Fighting Fires in San Diego

First of all, hats off to all the firefighters, police and emergency workers here in California. They've been working tirelessly for 4 days and their job is far from over.

On Sunday and Monday, the only fire fighting that was being done was at ground level. Winds were gusting at from 70-100 mph and prevented the water-dropping helicopters and fixed wing aircraft from flying. Finally, late on Monday afternoon, some were able to take off. After the sun goes down, they're done flying. On Tuesday, they were able to go up and start work, both civilian and military helicopters. We also got word that the big C-130s had arrived in California and were loading up with fire retardant, but none were seen in the air. Why?.... Well, after the big Cedar fire 4 years ago, it was discovered that due to a law passed in the 1930s, civilian government was unable to make use of the tremendous military assets here in San Diego. Since then, things have changed, but the new law needs some fine tuning. There were plenty of assets, but each military helicopter and plane is required to have a trained California spotter on board in order to fly and all the spotters were occupied with currently flying aircraft. That effectively grounded the much-needed C-130s. Duncan Hunter, one of the local Congressmen, started asking questions and eventually, after contacting the commander of the Pacific Fleet and our local and state authorities, he managed to arrange for waivers of the restrictions and now only one spotter is needed for an entire grouping of aircraft. At last the big guns are arriving and making some progress.

Although fires are still raging on the eastern front, the western front is largely under control and many residents are being allowed back into their neighborhoods. The city of San Marcos where our son and daughter in law live has given the all-clear to the entire city so they'll be able to head home whenever they're ready.