot spots. He said that things like a fallen power line could immediately create a problem so please do not return until the all clear has been given. Continue to check this Web site and the RSF Fire District Web site for news that it is OK for Rancho Santa Fe residents to return home in an orderly way.
Fire District: No Losses in Shelter-in-Place Parts of Cielo, Crosby, 4S Ranch
From RSF Fire District Spokesperson Julie Taber: There have been no lost structures in the "shelter-in-place" areas of Cielo, Crosby and 4S Ranch. But some 4S Ranch homes that were NOT in that area were lost. She said they're "working to confirm" no losses for the Bridges — which means that they don't know of any lost homes there yet.
Latest damage assessment for the RSF Fire District: 40 structures lost. That's only five more than at this time yesterday. Addresses of some burned structures are on their website.
On when the mandatory evacuations for RSF would end, Taber was not certain. "We can't let people in just to turn around and evacuate them again," Taber said. "I wouldn't expect anything sooner than this afternoon."
Latest damage assessment for the RSF Fire District: 40 structures lost. That's only five more than at this time yesterday. Addresses of some burned structures are on their website.
On when the mandatory evacuations for RSF would end, Taber was not certain. "We can't let people in just to turn around and evacuate them again," Taber said. "I wouldn't expect anything sooner than this afternoon."
Smoky Skies Over the Ranch; CV, DM (Not RSF) Repopulated
While residents of Carmel Valley and Del Mar have been allowed to return to their homes as of around 7 a.m. this morning, Rancho Santa Fe is quiet and utterly empty. National Guardsmen with assault rifles and Humvees are posted at the west entrances to Rancho Santa Fe, though their presence seems a bit reduced compared to yesterday afternoon, when the above photo of the village (with Humvee) was taken. The emptiness is incredibly eerie.
Some areas of the Ranch seem to still be producing smoke. Driving down Via De La Valle this morning between Paseo Delicias and Via De Santa Fe, I saw small clouds of smoke rising from some of the corrals to the left. However, I was told last night that all the structure fires were out. The smoke wafting over the Ranch (see top photo, taken a few minutes ago from Linea Del Cielo) is likely coming from other fires to the northeast.
Weather reports for San Diego indicate that the Santa Ana winds could ease significantly by this afternoon, though we do not know whether that means RSF residents will be allowed to return home. The Fire District appears to be concerned with other issues besides fire danger before letting people back in.
We've received a spate of requests to check on homes and will spend some time doing that to update those of you with specific concerns.
Also, please contact us with any useful information you might have, or with stories of what's happened to your and your family during this crazy week. We're in the office now at 858/756-1451 or ian@sdranchcoastnews.com.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Fire District Posting Addresses Of Burned Homes
The Fire District has begun posting the addresses of damaged homes on their website:
So far the fire has burned approximately 4,400 acres in the Rancho Santa Fe District. There are a reported 35 structures destroyed, but that number has not yet been confirmed. The following is partial, unofficial list of structures that were damaged or destroyed by the fire. The list will be updated as more information is obtained. Again, this list is not yet complete nor is it considered to be official.
16910 Avenida Luis
16924 Avenida Luis
6125 Camino Selva
6129 Camino Selva
6131 Camino Selva
17122 El Mirador
17116 El Vuelo
7035 Las Colinas
16807 Via de la Valle
16827 Via de la Valle
16843 Via de Santa Fe
7097 Via Monalex
16501 Zumaque Street
16526 Zumaque Street
16583 Zumaque Street
16655 Zumaque Street
16729 Zumaque Street
16755 Zumaque Street
Five houses at Rancho Del Rio; One at Summit
Just got word from another reader that five houses in Rancho Del Rio and one at Summit burned in the Witch Fire, which is now at over 200,000 acres and counting. No word on how complete the damage is.
Please pass on to us any information that might be useful!
Please pass on to us any information that might be useful!
West Covenant Update From A Reader
Corinne reports:
I talked to someone in the area of Linea del Cielo and Calzada del Bosque who said everything looks fine and that the National Guard are patrolling currently. They watched the air support attack the fires at Zumaque. The westside of RSF is in good shape, it seems.
