Fire reverses course in Escondido

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Kyle Ulrich and his wife woke up at 2:30 a.m. and saw the fire coming their way. Sleepy-eyed, the 55-year-old Ulrich left his home on Donee Diego Drive in the San Pasqual Valley to rouse his neighbors, who were already up, knocking on doors and alerting each other to the oncoming blaze.

‘The flames just came ripping up the valley super fast,’ Ulrich said.

He and other neighbors watched the flames travel about a mile down the hill, thinking they were safe. But a few hours later the flames made a turn.

‘The fire came back up and headed toward my house,’ Ulrich said.

He and his wife packed quickly, grabbing their tax and insurance forms, two cases of Stone Brewery Beer, a few antique shotguns and a change of clothes.

‘We just basically split,’ Ulrich said.

The couple has lived in the house 12 years and said they have ‘had a lot of close calls, but a fire has never jumped the whole valley.’

He went first to his sister’s house near Lake Hodges, but they were in the midst of their own evacuation. They then fled to Ulrich’s 86-year-old mother’s home in central Escondido, accompanied by their Rottweiler, Otto.

-- Christine Hanley, Escondido