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My parents are packing all the pictures in their house in preparation for evacuating - it was really unnerving to get a phone call asking what I deem important enough to bring with them. For anyone else in southern California, hope you are staying safe! And may the asshat who fired his flare gun have his house burn down too. Is that too vengeful?

Not too vengeful at all!

Stay safe! And I'll be thinking and praying about you and your family.

There are three different fires in San Diego right now (four if you count the one at Camp Pendleton since we tend to think of it as part of San Diego), and the one near that is a few miles from my parents' house that was started by the flare gun idiot is 20 miles wide and has already burned 80,000 acres. They are using the stadium (I still think of it as the Murph, despite the official new name) as an evacuation site, which may interfere with tomorrow night's football game.

The latest news on the fire:

100,000 acres burned
250 homes destroyed
11 civilians dead
2 firefighters injured
800+ firefighters on the scene
2 aircraft on the scene
flights suspended
almost all schools closed tomorrow
Chargers game moved to Phoenix

ETA: the above information applies to the Cedar Fire. As a result of the other three fires in San Diego, an additional 22,000 acres have burned.

I just talked to my friend on the phone and she and her 2 year old daughter beat the fire by like 5 minutes... she litterally looked out her window and saw it right there... I cant believe this is happening... Why would someone do this? I hope everyone in San Diego and all over Cali stays safe...

Candygirl,
my thoughts are with you and your family... this is really terrible and could not have come at a worse time for the state.

There are reports that three of the fires were started by arsonists... the idiocy of some people has to be seen to be believed.

Latest from auntie beeb - it's getting worse and worse
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3217975.stm

Megs wrote:Not too vengeful at all!

Stay safe! And I'll be thinking and praying about you and your family.

Big Ditto. Please keep us posted as to how you and your family are doing.

LanceMan

The smoke from the fires in california are so thick that we have a smoke over in vegas... when you go outside you cant even see the strip... I was out there just a few minutes ago and it is getting worse... it is hard to breathe and you can litterally smell the fire... I cant believe how bad it is getting... I hope they catch the bastards that did this... it is really devistating...

They have the person who began the Cedar Fire in custody but will probably not charge him with anything more than a misdemeanor.

One firefighter just died fighting the fire in Julian and two others were injured.

My friends and family have said that it looks like permanent sunset all day because of the smoke and flames. Schools are closed all week because they don't want kids breathing in all the ash (most of San Diego looks like it has a light coating of snow).

I'm not sure why, but I don't naturally make the connection between who started the fire, and the devistation that it caused. I guess since people don't know how big fires will get (cause it totally depends on the weather). I guess I sort of see it as holding the butterfly responsible for the hurricanes it causes.

Don't get me wrong, the destruction is horrible. But its not like they set the fires at everyone's house themselves. I see it more of a natural disaster that was set in motion by a stupid act.

Of course, I'm on the other side of the country in an area where something like this rarely happens, so anyone who this actually effects should totally ignore me, ok?

why would you say something like that? there are the fires that start naturally and then there are the ones who are set and it spreads causing billions of dollars and innocent lives... I remember last year when that chick set a fire i think in northern california by burning old love letters or something and I dont even think she felt remorse for the damage that she did... I mean it is just really sad that someone would start a fire purposely and then not even feel remorse... I got a call from my cousin who lives in san bernardino early this morning and all she could say was everything is gone... I cant believe the media and them trying to get there emotional reactions on film... not only were thousands of homes lost but innocent people died... it is really such a tragedy and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it...

Common sense says that you don't set a fire when you are surrounded by brush and dry trees. Anyone who lives in California knows better. Saying that there is no connection between that one act and the 250,000 acres that one fire (out of four fires in the county) burned, destroying over 1000 houses in the process, is like saying that a drunk driver isn't responsible for any damage he causes when he plows his car into a building and his gas tank explodes killing everyone in the building. Yes, fire is a natural occurrence, but would this fire have happened if he hadn't set that fire? Wildfires occur naturally, but things like this aren't "natural" disasters when they are a result of someone deliberately setting a fire. Death is natural, but when someone commits murder, we don't say, "Oh well, the victim would have died eventually." It's not a natural disaster set in motion by a stupid act; it's a disaster caused by a person.

A picture that illustrates how smoky and dark it is in San Diego:

http://sosd-gallery.camzone.com/view_ph ... traffic_a7

that picture is amazing... vegas almost looks as dark as SD...

candygirl wrote:A picture that illustrates how smoky and dark it is in San Diego:

http://sosd-gallery.camzone.com/view_ph ... traffic_a7

Man, that is dark. I kept trying to adjust the brightness on my monitor but it didn't get any lighter.

LanceMan