Wildfires ravage San Diego, sweeping into city limits. Evacuees are being allowed home; President Bush tours area. Cost is over $1 billion.

Taken on Oct. 22, 2007, image courtesy of ESA

For more satellite images from NASA, click here.

Click here for a good, updated map of fire burn areas, evacuation areas, and evacuation centers, courtesy of SignOnSandiego.com.

Friday, October 26, 2007: More and more residents are being allowed back home as the San Diego County wildfires, though still burning, are slowly being reigned in. Conditions have improved in areas to allow return of residents Poway, Escondido, Rancho Santa Fe, San Diego and Rancho Bernardo. The town of Ramona has been repopulated. SDG&E is beginning to re-establish utility service to some affected areas. Qualcomm Stadium will be closed as an evacuation center today, with the remaining evacuees moved to the Del Mar Fairgrounds or other area centers. As of last night, there were 400 people, from a high of 10,000 earlier in the week. The Harris Fire is 20% contained. The Witch is now 45% contained. The Rice fire is now 40% contained. The Poomacha Fire is 35% contained.

Thursday, October 25, 2007: Progress is being made on the primary wildfires (Witch Creek, Harris, Rice and Poomacha) as more evacuees are being allowed to return home to their neighborhoods. President Bush has arrived and is touring San Diego County by helicopter and will meet on the ground with fire crews near Escondido. Most of the fires are being fought in the backcountry areas away from heavily populated centers, but there is still high danger around. Qualcomm Stadium's evacuee population is receding as more residents are returning home to Escondido, Poway, and even portions of heavily hit Rancho Bernardo.

Some numbers from this morning: The Harris Fire is 81,000 and 10% contained. Full containment is estimated for October 31. Currently there are 93 engines, 16 crews, 4 helicopters (2 of which are helitankers) 3 airtankers, 2 dozers, 12 water tenders (1,611 firefighters). Fire behavior remains active in old and extremely dry fuels. Active structure protection continues in Lyons Valley. The Witch Fire is 197,990 acres and 20% contained. There have been 22 injuries to firefighters and it up to $5.3 million in suppression costs. Currently there 325 engines, 45 fire crews, 45 water tenders, 22 dozers (2,619 firefighters). The Rice Fire is 9,000 acres and 30% contained with full containment expected on the 28th. Cost to date for suppressing this fire is $1,283,133. Currently there are 112 engines, 19 fire crews, 13 water tenders, 11 dozers (1,095 firefighters). Firefighters made good progress with perimeter control and structure protection. Evacuation orders still in effect for Fallbrook and outlying areas. The Poomacha Fire is 35,000 acres and 20% contained. Cost to date for suppressing this fire is $950,000. There have been 12 injuries to firefighters. Currently we have 75 engines, 25 fire crews, 1 helicopter, 1 helitanker, 9 airtankers, 10 dozers, (859 firefighters). Firing operations were conducted but were hampered by wind shifts. Firing will continue today. Interior burning was most active within the eastern portion of the incident. Burning trees and rolling material continue to be a safety hazard to resources.

Damage costs of the fires is upwards of $1 billion. It will take a while before San Diego is back to normal.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007: With calmer wind conditions, firefighters continued a full air assault on the wildfires still raging in San Diego. This morning, 14 military water-dropping helicopters were added to the air support to fight the fires. Much of the air assault is being used to fight the Harris fires in the southeastern part of the county near Jamul, where my wife's family has been evacuated from. There has been some good news for evacuated residents - areas of Del Mar, Encinitas, Solana Beach, Scripps Ranch, are being allowed back home. But many areas are still under mandatory evacuation.

A few numbers as of this morning: The Witch Fire has burned 196,420 acres, but now 10% contained, suppression costs are at $2.3 million. There have been 12 injuries to firefighters. There are 1,841 firefighters assigned to this fire. The Harris Fire is now 80,000 acres, suppression costs are at $2.5 million. There have been 7 injuries. 759 Firefighters assigned. President Bush has declared San Diego a federal disaster state of emergency, meaning the President’s signature triggers the availability of Federal aid to supplement local recovery efforts. He is reported to be arriving in San Diego on Thursday.

For updated official emergency information, the San Diego County emergency Web site is the best resource, as the local TV media seems a bit to quick to dispense hearsay from various sources.

Speaking of media, all of the national network news programs broadcast from San Diego: NBC's Brian Williams, CBS's Katie Couric, ABC's Charles Gibson, and CNN's Anderson Cooper were all in town. I guess this wildfire stuff is kinda big news...

2:30 p.m.: Tuesday, October 23, 2007: The raging wildfires continue unimpeded, though less severe weather has allowed firefighting aircraft to make water drops along the Harris fire front as it approached Eastlake and Spring Valley. But the Witch Creek, Harris, and Rice fires continue to burn ferociously with no containment. According to the Union-Tribune, the toll so far is 1,250 homes destroyed, 250,000 acres burned and over 500,000 people evacuated. It is a disaster of epic proportions and there is no one in the city who hasn't been affected by the fires. My wife's parents had to evacuate their home in rural Jamul because of the Harris fire and are now waiting it out at our house, and my sister had to evacuate her home in the Otay Ranch area of Chula Vista last night. Thousands of evacuees are taking refuge at Qualcomm Stadium, others scattered throughout the county at other evacuation centers. I don't know when this is going to get better.

Monday, October 22, 2007: Almost to the day that the 2003 Cedar Fire devastated parts of the city, two fires fueled by drought conditions and ferocious Santa Ana winds, are sweeping through the county and portions of the city of San Diego, prompting mass evacuations and road closures. The Witch fire, starting in the foothills east of Ramona, made its way into San Diego city limits, jumping Interstate 15 and burning homes in the Rancho Bernardo area of the city.

The other major fire, the Harris fire, is spreading in the south portion of the county near the border, in a less populated area and is burning an even larger swath of acreage. There are several more fires in the county and the danger is convergence with the major fires caused by the Santa Ana winds. None of the fires are anywhere near contained.

For up-to-date details on evacuation centers and emergency procedures, check the San Diego County Emergency Pages.

Click here to see a Google Map of all the San Diego and Southern California wildfires.