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Oddly enough, the skies are still fairly clear in our neigborhood, though the smell of smoke is still prevalent and there is a light dusting of ash on the ground. Closer to downtown, there is ash visible in the air, but not as thick as it was during the Cedar fire. We’re fortunate enough to be out of the path of any of the fires, but these fires are definitely affecting many more people than the Cedar fires of 2003, especially in North County. Some areas of east Chula Vista (mostly Eastlake neighborhoods) are under optional evacuation orders as the Harris fire creeps closer northeast from the Lower Otay Reservoir to Sweetwater Reservoir.

KPBS created a great Google map showing the extent of the fire, as well as evacuation areas and evacuation centers.

A Flickr pool has been created to collect photographs from the fires; almost 50 pictures so far.

A coworker just sent the pictures below, taken from the backyard of her home in Spring Valley. As you can see in one picture, helicopters have been dropping water in the open space behind her house in an attempt to halt the spread of the fire. (This is the northeastern front of the Harris Fire, which originated near the Mexican border).