For all of those who live in southern California, please stay safe. My boyfriend lives in Escondido and they are evacuating. The fires are out of control and the winds are about 85 mph. There is nothing that can be done but watch house after house being burned to the ground. I-15, 78 at certain location is closed and I-5 north is jammed.

It is especially terrible for animals. They get confused and scared. I have lived through a house fire 10 years ago and thankfully even though we lost everything, my family and the dogs were safe.

update- Rancho Santa Fe is being evacuated too.

My prayers are with you all.

Very true Susie to think of these people. I hope everyone is safe & are able to get their animals out before the fire hits. And hopefully people out there can reach out to foster Havs if they are left homeless & the family needs to temporarily relocate & cant take the pups.

They are also saying on the radio for anyone with animals to leave them indoors during the day because they are a lot more sensitive to the smoke than we are. I don't allow my girls to have outdoor access when we aren't home ever. Too many risks.

We aren't near the fires but last night, while sitting on the patio, we could see all the grey smoke clouds in sky in the direction of Malibu. It is so sad.

Amanda

Holy ****!!!!! My uncle lives in Rancho Sante Fe and he is flying home from MA today. He has been on the east coast for a week. I hope he gets home OK and finds a house when he gets there.

When I saw this on the news last night my first thoughts were of my Forum friends and hope all are safe.

Has anyone heard from Susan Eckert? Doesn't she live north of San Diego? I hope she and her family and her dogs are okay!

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers, they are definitely needed. Unfortunately, this is one of our "seasons" here. So often we have major fires in Oct. The Santa Ana winds kick up, the humidity level is in the single digits, all the brush is bone-dry, and the temps are in the triple digits...it all adds up to wildfires. Last I heard there are about 15 burning in various places in SoCal.

We're not in any immediate danger here in Claremont. However, the sky is very ugly with the smoke from the Ontario and Fontana fires.

Did you live in the area many moons ago when firefighters started a backfire without checking the weather first? The Santa Ana winds came up and took out the mountainside from Glendora to around Pasadena in 6 minutes. It woke me up in the middle of the night because the house was full of smoke. It was so bad that I couldn't see anything when I went outside but smoke. I got my Gram and took her out of the area. When I called the fire dept and asked where the fire was, they said it was going so fast that they had no clue. I didn't even know which way to drive to get out of that heavy smoke. When the sun came up we couldn't believe how close that fire came to us or the huge amount of damage it did. We could look up our street and see only one house left standing and it was one that had iceplant planted all around their house. The only thing left of the other houses were their fireplaces

This was really upsetting at the dog show today. A lot of people left before they even showed because they heard about the fires near their homes down south. All the absences left an eery feeling, especially since there were many up here from the San Diego area who didn't have the ability to get home yet.

Two women next to me didn't even think they could get home because of I-5 being closed and they were driving a motorhome. One of the husbands was not able to leave the house, and was caring for their dogs. He had crates all lined up at the front door in case they got the evacuation orders.

The MSNBC.com photo on the home page looks horrible. We went through this on a much smaller scale 18 years ago and it is still very vivid in my mind. I can't imagine the heartache people must experience from losing their home and all their belongings.

I hope all of our members in/near the area stay safe.

Thinking thoughts of safety and sending prayers up for those of you in that area!