I had to go see for myself. I took my press pass and my cameras and went to the most devastated area. Along the way I got an assignment to follow a Jewish family on their first return to their destroyed house. Here is what I saw:

I should have better captions for this but I was so overcome by the devastation that I didn't take good notes. I really didn't have to because the newspaper knows who the family is. My captions are descriptive only. 
(I think the man is a prominent musician and teacher in the community and his wife is a lawyer.)

"My wife has always hated that wall," he says. 

Unnaturally, it is the only thing left standing in the house.

On second inspection, she is overwhelmed.

They are looking at four unmelted water bottles on the side of the house.

The family gets ready to start sifting through the debris to look for valuables that were left behind. 

Everybody has to wear a respirator. There is a lot of dust in the air and soon there will be more.

The search starts near where the china cabinet was to search for a pair of candle sticks that were passed down from her grandmother to her mother to her. 

She regrets that she didn't take them but understands that she only had twenty minutes to evacuate the house and she had to get the children dressed.

Everybody is working carefully but it is difficult. The cloud of dust is hazardous if you breathe it. 

The County Health Department says that there are more than 90 different dangerous chemical compounds present in residual dust and soot in the average home. 

Everybody in the community pitched in to help. Everyone was effected by the disaster.

These women are cutting cellophane to wrap cookie bundles in. 

Part of the process is to make the aid packages attractive as well as useful. 

St. Gregory's is piled high with everything from toys to diapers. Many people are willing to donate here rather than give to the Red Cross because a few years ago, there was a scandal where the Red Cross took our money and gave it to other communities. 

I will give anything to the church or Chabad because I know that my contributions will stay here in the community. The Red Cross has to tell people that their money stays where they say it stays, now. I still think it is just a PR move. 

I think these are of the Riverside/San Bernardino fire.

Day Three of the San Diego Fires

We have sun for the first time in three days. Last night I even saw stars and Mars for about fifteen minutes.

The smell of smoke is still strong and we are eleven miles from the fire line. The ash, however, has abated. Diana swept the garden last night and there is only a trace of new ash this morning.

The box score currently is:
People dead: 12
Burn Unit patients: 27
Homes Destroyed: 800
Acres Burned: 284,000
People without power: 53,000
Firefighters on the line: 3,215
Fire line still burning: 137 miles

The web page has photos from the newspaper because my wife won't let me use my press pass to get my own shots. She seems to be supported in this unreasonable decision by most of my friends. I have my own breathing mask and a long telephoto so I don't understand what the furor is but I have to sleep next to her and will accede to her wishes.

Joe and Seren went home last night after dinner. Goldie and Herm (as well as most of us) seem to be on the verge of tears all the time. Of course, their neighborhood lost 100 homes, including the one they sold two weeks ago. They lived there for seventeen years and all of their friends are now victims of what is being called an avoidable fire.

Diana is off from school again today because the air quality on her campus is the worst it has been in the history of air quality measurement. People are walking around the streets with breathing masks on and we have all the windows closed in the house and the air filter running on high. We have to wash the filter every three or four hours.

The news says that the fire should be contained in three days and the final toll will be about 300,000 acres lost. Our soon-to-be-replaced Governor is doing a great job of passing the buck but most of our County Supervisors are disgusted with the performance of the State. Most people believe that half of the devastation could have been avoided with prompt action on Sunday.

These articles are taken from today's Union/Tribune, our local paper. 

It is day two and the sky is still red. It almost looks like snow, with all the ash and soot falling.

It smells like San Diego is being barbequed. Lots of wood smoke odor.

Joe and Seren's son-in-law was at their house and everything is ok, but the smoke is too thick for them to return. Curley, their cat, is hiding under the bed and would not like the environment at their house. They will stay here for another day.

Unfortunately, our good friends in Scripps Ranch have lost everything. Every single house on their block has been burned to the ground. The Airel shots are heartbreaking.

The traffic is very light. We went to the store for food and it is like being in a ghost town in some respects. Home Depot is crowded, the food stores are busy but not much else is happening. We did get a FedEx but no UPS today. No mail, no trash pickup and not much business is being done. It is too hard to breathe.

Diana spent an hour sweeping up soot and I did get a good photograph of her in her sexy cleaning outfit with the Butch Cassidy bandana over her nose and mouth. However, I have to sleep next to her and take her warning to not post it on the website very seriously. Therefore, you will just have to use your imagination.

The soon-to-be-replaced Governor gave the predictable bullshit answers to why there were no ariel tankers to help. It was something like "We did everything possible."

I don't think so. Today at 10am there was a fire in Simi Valley in Los Angeles County that had 10, (count 'em, 10) Airel tanker helicopters fighting the blaze to keep it from moving into a residential area. We could have used one or two last night when we were losing almost 700 homes to the fire.

Diana and I are fine and the kids are not in danger, either. It is, however, very depressing to live here today. I suspect tomorrow won't be much fun either.

My tip for the day is to consolidate your Very Important Papers into a fireproof strong-box. These will be the things that you just don't want to live without, like insurance policies, birth, marriage and other important certificates, and some cash for emergencies. Put the box where you can grab it on the way to the shelter.

As this is being posted at 3:09pm, more than 80,000 acres of San Diego City and County have burned in the last day. A few minutes ago the news reported that a Mooney 4 place aircraft crashed on Hwy. 163 at Balboa, near Montgomery Field. The plane is burning in the middle of the road.

Every channel in town is showing houses and neighborhoods burning in Scripps Ranch, a residential area of town that has very expensive homes. The wind is very high and the temperatures are very high and the humidity is very low. This is perfect for a raging fire.