Brush Fire In Fallbrook Spreads Into Camp Pendleton, Evacuations Ordered

Speaker 1: 00:00 Right now, there is a brush fire burning in North County. The Creek fire started near Fallbrook and Cal fire now says it has grown to roughly 3000 acres pushed by overnight winds onto camp Pendleton, 7,000 people are evacuated from homes in the Northwestern parts of Fallbrook, including the loos road main Avenue, ceramic road, Deleuze housing and the Lake O'Neill campground on camp Pendleton firefighters worked through the night to contain the fire facing windy conditions. Joining us with the latest is Cal fire captain Thomas chutes. Thomas. Welcome. Thank you for having me. What is the situation right now? Speaker 2: 00:37 So we're sitting at 3000 acres, um, 0% contained, although we're hoping to, uh, to get some confirmation on, on the line, you know, it's tricky, uh, when you're fighting fire overnight, this fire started at 1130 at night. Um, the main part of this firefight, um, was all in darkness. And so there's a lot of, uh, collection of intelligence. Uh, once, once we get a little daylight on it, um, getting the aircraft up there, we did have some aircraft overnight, um, scouting out the fire and given us idea of where it was burning, but, um, definitely getting a bit better picture this morning and, and hoping to, to have some more accurate numbers, uh, to, to go off of how Speaker 1: 01:13 Close is this fire to homes, Speaker 2: 01:15 You know, what burned pretty close, uh, the, to lose road has, uh, several structures along it, um, you know, for, for better or worse that the fire was being pushed by those strong Santa Ana Northeast winds. So the fire never came across to lose road. It, it, uh, ran Southwest and started pushing the entire fire was on camp Pendleton. Um, and then it really was about moving resources around. We, we, uh, started our, our, uh, fire attack where the fire started as per usual, but, uh, once it, once it made a good run and got established, started running up, uh, some of the hillsides we had to come around the front of it, um, come onto camp Pendleton and make sure that we started evacuating a lot of the homes in front of it. And there's a, uh, a number of housing communities on the base that were, uh, right the head of the fire. So it's still a couple hours out from the fire making it to them, but worked on evacuations there. And then we ended up evacuating the West part of Fallbrook, um, due to fears that the wind could shift. And we wouldn't have time to get those folks out of harm's way in time. So you Speaker 1: 02:14 Are still doing evacuations at this point. Speaker 2: 02:17 Uh, yes, we are still doing evacuations, uh, you know, just, uh, in the last 10 minutes or so, uh, sheriff was working on reducing some of those, uh, some of those orders to warning. So, um, I don't have the specifics on that, but, uh, we are working hard to secure those areas, make sure that's the containment lines in that these areas are cooled down so that we can get folks safely back in their homes. Speaker 1: 02:39 If you are living in an area that could potentially be evacuated next, what's the best way to prepare for that. Speaker 2: 02:46 It's important to, to first know what's going on. I mean, you look at the fires starting last night and, uh, it's tough to get information in the middle of the night. And so really having a plan, making sure that you're, you're ready to go at a moment's notice because you might not have a whole lot of time. Uh, sheriffs were driving up and down the road in Fallbrook over the loudspeaker, trying to get people to evacuate because they were pushing it out at two 30, three o'clock in the morning. Um, so, so being ready to go, having a plan for, um, for your family members, for your kids, for your pets, making sure that that you're ready to, uh, to load them up, that you have crates for the pets that you have, all your prescriptions and your eyeglasses and your wallet, keys, and your masks can be his days and, and all this stuff that you're going to need, um, to take with you. Cause you look at the folks who, uh, left their home at three this morning. They're still not back there. And, and now I'm sure there's some people who, who forgot some things that they really wish they would've grabbed. Speaker 1: 03:40 And is there anything that people should be monitoring to know whether or not their area is being evacuated? Speaker 2: 03:46 Yeah. A good start is signing up for, for reverse nine 11 system. The County has a, a good, um, alert SD is what it's called. So you can go to ready San diego.org and sign up for that. It gets your cell phone on the same set up that regular landlines get. So obviously a lot of folks don't have landlines anymore. That's the way that they're able to push out those reverse nine 11 messages when you're being evacuated. So, um, sign up your cell phone, make sure you're signed up ready, San diego.org. And then, uh, and then just make sure that you're following, uh, local media at Cal fire San Diego on Twitter. We, uh, push out notifications for all of, uh, you know, for, for any major wildfire in the County. Um, SD County emergency is where you can go to see the, the emergency notifications that they've pushed out and make sure your wireless emergency alerts are turned on on your phone. Speaker 2: 04:36 Those are the same ones that where you can get the presidential alerts and the, the Amber alerts. Uh, I know sometimes people get, uh, annoyed and they end up turning them off because they, they get too many notifications. But the truth is if you're in a deep sleep, this may be the only way that you wake up and find out about a fire, um, coming to your back door. So please leave those wireless emergency alerts on, on your smartphone to make sure that you, uh, you have the best chance of getting notified when something's happening. Speaker 1: 05:02 Hmm. And the evacuation site is at Fallbrook high school. Do you know what kinds of resources are available for people there? Speaker 2: 05:09 Yeah, so the, so, uh, they're, uh, temporary evacuation points, um, now, and so the idea is that they're not that your typical, um, evacuation site where people come and they stay and it's, um, it's not a shelter, but they do, uh, offer a lot of services. They're able to get, get folks, um, water snacks, um, get them taken care of. And a lot of times it's about, um, these days with COVID about getting somebody, a hotel room and find them a place to stay. Um, you know, we, we we're, uh, we're not in a position where we can have people sleeping in gymnasiums and, and, uh, congregating altogether. And so, uh, the American red cross works hard to get folks, um, set up in hotels and find them someplace to stay. And, and we work hard on our side to, uh, to try and work as quickly as possible so that, uh, we can get them back in their homes and hopefully they don't, they don't have to stay in a hotel for too long. Speaker 1: 06:02 And what do people need to know if they are actually driving in the area, um, what roads are closed and what's the risk if you decide to travel in the area, Speaker 2: 06:10 You know, uh, Deluce road is, is very populated right now. Um, we have a ton of fire equipment working out there, especially anywhere past San DIA Creek. That's where they have the hard closure right now, but really anywhere, uh, along the West side of Fallbrook, um, you know, we ha we have hundreds of firefighters out here trying to, uh, trying to put this thing to bed. And so we just ask for your patients, we know where we're coming into your area and, uh, and, uh, it's kind of a burden when stuff is closed down, but, um, we, uh, we appreciate the support and we do just ask that, um, folks don't focus on gathered to try and take pictures and, and, uh, you know, potentially put themselves in danger or put others in danger. And, uh, we'll, we'll get out of here. We'll, we'll do the best we can, but following the local media to get those, those, uh, um, those, those photos and videos is, is really the best way to do it. Speaker 1: 07:01 Do you all expect the winds will pick up or die off at this point? Speaker 2: 07:05 We're hoping not. Actually, we got a few, a rogue sprinkles out here a couple of minutes ago, which was refreshing, uh, it didn't last long enough, but, um, you know, the winds seem to have died down throughout the morning. We know the red flag warning was, uh, was set to expire at noon, and it sounds like that's still going to be the case. So, um, we're, we're hoping that this, uh, kind of, uh, turns for the better, it sounds like we're going to get a bit of an onshore flow for a bit. Um, and, and really we're, uh, we're trying to just take advantage of the good weather that we have right now. There's, there's a bit of an overcast, it's a bit cooler. Um, the wind's not pushing nearly as hard as it was earlier this morning, and certainly nothing like, uh, like last night and, uh, we're, we're doing the best we can out on the line to take advantage of that. But, but right now, whether it's a huge factor for us, and that's a good thing. Is Speaker 1: 07:54 There any indication of what caused this fire? Speaker 2: 07:57 Nothing as of yet, you know, we know the general area and we do have our Cal fire and law enforcement personnel out there, uh, carrying out the investigation, but it is a bit of a process. They it's, uh, um, like any kind of fire investigation. There's, there's interviews, there's collection of evidence and, and we want to make sure we get it right. These fires are expensive and, and, uh, and, uh, very challenging for the folk, all the folks who get evacuated and everything like that. And w we w we need to make sure we're a hundred percent on, on the cause before we determine it, I will say that roadside starts are nothing new to us. We do get a lot of roadside starts for a variety of reasons. Um, and, and the public can really help us with that part as well. Just making sure that your car is well maintained, that you don't pull off into dry grass. Uh, uh, if something's going on, you find a safe place to pull off that, that there's not vegetation and the little things like that, just making sure, uh, you know, you don't have a catalytic converter that's, that's spitting out pieces. And of course, I, I would hope that nobody's going cigarettes out the window these days, but, um, it, please just realize that every action that you do could, could potentially be catastrophic, especially here in San Diego County. Speaker 1: 09:07 I've been speaking with captain Thomas chutes of Cal fire Thomas. Thanks. Thanks for having me. We will have updated information on the Creek fire throughout the afternoon on all things considered and tonight on evening edition on KPBS television,