Fire! (cont'd)

Well, there's good news and there's bad news on the fire front...

Yesterday the big concern was the "Border 50" fire, down near Tecate (about 12 miles from our home). The good news: that fire is partially contained, full containment is expected Sunday (10/9) evening, and the Santa Ana winds are gone so there's no force of nature trying to push the fire our way. Whew!

This morning we woke to hear news of a new fire, though — and this one is about half the distance from us as the Border 50 fire: just five or six miles away from our home. Yikes!

But looking carefully at the map (at right), we can see several things that bode well for us. Our home is in the green circle, and the red satellite thermal imaging data shows where the fire is. First of all, the new fire is east southeast of us — and the winds today (the Santa Anas are gone!) are from the northwest. This means that the winds will tend to blow the fire (and perhaps even more importantly, the embers) away from us. Then note the proximity of the lake (Barrett Lake): the firefighters will have no lack of water, either by pump or by air, because the lake is plenty big enough for the aircraft to refill from. Also, the area just west of the current fire was burned three years ago, so there's not much fuel there. And beyond all that, the areas between the fire and us are not remote; there are roads throughout except for the immediate area surrounding the two peaks (Gaskill Peak and Lawson Peak) there. So ... we're thinking that despite the relatively close proximity of this fire, our risk is fairly low. We hope. But we're not leaving our home deserted until this fire is out...

As usual, click on the photo for a larger view.