The 2007 San Diego Wildfires
The San Diego wildfires have received national media attention as they have burned hundreds of thousands of acres and thousands of structures over the past few days. The fires have primarily impacted the rural and exurban areas with the more densely populated suburban and urban areas left unaffected. The rural areas are prime locations for devastating forest fires as there are large expanses of open space filled with nothing but dry, highly combustible shrubs, grasses, and bushes. Of course, these open areas really aren't truly open anymore. As Southern California has continued to grow over the last several decades, homes have started to encroach into these areas, making these fires more costly and dangerous.
We live in an part of San Diego known as Pacific Beach, which is an urban coastal neighborhood, so we are safe from the fires. In fact, over the last few days there's been a gentle eastward breeze coming off the ocean, resulting in (fairly) blue skies, very little ash, and only a faint smell of smoke. If you dropped someone in here who was unaware of the fires, they'd likely assume that there was a fire somewhere (due to the smell of smoke), but that it was an isolated wildfire off in the mountains somewhere. While PB and neighboring coastal communities have been spared with this light breeze, areas further north along the coast and further inland are blanketed with ash, smoke, and greenhouse-like temperatures from the blanket of smoke trapping in heat.
I've been following the fire news online, primarily, and the best coverage so far in my opinion goes to KPBS's website. They not only provide information through their own website, but also use Twitter, Flickr, and Google Maps. The latest headlines - updated every few minutes - are available on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kpbsnews. They've setup a group at Flickr to share fire photos, and are making great use of Google Maps with this map showing burn areas, evacuation areas, shelters, and other vital information. The only KPBS coverage shortcoming was that their radio station went offline earlier this morning because their transmission tower was in a mandatory evacuation zone. A local music station (94.9 FM) kindly "signed off" and let KPBS broadcast on their station throughout the day.
I'll close with this video of San Diego News 8's Larry Himmel, reporting on his destroyed home. Bummer.