The Witch Fire

A friend in Escondido writes:

We are fine although the biggest part of the San Diego Fire (Witch Fire) came within two miles of our house. We are stinky with smoke and lots of ash and our swimming pool is a real mess!!!!!! But we are ok. So many people lost their homes and, thankfully, not too many lives were lost (7). I hope to never see anything this bad ever again in our lifetime. The fire was across the street from the Mall where I work and it was closed for 3 days. It's quite a sight to see our big park across from the Mall with all the fire trucks, equipment and tents, as this was made the headquarters for firefighters. This park is for tennis, skateboarding, softball, soccer, etc. for all the teams. Everything is getting back to normal but we are expecting more Santa Ana winds this weekend. Hope they don't kick up the still burning embers and create more fires.