Hi, everyone. It's Tuesday morning and the fires are definately not over yet--there are at least two main ones still burning in east San Deigo county. The amount of smoke in the air is incredible; at my house you can barely see down the block from the smoke and there is a thin layer of ash covering everything. The smoke smell does come in the house, but it's not as bad as outside. They are telling people to stay indoors for health reasons.

I was out of town when this started, and heard on the news about the fires. It was hard to get information about which specifc areas were threatened, so it was very scary. Oreo was staying at a kennel, which is near the coast so she was safe. Kona was at my home, with planned visits from my family. I got a call from my sister that she had to evacuate Kona from my house late Sunday night. Our neighborhood was told to evacuate, but we have returned and there wasn't any damage. I drove home Monday morning as fast as I could, but you could imagine how long those 5 hours seemed!

I stayed home from work today in case K & O need to leave again. This is really stressful!

ramanth--I grew up in Jamul and my parents still live there. I know that last night some parts of Jamul were evacuated so the fire crews could start backfires to gain more control. Those area have since been re-opened and seem safe for now. My thoughts are with your aunt. PM me if you want to know about specific areas.