Zumaque Damage
This is not a complete report of the damage on Zumaque, but I did verify the destruction of the following homes with my own eyes: 16755 (middle), 16729 (top), 16655, 16583 and 16526. There are more, including (I'm pretty sure) the house on the other (north) side of 16755, for the person who asked. I believe that all the homes on the west side of the street made it, but I'll try to get back there later for a full tally. The bottom picture gives you a feel for the huge patch of burn area stretching east.
Recent Images of Rancho Santa Fe
This spot fire was off of Las Cuestas a couple hours ago. As the wind flared up, these piles of bark got quite hot...
Schools Closed All Week
Just got word from RSF School District Acting Superintendent Cindy Schaub that the RSF District and all 42 public school districts in San Diego County will be closed for the remainder of the week. The decision was made by the Superintendents this morning at around 10 a.m. The group of public school leaders will continue to make statements throughout the week, Schaub said.
Schaub also said that because the Governor has declared a state of emergency, it's likely that the days will not have to be made up.
Schaub also said that because the Governor has declared a state of emergency, it's likely that the days will not have to be made up.
The Damage So Far
We've been driving around the area nearly all day taking pictures and trying to figure out where the burning is and is not. About 4,400 acres in the RSF Fire District have been hit, according to the FD's website. This is what we've figured out so far by area:
- Cielo/Crosby/Del Dios: Most of these areas looked unharmed. There were burnt patches of ground all around and on both side of Del Dios Highway, but we could not see any burned houses from Del Dios looking in either direction. Just lots of homes sitting near swaths of black ground. It's still smoking in patches — and there are likely burned homes here that just weren't visible from Del Dios Highway — but overall most homes seem to have been preserved. The wind has also died down considerably. Some firefighters we asked at the Cielo station had no information about the fate of structures in the area.
- Fairbanks Ranch: seems pretty calm at this time. We do not think many homes were hit.
- RSF Covenant: The eastern areas were hit fairly hard. Many houses along the east side of Zumaque were completely destroyed. The picture above is of 16755 Zumaque. Looking east from the burned out homes on Zumaque, the burn area (across the river) was jaw-dropping — though it looks like many homes survived. Just that eastern edge of the Covenant that got hit pretty bad.
- Everything west of these areas, including west of RSF village, the western portion of Fairbanks Ranch, Carmel Valley and Del Mar are untouched by the fires.
It's been hard to get total structure fire counts from the authorities, but we should hear soon.
Are people being let back in to RSF? We believe the official answer is no, but there's some traffic. If you got back in — or even if not — share your story with us at ian@sdranchcoastnews.com or (858) 756-1451.
Important information for donors to the Red Cross
Any donations made to the American Red Cross in support of fire recovery efforts in San Diego should be made payable to “American Red Cross San Diego Fire.” This information will ensure that the money donated will be used for local fire recovery efforts only.
'In Fairbanks Right Now It's Looking Good'
... That's the word from a battalion chief in the San Dieguito Rd. area. The sky is clear-ish over Fairbanks Ranch, and after driving back and forth across it on San Dieguito, it seems he's right — I didn't see any smoke rising within the gates. But the area did burn last night. He said two homes had been hit.
East on San Dieguito Rd., as one leaves Fairbanks and the unincorporated area, spots of the hills are on fire. But there are many fire engines and firefighters around, and they seem to be out in the brush battling each individual flare-up as it happens. This is the best shot I could get.
12-13 Homes in Covenant Gone
RSF Covenant Manager Pete Smith said that he was aware of 12 houses in the east side of the Covenant that have been completely destroyed. He supplied the following breakdown:
- 2 houses on Avenida Luis
- 6 houses on Zumaque
- 1 house on Las Colinas
- 1 house on El Mirador
- 1 house on El Vuelo
- 1 house on Via Monalex
- 1 house on Via De Santa Fe/Camino Selva
- There's also some burning along Via De La Valle, near the intersection of Via De Santa Fe.
OK, this doesn't quite add up. We'll try to figure why. But Smith said he did not know of any structures that are currently burning.
