Barbara - it is truly a small world. :-) Joe was a lot of fun.

In fire news - our schools have now all closed for tomorrow.

The Santigo fire is still close and burning in Trabuco Canyon.

btewalt - no they will not fly at night. I hope your sisters home is doing okay.

Well I ended up driving to Fallbrook today-from Redondo Beach and back. A relative who should have evacuated now wanted to get out. He doesn't drive and was confused about the events surrounding the fire. So after seeing if there was any way I could sneak back into Fallbrook, I just went the main route. The Sheriff and Highway Patrol did let me in.

It was a very eerie feeling being in a town that is probably 75% evacuated. And most of those who stayed are on the western outskirts. No businesses open except one grocery store and one gas station. A couple of random cars, otherwise just police and fire units. No fire burning close to town and my street and surrounding area was in good shape.
The winds were quiet but they are still saying they won't let us back until Friday. I am not sure why because the majority of the town has no threat of danger and never really had one. I know they were trying to be proactive and avert a potential diaster but now everyone just wants to go home! The police and fire departments have done an outstanding job.

They say they will let us know tomorrow sometime when we can get back in.

btewalt-I hope your sister's house in Valley Center is OK.
Barbara-Glad your son was able to dry out some of his papers. I am so sorry he is going through this.

dawn-Glad you didn't have to leave your home. Didn't hear too much about the Trabuco fire tonight. Is it under control?

Barbara, I am so sorry about your son. For others affected, my prayers go out to all of you.

Today seems a little bit better in terms of air quality and ash. Today I drove my husband's cousin to her mom's house in Rancho Bernardo while my kids and husband stayed with 95 yr. old in our home. The evacuation has taken a toll on her house and we are just trying to keep her comfortable.

Aunt lives off of Paseo Del Verano in Marbella development in RB. Due to police concerns about hot spots and fire from San Pasqual, all neighorhoods on to the east of Paseo Del Verano were closed. According to the officer, the neighborhoods are still under a threat for a secondary fire.

Since we were frantic, we did the most logical and safe thing, we put on our tennis shoes, grabbed our purses and hiked up the burned hill to see over the fence. Aunt's house was still standing but three houses next door to her were burned down plus the yards of her other neighbors. A red cross rep was standing in front of her house so we screamed for him to tell us if there was water or smoke damage. He said house looked find other than tree and bushes in front. At this point the police screamed at us to get down the hill so we complied. All in all it was less than 5 minutes, but we felt so much better knowing the house was still standing, while very sad for neighbors. We are very thankful to the firefighters since It is clear they saved Aunt's house. Fire is very random for the 3 on aunts street and one half a block up Paseo Verano are only houses destroyed for 10 blocks. It must have been a stray ember. We met 3 families with young kids who had no time to evacuate and those house and everything.

Student in my son's algebra class lost his house. My husband's partner lost his house also and it is featured in all the national news segments.

San Diego gets a big pat on the back for how they evacuated and how everyone helped each other during the evacuations.

Paula - wow... what a long drive and I am sure mentally trying as well. Glad you got your uncle out.

The fires here went from 50% contained to 30% contained. Our schools are now canceled and our house smells like smoke. Dh and I are at odds because I just assume leave now. I am not sure we need to evacuate but the air quaility is obvously very bad. Our youngest has bad asthma.

Itsv (((Hugs)))) to all of San Diego - it appears that the stadium is getting pretty cleared out based on news reports.

Best wishes to everybody who suffered in this ordeal and hopes your lives will get back to normal soon or eventually.

Our firm has 2 offices closed in San Diego and the suburbs as they do all they can to keep the roads free for "public authorities".

Paula, it was nice to hear your voice!

Dawn---I hope you are all right. I know smoke can be terrible, but is there any danger from the actual fire? Are you really considering evacuation? A dear old friend of mine from high school lives in Coto de Caza, so I am worried about his family as well as yours.

Neo, the hotels were very good, IMO. The Manchester Hyatt, the one downtown, was giving evacuees a rate of $189.

itsv, I heard on the news that they weren't opening up the areas east of Paseo del Verano. I'm glad your aunt's house is OK, but I'll bet it will stink of smoke for a while.

btewalt, I hope your sister's house is OK.

Paula, I know what you mean about just wanting to go home. Thank goodness we CAN go home.

It's a lot less smelly at our house today. We may be able to keep the windows open tonight. That would be wonderful!

eziran - I do not think we will need to actually evacuate - Coto is large - and my main concern is due to where our actual house is located in Coto.

I need to check on the fires - the smoke is so heavy now you cannot see Saddleback Mountain at all.

A little update on the San Diego fires.

They started letting people back into Fallbrook on Thursday night.
Since I was in the LA area, I packed up Friday and got home in the afternoon. Most of my neighbors were returning around the same time. Things in town started to reopen on Saturday and are almost back to normal now. Schools will reopen on Wednesday.

None of my friends lost a house in the fire although I do know some of the people who were not so lucky. Seven families at my church lost their homes although I am not sure yet who they are. We signed up on Sunday so that we could help when they start clearing their property.

Saturday afternoon they opened the areas that suffered the most damage. I was coming home from Temecula off I 15 and have to drive right through the worst area to reach my home. It was something you can't even describe especially the mobile home park where about 90 homes burned. It was something out of a movie set. It still amazes me about how fires are so indiscriminating. One house burns while the others around it stand or a whole block burns and one survives.

Although I was only gone 4 days, the feeling of being displaced is something I have never experienced before. I was lucky, my house didn't burn, I had family members to stay with but I spent all weekend trying to feel normal again. My heart goes out to victims of tornadoes or hurricanes who not only lose their homes but their whole town. I now understand how you can feel like your whole identity is stripped away.

The firefighters were amazing. Here in Fallbrook where everything is rural there are lots of canyons, hills and homes are perched everywhere on streets they can barely get to. It is a huge testimony that many more homes weren't lost. And San Diego and all of San Diego County really pulled through to help everyone. It is great to live in a place where people do really help each other.

Here is a link to a couple of photos that include the mobile home park. I think you'll have to go through the whole slide show but not sure.
http://thevillagenews.com/images/pho...71025fireshow/

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers