It's been quite a week in the Souza family. It all started Sunday night when my mom called me at 9:30pm. She called from their home in Ramona, about 37 miles east of San Diego. I was at home in Roseville, packing for my visit to Ramona the following day. (I was planning on spending the week in Ramona because my mom was scheduled to have knee replacement surgery). When she called, she sounded panicked and was talking fast. She said all of Ramona was being evacuated because of a fire that started near Santa Isabel. I couldn't believe it. She called me earlier in the day and said there were some fires scattered about San Diego County from the Strong Santa Ana winds.....she said my dad was outside hosing down the entire house because there was a slight chance the fire would blow into Ramona. She didn't sound panicked earlier in the day, so I wasn't too concerned. The reverse 911 call came and my folks packed up the cats (9 of them) and grabbed some pictures and hard drives and jumped in the cars. They headed out of Ramona and up to Fallbrook where my brother and his wife live. What normally takes about an hour, took almost 4 hours. Imagine about 30,000 people jamming a two lane road to get out of this mountain valley community. It would be like putting 30,000 people into downtown Placerville all at once. What a mess. So I pretty much stayed up all night worried sick. First thing Monday morning I jumped in the car and drove south. Friends and family in Sacramento asked me why on Earth I would drive into the "belly of the beast." Well, despite the fires, my mom was determined to have her surgery, even if the house burned. I wasn't about to miss her surgery and time spent with her recovering and helping out...I was heading south! Of course, I get a phone call half way down to San Diego...that Pomerado hospital was evacuated....safe to say the surgery was cancelled. I just kept driving...and the drive south was a tough one to say the least. The Santa Ana winds were so strong in the Southern San Joaquin Valley and up the Grape Vine, it looked like the dust bowl. Low visibility and 50 to 60 mph winds while driving. As I was coming down the Grape Vine on I-5, off to the right was Magic Mountain. A huge plume of smoke erupted and it looked like a Volcano exploding. It was the start of another fire. That one eventually destroyed thousands of acres and homes...and is still burning. I scurried down I-5 to 210 to the 15. I was trying to get to Fallbrook by 4pm....but it wasn't meant to be. During the day, fires erupted around Fallbrook, forcing mandatory evacuations there and closing I-15. My family was again packing up and looking for another place to go. I stayed with a high school friend in Temecula Monday night, but kept trying to figure out a way to get to my family. We finally met up on Tuesday morning. Our News1o truck met up with me. Our crew along with my dad drove up to Ramona. Only media and fire crews were using the roads. As we drove up, we noticed thick smoke blanketing the valleys and roads. It looked like Tule Fog, but gold in color. Air quality was terrible. As I sit and write this, my lungs hurt and it's hard to get a deep breath. I have been using a respirator mask, but it only helps so much. Back to the story.....so, we drove past The San Diego Wild Animal Park on our way into Ramona. News reports here say there was some minor burn damage to the park, but the animals were ok. When we arrived in Ramona, we headed to my Aunt and Uncle's house. As we pulled up, it looked like a bomb went off. Nothing but rubble, ash, soot, and smoldering trees. The home I spent some many holidays in and spent so much time at, was toast. This is just one of hundreds of homes burned to the ground in San Diego county, and the fires are still burning. This was also the beginning of the bad news....we spent some time there as my uncle and cousin were sifting through the mess. They didn't have much notice to evacuate, so they pretty much lost everything. My aunt was just too emotional to come see what was left of the house. As I walked around, memories flooded back....memories of cold winter nights making Linguica and Kielbasa (Portuguese & Yugoslavian sausage), big family dinners, watching a Charger game or two and so much more. After the visit, we decided it was time to head to the house my dad built and I grew up in. As we drove across town, most of the hills and mountains were scorched. Many of the hilltops had nothing but a chimney sticking up....a reminder of the beautiful homes that once stood there. We arrived at our house. Some of the trees were burned, but my parents house was still standing. It did look like a hurricane came through. Everything was covered with a thick layer of soot, ash and dirt. Big trees limbs were all over the property. Plants strewn around with broken pots, a hot tub cover blasted off and sitting about a 100 yards away. Shingles all over the yard and a smoke odor and soot inside the house too. We then drove across the street to the 28 acres of avocados my parents planted when I was 5 years old. This is the grove I played in and worked in while growing up. We used to ride our ponies and motorcycles all over the hills in the grove. Every tree was burned. At the top of the mountain, the power lines running through the grove were down and the poles were gone...burned! Lines were sitting on a couple trees, still burning. We called the power company, but it will be days before they get to it. As we left the grove, you could see smoke throughout the Ramona Valley. The top of the mountain where the grove sits, has the most spectacular view of Mt. Woodson. If you haven't heard of Mt. Woodson, it's basically one of the higher mountains in the county. It separates Ramona from Poway and San Diego to the West. On top of Mt. Woodson are dozens of communication towers, repeaters, cell towers etc. As we stared off toward Mt. Woodson, we could see several air tankers and about 6 fire fighting helicopters carrying buckets and dropping the pink fire retardant. They were trying to contain the fires burning all over Mt. Woodson. They were trying to save all those communication towers. So far, they have. Fires are still burning today on Mt. Woodson. Speaking of Mt. Woodson....we have a 10 acres with a house and more avocados out there. So we jumped back in the car and drove 10 miles west to the base of Mt. Woodson. One of the main roads out of Ramona into San Diego and the rest of the county is Highway 67, it wraps around the base of the mountain. It has been closed since early Monday. As we arrived at the 10 acre property, our house there was burned to the ground. All the trees, brush and avocados around it were also blackened. I have never see so much devastation in my life. It's really hard to describe unless you see it first hand, but I will try for you. We hiked around our property at the base on the north side of the mountain. Every few minutes a helicopter with a huge bucket of water would fly right over our heads....it couldn't have been more than 50 yards above us. They would fly about 300 to 400 yards away and drop the load on fires burning near the top of the mountain. The bombers would also fly over head, a little higher than the choppers. The bombers would release the pink retardant. I have so much respect for those pilots putting their lives in harms way to keep homes from burning, communication towers up and most of all, saving lives! GOD bless the firefighters and pilots!!! We snapped some pictures of the air action and our burned property and home, and drove back to the other side of Ramona. As we drove, flames were jumping on the side of the road. I passed several big fire rigs from Vallejo and Fairfield. I just wanted to throw my arms around those guys and tell them thanks for driving all this way to save the homes of people they don't even know. So I would like to thank those firefighters right now in this blog! Yesterday, Wednesday, my family spent the whole day clearing and cleaning the house and property. I was covered with dirt from head to toe....and of course the cats were covered with dirt because they were prancing all over the property. Last night was the first night we sat down and ate as a family, and just took a few minutes to reflect on everything. The pool had a good layer of heavy dirt in the bottom...we got that cleaned up...so I think I might just take a swim tomorrow. :)