[BlueEcho]

I know this probably doesn't belong here but I don't belong to any of the other communities on 2+2 and most of the people I know from 2+2 are here in MTTc or SMTT. If it needs to be moved I understand.

I live in a small town in the east part of San Diego County known as Ramona. Ramona is basically a horse town with most people having large parcels of land outside of main street Ramona. My home is located on a street with 12 other homes each about 1/8 to 1/4 apart and open space preserve behind my home. The street runs east to west with my home being the farthest east home and the exit being on the west end. Behind my home is about 180 acres of open space including a mountain. I hope that paints a picture of the street without being to long.

Just before 10:00am on Sunday (Oct. 21st) I was outside working on my property and noticed smoke coming from the direct east (behind the mountain). So instead of heading inside to get ready for a great day of online poker, I hiked up the mountain. It's about a 25 minute hike to get to a vantage point where the fire can be viewed and it seemed about 4 hills or 10 miles away. I met a neighbor on the way who was doing the same thing and when we got down we spread the word.

I lived through the Cedar Fire in 2003 so I've been preparing for this ever since and I went to work. Most of my property is clear to at least 300 feet around my home as well as other areas that I felt were pivotal in protecting my home. At this time I rolled the John Deere out of the garage and cut anything else down that I could get to. I began watering using my 13000 gal. tank of water. I'm out far enough where city water doesn't exist so I'm self contained on my own well water. Over the course of the next 8 hours I watered everything and everywhere.

The wind was blowing consistently from east to west at about 20-30mph for most of the day. My neighbors and I took turns hiking the mountain to keep up to date with the fire's location. Up until 2:00pm there had been no indication from authorities or anybody but we already knew what was happening anyway. About then a sheriff came up and told us we should evacuate. My wife and I had decided not to leave until in got ugly so we stayed. Rolling reverse 911 calls rang our phone at 3:00pm. Shortly there after a news crew began interviewing people on our street. When asked if we would do an interview I simply stated "No way I'm letting you make me look like one of those idiots that doesn't leave when the hurricane is coming". Even if it's true.

6:30pm

Darkness sets in and the smoke is thick above my street. The darkness makes it very difficult to get to the top of the hill to view progress but the sky is beginning to glow. My truck and the wife's car are pointing away from the house and down the street just in case. The important documents are packed and loaded along with some clothes and valuables. Even the dog has put her collar on. The watering continues as I water the areas around my home until it's just mud. I continue to wet my house inorder to keep the roof and sides damp.

8:30pm

I'm outside at this time with a mask on to filter the air but it's getting worse. Suddenly it looks really bright orange at the top of the mountain. I go inside to check on my wife and in those few seconds the wind triples in strength. It's maybe blowing about 80mph. I look out a window and watch my reflection distort as the window flexs under the force. Visibility suddenly drops to close to 20 feet. I can see the flames from time to time at the top of the hill. I grab the dog toss her in the back of my wife's car and tell my wife to go, I'll be right behind. I watch her drive off and make sure she makes it. I run around back and fire off the water system one more time for good measure. I now can't see thru the smoke and I'm forced to feel my way back around the house to my truck. I jump in and light'em up off of my drive way. From the time I saw my wife drive off, to the time I got in my truck which was about 1 minute the flames had moved 1/2 a mile. As I drove down the hill and away from my home the flames had reached it and surrounded it. Then it disappeared in the smoke.

My neighbors were running too. The neighbor in the first house on the street (about 1 mile from mine) saw me leave, he got jumped in his truck to leave at the same time. The fire covered that distance in less than a few seconds and he suffered minor burns to his arms and hands.

As far as I know everybody made it out ok. There are rumors that at least 2 of the homes on my street didn't make it, but we really don't know which. It's now Thursday and I still don't know anything other than maybe we can go back tomorrow or the next day. The fires are gone but it burned up the water company so there isn't any water for the people in town. Thus the authorities have shut out of all of us even if we are on our own well system. This is easy to do as there is only a handful of ways to enter into the town.

As I finished typing that last sentence I got a phone call from someone I know that is still in Ramona. He drove over to my house............it's still standing. The fire burned everything on my property. He said I now have 10 acres of ash, but the house is intact. It burned right up to 3 sides of the house. But I was a blessed one, the rumors were true 2 of my friends/neighbors weren't as fortunate.

Hopefully the water company will get it's act together soon and I can add pictures to this post.

I feel for everyone affected by this horrible event. That's just my story I'm sure there are countless others far worse and more tragic.