Israel Balderas Blogs From California Wildfires

The KFOX team arrived in San Diego just before 4 a.m. Wednesday. Israel Balderas has been blogging about his experience to give viewers an inside look into what thousands of California residents are facing.

4:11 a.m.

We just crossed the Vieja Indian Reservation and arrived in Alpine, California to refuel. Coming over the mountain range, you could feel the winds pushing the news truck. As we were driving up to Alpine, we could see fires to the south and north of our location. Because Alpine is located between a mountain range, you could see smoke haze on the horizon. There are several fires to the north of us located in the Flinn Spring Park area. As we got back on Interstate 8 heading west toward San Diego, we saw three different fire areas. Right now, it is 4:11 El Paso time, and we should arrive in San Diego within 20 minutes. The big story on the radio news station is the evacuation of Camp Pendleton. More to come...

4:20 a.m.

Driving on Interstate 8, we see residential and businesses located next to the freeway. But, just south of the freeway approximately 15 miles away, you can see several fires on the horizon. What is surprising to me is how close those fires are to these housing areas. All around us, we see and smell smoke haze.

4:30 a.m.

We just heard on the radio that officials will begin to evacuate Julian, California. That is a town east of Alpine, CA where we stopped to refuel...

7:30 a.m.

After shooting a couple of news stories at Qualcomm Stadium, we drove to the FOX affiliate here in San Diego. We had worked it out with them prior to our departure from El Paso to use their facilities to feed video back to the station. While George (my photographer) and I worked out the technical logistics of feeding video from one place to another, the producers at the station wanted me to be live on set and explain what stories we were following. The morning show at FOX 6 had been on the air overnight and through the afternoon (Ironman Team). I went on set (without makeup, shower and wearing a baseball hat) talking about the volunteers heading from El Paso to San Diego. They asked me about the drive from El Paso and what we observed on the road (see prior postings).

By coincidence, we met the director of the show who is a fellow El Pasoan. Actually, he and George Cervantes went to high school together. We plan to do a piece on his work for Thursday.

After leaving the station, we drove north on I-5 to Camp Pendleton. We ran into several State Highway Patrol roadblocks because the several fires were raging east of I-5. The cops let us through as most news crews are following the fires. We stopped at one sight where you can see several fires off to the mountains.

4:21 p.m.

After taking a three hour nap right after our morning news gathering, George and I were back at it again. We met up with a young family formerly of El Paso. Both of them have been locked in their homes since Sunday. For one, their employer (University of Phoenix) closed all of their San Diego campuses either because the fires were close to their property or many of their employees had to evacuate their homes. But also, their young son Gael has been unable to go outside do to the smoke haze. When we arrived at their home, Gael was crying due to the harsh breathing conditions. In our report, we are going to ask them about their weeklong experiences being locked up at home. Also, they were told to keep a bag packed with clothes and children necessities. The fires came as close at 5 miles away from their home. In one of the sound bytes from the interview, they described how the ashes fell from the sky like snow flakes.

5:54 p.m.

We just arrived back at Qualcomm Stadium where all the news vehicles are located. In just a few minutes, we will send our video elements back to the station. Most likely they will air on Thursday morning during the KFOX Morning News Show. Stay tuned...

6:27 p.m.

While George wraps up the morning news package, I'm taking a walk back inside the Stadium. What a difference from the morning. At that time, it was quiet because most evacuees were sleeping and the volunteers were just arriving. Now, it feels like a carnival. Most people remain optimistic and hopeful. The volunteers have set up areas for kids to play. There are tents set up for people to use laptops or cell phones. Also, there are booths for crisis counseling and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) response. There is a group of college students (perhaps psych majors) who are going around just laughing out lloud. They say it is good for the soul.

7:16 p.m.

I just witnessed, a large crowd of Hispanics arriving at the stadium. It looked like they were following a rock star. Guess who it was? Piolin, radio DJ who is heard locally in El Paso on KBNA. He was surrounded by hundreds of people. I had to explain to, many observers who Piolin is. While they did not recognize his name, once I mentioned the immigration rallies, they quickly realized his importance.

10:50 p.m.

Finally, George and I can get a good 5 hours sleep...Back on the air bright and early.

3:00 a.m

This morning, the crew woke up at around 3am San Diego time to get ready for live shots. When I walked out to the news truck to load up all our camera and computer equipment, the smell of smoke was everywhere. The full moon had a shade of red because of the haze surrounding this region.

Our morning producers sent the crew to Rancho Bernardo, where many of the neighborhood homes burned completely down. Our truck had to go through several road blocks because some individuals have tried to loot the evacuated homes. We heard on the radio that a group of 18-year-olds broke into a house to steal beer. .

6:00 a.m.

So, for the 6am morning hit, we planned to call to the station and do a live report through the phone. But due to technical problems, we HAD to use a hard line so that my voice would be clear over the air. We kept driving around in one neighborhood looking for a convenience store or gas station, but we couldn't find an old-fashioned pay phone. So, we finally found an ARCO store (similar to a Circle K), and I walked in to ask if I could borrow a phone and make a long distance call. We told the guy that we were a news crew from El Paso covering the fires out in San Diego and needed to call back to the station to do a phone report. It turned out that the overnight clerk was from Juarez. He let us make the call back to El Paso and I was able to do a live report for the 6am hour. After my news package ran, I interviewed him over the phone. What a small world.