Oct. 26 (Day One)
Although
the actual flames were visible from our street (see center), this portion of
the fire was burning in Poway, about 8 miles away.| S a n D i e g o ' s | |||
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Oct. 26 (Day One) Although
the actual flames were visible from our street (see center), this portion of
the fire was burning in Poway, about 8 miles away. |
 On
Sunday Oct. 26, 2003, San Diego county experienced an unprecedented 'attack' of
out-of-control wildfires, dubbed Firestorm 2003 and/or San Diego on Fire by
the local media. Fueled by hot dry Santa Ana winds, there were up to a
dozen large wildfires burning at once, leading to multiple
freeway/highway closures, mass evacuations, and cancellation of
most airport flights.Here's a few pictures I took that day, all within walking distance of home. Keep in mind that the day was a beautiful sunny day, with absolutely no clouds... So any "overcast" seen in these pictures is 100% smoke. |
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Looking
out across our complex towards Poway. Large clouds of smoke
darken the skies, giving everything an unusual yellowish color.
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A
picture taken from inside my
car driving on Carmel Mountain
Rd. Again,
this is the smoke plume from the Poway fire. Notice that some cars actually have their headlights on, due to the darkness of the smoke. |
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Driveway into our complex. The dark gray plume is coming directly
up from the Poway fire. The higher "clouds" are also
smoke. |
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These
two pictures were taken atop the highest point of our street. More scenes of the thick
smoke as it surrounded our neighborhood.(These pictures may make it look a little closer than it actually was; we never had to evacuate.) |
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Area map showing four primary fire groups |
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More
pictures showing the Poway mountains on fire. These were
taken from a prominent hilltop in
Black Mountain Park
in our neighborhood.
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(Yes, the little orange bright spots are actual flames!) |
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More
pictures from our street, showing the dark skies and eerie coloration
from the smoke. Keep in mind there were no 'regular' clouds on this day; it was bright, blue, and sunny, except of course for all the wildfire smoke. |
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Looking
carefully here, you can just make out the flames on the side of the
mountain. |
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More
shots looking east towards Poway. The general direction of the smoke
was to the south.
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Stats at a Glance (for San Diego County only)
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Go
to Pictures from
Day
2
Note: I stopped taking pictures after 4 days, as our
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more
about it . . . |
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from
NBC channel 7/39 (KNSD)
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other links . . . |
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www.sdarc.org San Diego Area Red Cross taking donations for fire disaster relief |
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www.paulfidler.com | ||
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