Marilynn provides a wealth of local detail in her letter. The link below opens a map of the area to help with the place names. You can zoom in and out for more details; turn on the satellite view for a sense of the terrain. -RC

Dear Rees,

It's really been scary. When it first happened I grabbed the craziest things to put in my car and every day added more things. It's amazing what you do when you get panicky. I live in Lakeside, but closer to downtown Lakeside. North Lakeside was really in trouble. I thought for sure if we weren't hit, it would at least be very close. Thankfully my mobile park up on the hill was completely safe. La Mesa, where my daughter, sister and brother live was safe. Most of San Diego, meaning the original San Diego, Lemon Grove was safe. Northern San Diego lost a lot of homes. There were almost 1500 homes burned to the ground and still counting. I think there were only 4 or 5 actual fire deaths. 5 others not contributed to the fire itself. I personally, physically am not affected, but since my livelihood is from my business since 1988, a house cleaning business, I have had several clients have to call off my duties. Meaning less money. Oh well. It's only money. Then, of course, my coolant and power steering fluid were leaking, so I had to get my car fixed, borrow my daughters car to go to the one job I had that next day.

My neighbor went to Spring Valley to her daughters to be safe. Then we were the safe ones and her daughter was evacuated. The fire seemed to go all around us. The Harris fire was really bad. Starting way south and going all the way to Spring Valley. My neighbors friend lived in Pauma Valley, I think, and her house burned to the ground. That's the only one I know of personally. This is suppose to be the worse fire in this area since the 1600's. They are finally letting people into Ramona, but they cannot use their water, at all. They can just sleep in their own beds. I have a rich client who was in Omaha when this happened. He lives in the Country Estates, a part of Ramona. I told him to stay there, but he came home. I haven't talked to him yet, but I'm sure he got there. To go to his place, I have to go up Wildcat Canyon Rd. That's the road where most of the people died in the fire 4 years ago. It's a very dangerous road in the best circumstances. Barona Casino is on Wildcat Canyon Rd. No one can go up it yet and I sure am not going to try. He may have to wait to get his wash done. That fire was called the Witch Creek fire.

All in all, this was much more organized than the last fire 4 years ago. But, the helicopters still took awhile getting here. Something stupid about being certified. The helicopters have private arrangements with companies and have to get their permission first. In the old days, everyone would just grab a bucket and start putting out the fire. No one needed to be certified. If the helicopters could've been here an hour after the fire started, a lot of homes could've been saved.

I also heard of some crazy people starting fires just for fun. A friend said she heard that 50 illegals got caught up in the fire and surrendered themselves to be sent back to Mexico. Before these fires, we have had several smaller ones started by the illegals starting small fires to cook with in the back brush. They 'live' behind the expensive homes in North County and actually all over the place here. They leave a lot of garbage and junk all over. This doesn't help us with our fire prevention.

Gov. Arnold, Pres Bush, Duncan Hunter, Darrel Issa, Brian Bilbray, Diane Finestien, Susan Davis and others all came here. They were amazed how smoothly the evacuations were. No one whined and begged for help. The people who went to Qualcomm and all the other places just started organizing the food, entertainment for the kids, places to find people, etc, etc. It was nothing like the craziness in New Orleans with Kratrina. San Diegans get right in there and help themselves and everyone else. The air is getting better and they are in hopes of having the fires gone by Oct 31st. They said the last embers should be by Nov. 5th. Our radio and some TV has been 24/7 fire info. It's really been a nightmare, but thankfully it's almost over now.

Sorry I didn't answer sooner, but last night (Wed) was when my car 'broke', so I had to spend the night at my daughters and got home late tonight (Wed night) It's almost 5 am now and I have to be at work at 9 am, so I better get some sleep. It's so strange when this kind of thing happens, even though my place was out of danger, just having it all around you is really exhausting. And really so sad for all the people who were directly effected.

Hope this helps you a little. I'm sure I rambled on and hopefully came up with the right information for you.

Good night (morning??), Marilynn Brown

Local Maps of the Fire Areas