Horse Fire, San Diego County

Allan Peterson

Allan Peterson has gone out again to the fire line in Southern California to give a first-hand account. Double kudos for his toughness, because it's really hot out there. (CR)

After observing the effect the Sawtooth Fire had on Southern California, it was no surprise that another fire has sprung up about 60 miles east of San Diego . I spent a few minutes talking with a 20-year veteran of the CDF who was monitoring the fire parking off Highway 8 west of Japatul Road. The smoke was pretty thick over the freeway, and winds were picking up and dumping the soot over Viejas Casino. The CDF fireman didn’t want to go on the record, but he did say that the inversion layer was holding the smoke close to the ground, unlike last night, when around dusk you could see a massive plume arch from the east and move west over San Diego.

This fire is burning in an area that hasn’t burned since 1970. A woman stopped and asked what was going on. Clearly the natives get nervous whenever the smoke descends. It's over 100 degrees out here. And the rain that has fallen in the city of San Diego hasn’t gotten beyond El Cajon from what I can tell.

If the inversion layer holds the smoke close to the ground, they won’t be able to bring the air tankers in to coat the tops of the ridges. By doing that, they hope to keep the fire from creeping down the back sides of those ridges it manages to climb up. All along Japatul road there were CDF units and some other emergency vehicles, but I didn’t see a single police cruiser along the road. There were ambulances near the entrance to the road leading to the Barrett Honor Camp. And there’s a Red Cross emergency shelter set up at Joan McQueen Middle school in Alpine. Right now it looks like it's just wait and see.