the fires in San Diego County (Chula Vista, Oceanside: work, weather, friends)

[maddball26]

Hi everyone. This firestorms we are having here in San Diego is totally crazy!!!! It seems like a dream. I dont want to be mean or nothing, but it seems to me that the NEWS is only focusing on the WITCH FIRE in the rich areas of san diego and they dont seem to care about the poorer people in the harris fire and stuff like that.

So tell me what you think.

Thanks,

Jason

[Sampaguita]

I woke up at 2am and most of the coverage on NBC and ABC was about the Mt. Miguel fires and Spring Valley (which is more concerning to me because of its location).

I also thought the news was slanted in its coverage of RB and RSF; friends from San Marcos/SEH never did find out via the news what's going on in their own neighborhoods.

They are talking a lot about Spring Valley/Mt. Miguel this morning though.

[kettlepot]

Well, it took the national news about 2 days before they could pry themselves away from Malibu. Perish the thought that a prominent celebrity should be inconvenienced. I was beginning to think San Diego would have to burn to the ground before they'd ever lead a newscast with San Diego.

[Imperial1904]

I thought the news was covering the biggest fire? I've heard a little news from the one in South Bay.

[Sampaguita]

The biggest fire is definitely the Witch fire so it would naturally get the most coverage. It's just that it does seem slanted because that area does have all the more affluent areas of San Diego County.

[Sassberto]

Witch Creek Fire is almost 5x as big and thus far as affected much more populated areas than the Harris Fire. However now Harris Fire is getting a lot of attention because it is approaching the south end of Spring Valley and the far eastern edge of Chula Vista. Both of those areas share a fire barrier - Mt Miguel .

If the weather cooperates and we can get some onshore flow as well as relief from the gusting, weather conditions will often naturally contain a fire on the windward side of a mountain. The fires burn uphill against the wind into the already-burned scrub, which eliminates the fuel sources.

The areas to be concerned about will be the western fringes of Mt Miguel, i.e. Proctor Valley Road, Otay Lakes Road, and Jamacha Blvd near the Sweetwater resovoir (another natural barrier).

As for the Witch Creek fire, it is a straight shot up a network of mostly open canyons from the ocean to Lake Poway, Mt Woodson and Iron Mountain. That means almost all of the interior coastal foothills of Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encintas / Olivenhain / Del Mar, Carmel Valley, RSF are at risk. The fire seems to be trending along the Del Dios Highway. As long as the winds stay down I do not think you will see the fire approach the 5 corridor.

[jksouthbay88]

Yeah they focus on that the most.Believe it or not that might not affect the most number of people.The fire where I am at can knock out over a half million people!!!The news' main focus is always North County before South Bay.It's been like that for as long as I can remember.If a lady looses her dog or runs away in the N.County and someone gets robbed or killed down here in the South Bay,they will cover the North County story first!!!Networks like 6,8,9 are all over the W.C. fire.And 7/10 seem to be covering the Harris/Mt Miguel fire more.

[eastsandiegobornandraised]

Originally Posted by kettlepot

Well, it took the national news about 2 days before they could pry themselves away from Malibu. Perish the thought that a prominent celebrity should be inconvenienced. I was beginning to think San Diego would have to burn to the ground before they'd ever lead a newscast with San Diego.

I noticed that too, typical media

[Sampaguita]

After the Today Show broadcast, all my relatives and colleagues from the East Coast started calling in panic. Every single person used the words "it looks horrifying!". They all thought that the fires were just in Malibu. Now, we're international news. My cousins in the Philippines have been IMing and friends' relatives are talking about how the San Diego fires are all over the airwaves in Sydney (Australia).