Battle of Skyline Truck Trail Tom Smith

The fire is creeping toward my street.  I'm trying to follow progress on San Diego News Eight.  I'm basically sick with anxiety.  It's hard not to be.  But it appears the fire fighters are waging a pitched battle with many crews, helicopters, and fixed wing tankers to save the homes just south of Skyline Truck.  The latest report on TV is that they had saved all the homes, which is great news.  I'm sure like me all the homeowners in this valley are very grateful for the heroic efforts of the fire fighters.  It must be hell up there.  It's got to be well over 100 degrees F in the sun, and they are inside their Nomex suits, lugging heavy hoses, tired, thirsty and hungry.  Terrible smoke.  It's heroic even when it's not heroic.

What a feeling it is to recognize the houses being threatened.  A sort of, Oh Shit! Oh Shit! That's the, you know, the BMX House!  (There's a house on the road with a huge driveway with various racing trailers and trailers apparently devoted to racing sports -- quite recognizable.  The fire was about 75 meters from it.) 

The incident report I read on a fire fighter website was very pessimistic about stopping the fire at our road, but now it seems possible.

Just now (watching TV) another flareup on the side of the mountain going up towards the Lyons Peak summit.  A hot spot flaring up.  It is spooky.  All quiet until it isn't.  Many, many spot fires.  Very bad smoke.  Hopefully the choppers will be able to get in.

UPDATE  It's hard to get information, but it seems like they stopped the fire for now from moving north into Jamul.  As far as I know, no homes were lost in Jamul Highlands.  Apparently they brought in many choppers; you could see them operating continuously.  I was told the formidable Tanker 910, a DC-10 converted to fight wildfires, even flew a run over the Harris Fire.  I wish I could have seen that.  And of course the hard work of the crews around threatened houses.  If the winds stay down, I think we will be OK.  It's not over yet, but the weather seems to be cooperating, and the fire fighters throwing a lot at the fire where we need it.  Now the weather just has to hold overnight . . .

AND here's more.  Private firms can deploy these massive fire fighting jets if the feds will let them.  Well, let them!  Nothing could please me more than that a giant jet filled with red powder kicked the butt of the fire about to burn my home!  This is just one example of bureaucracy getting in the way of putting the wet stuff on the hot stuff.

UPDATE   I did not mean to be critical of San Diego News Eight.  I thought they did a good job, better as near as I could tell than any other San Diego channel on covering the Harris Fire.  This was also the opinion of others in East County.  That was why I was watching Eight to begin with.  I understand completely that it was a difficult event to cover.

Comments

[Glenn Reynolds]

Wish you the best, Tom. Let us know if there's anything we can do from a distance.

[Alan Kellogg]

Tom, if you do have to evacuate, keep in mind that the people running the Qualcomm evacuation center are feeling kind of lonely, what with the lack of evacuees and all. Having somebody new to fuss over would do them a world of good.

[smokejumper42]

The correct phrase is put the "wet stuff on the red stuff".

Also, check out the Evergreen International web site - they have these converted 747s ready to use but the Department of Agriculture (USFS) bureaucracy is dragging its feet, along with the FAA.

As you might remember from McCall this summer, it took an Act of God to get the regular air tanker fleet back in the air, as opposed to those crop duster looking things.

Call your mother. She's worried about you.

[News8 Guy]

I'm sorry it sometimes seemed hard to get information.
We were pumping it out as fast as we could get it in, verify it, and produce it. We were getting a lot of contradictory info from various governmental agencies that we had to straighten out.
Plus, think of the scale. The fires were so huge and so spread out, it was hard to get to them all. Our guys worked hard to be in as many places as they could, sometimes in some degree of danger. A lot of us here at the station were evacuated, and one of us was totally burned down.
I apologize if we disappointed, but we sure tried.

[ch alpine girl]

I live here in Alpine. There is smoke real close to my house again. I know it is not a treat as for now. However, I have not heard any updates for our area.

I found your site helpful . Thankyou