Joseph Natividad

Classes Cancelled due to Wildfires

I woke up to loud yelling and laughing outside my dorm. I got out of bed to see what the fuss was all about and my suitemate approached me with a giant bear hug. It turns out that classes are cancelled today due to the spreading fires across Southern California. San Diego State, UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine still seem to be open though.

The people in my building don?t seem to mind. I?m supposed to be in my Music and Film discussion right now. Instead I suddenly have all this time to catch up on my reading and studying for this week?s batch of midterms.

Homes in places like Rancho Bernardo are burning down and residents from all around the area have been advised to move out if they spot a fire in the distance. Qualcomm Stadium and a number of high schools in the area have been converted into makeshift evacuation zones. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in San Diego, Los Angeles, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Irvine, Ventura and san Bernardino last night.

I noticed the smoke in the air late yesterday afternoon. I began to choke and saw flakes of ash floating around me not too long after. When I got back to my dorm and looked in the mirror, I could see black flakes all over my face and my clothes smelled like smoke.

The video footage above was sent to me by a friend at UC Irvine. It was taken with his cellphone at about 6PM last night. You could see the blanket of smoke beginning to take over the sky — a sight I never experienced when I was living in the Bay Area.

Tags: fire, qualcomm-stadium, rancho-bernardo, san-diego, san-diego-state, uc-irvine