Smith also said that 25-40 National Guard members would be arriving in RSF today to help efforts. The Border Patrol and 40-50 officers from Sherriff's Department are already here to prevent looting. RSF Patrol Chief Matt Wellhouser is managing the security effort, according to Smith.
Also, the entire area is closed to non-emergency personnel — RSF residents CANNOT go to their homes at this point.
We'll be posting information on Fairbanks Ranch and Cielo shortly.
- 2 houses on Avenida Luis
- 6 houses on Zumaque
- 1 house on Las Colinas
- 1 house on El Mirador
- 1 house on El Vuelo
- 1 house on Via Monalex
- 1 house on Via De Santa Fe/Camino Selva
- There's also some burning along Via De La Valle, near the intersection of Via De Santa Fe.
OK, this doesn't quite add up. We'll try to figure why. But Smith said he did not know of any structures that are currently burning.
Smith also said that 25-40 National Guard members would be arriving in RSF today to help efforts. The Border Patrol and 40-50 officers from Sherriff's Department are already here to prevent looting. RSF Patrol Chief Matt Wellhouser is managing the security effort, according to Smith.
Also, the entire area is closed to non-emergency personnel — RSF residents CANNOT go to their homes at this point.
We'll be posting information on Fairbanks Ranch and Cielo shortly.
'The Eeriest Thing Ever'
Camino Selva resident Glenn Palmedo-Smith was lucky — his home made it through the night. But some homes on the street, which lies southeast of the RSF Village, weren't so lucky. As of early this morning at least two homes were totally destroyed and another was smoldering. Palmedo-Smith, a film director, evacuated Monday but this morning returned to get his "livelihood" — video equipment — before going to a nearby hotel. He said he was one of the last to evacuate on Monday evening. "It was the eeriest thing ever," Palmedo-Smith said of the Ranch Monday evening. "It was like nuclear war."
Above, another home on Camino Selva.
A Home On El Mirador This Morning
Some homes on the eastern side of the Covenant have been completely devastated — like this one at 17134 El Mirador. But many others are untouched. Firefighters from all over are posted on streets throughout the area trying to tamp down any blazes that flare up in the wind.
The firemen all look extremely exhausted. One fire captain from the Carlsbad dept. said his crew has been out fighting fires since Sunday. "We've had about two hours of sleep in roughly 56 hours," he said.
Taber: 35 Structures in RSF Fire District Burned
Thirty-five structures in the Rancho Santa Fe Fire District, including homes in the RSF Covenant and Rancho Cielo, have been hit by the flames of the Witch Fire, according to spokeswoman Julie Taber.
Taber said a few minutes ago that crews were battling two fingers of the blaze: one headed north from Cielo toward Escondido Creek; and one moving from the Zumaque area on the east side of the RSF Covenant south towards Fairbanks Ranch.
Some homes near the RSF Village have been hit, including several structures on Camino Selva. Spot fires continue to burn in some areas of the Covenant, but Taber said she did not know of any major flank moving through.
Taber said a few minutes ago that crews were battling two fingers of the blaze: one headed north from Cielo toward Escondido Creek; and one moving from the Zumaque area on the east side of the RSF Covenant south towards Fairbanks Ranch.
Some homes near the RSF Village have been hit, including several structures on Camino Selva. Spot fires continue to burn in some areas of the Covenant, but Taber said she did not know of any major flank moving through.
Update; About This Blog
Due to concerns about bringing our full staff into the evacuation area, we'll be covering the fires in Rancho Santa Fe from this blog. We'll update it with specific information on homes and areas burned as we get it. Rancho residents, please e-mail us with stories of what happened to you and your families yesterday. You can reach us at ian@sdranchcoastnews.com or editor@sdranchcoastnews.com.
Our offices are in Fairbanks Village Plaza at the intersection of San Dieguito and El Apajo. Though parts of Fairbanks have been burning since Monday, the fires don't yet seem close to where we are. We'll hopefully get more specific information on Fairbanks soon.
Our offices are in Fairbanks Village Plaza at the intersection of San Dieguito and El Apajo. Though parts of Fairbanks have been burning since Monday, the fires don't yet seem close to where we are. We'll hopefully get more specific information on Fairbanks soon.
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