Impact of WildFire
On October 21, the Harris Fire damaged and disabled the Southwest Power Link, a 500,000-volt power line from Arizona to San Diego. Power outages were reported in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, and other counties on October 22 to 333,500 Southern California Edison customers, most being restored within 24 hours. The power outage also affected the areas of Ojai, Oxnard, Simi Valley, Santa Clarita, Thousand Oaks, Rialto, Fontana, San Bernardino, Rancho Cucamonga, Mira Loma, Hesperia, Corona, Bloomington, Irvine, Calimesa and Rubidoux. This outage also caused 230 people to be without power in Malibu. The California Independent System Operator Corp, or California ISO, declared an energy transmission emergency in southern California on October 23, due to wildfires affecting the lines. 500,000-, 230,000- and 138,000-volt lines were disabled in San Diego, and some lines in other areas were also disabled. 24,992 lost power, due to lack of power from the power grid. Authorities say the evacuations, which have displaced more than 500,000 people, are the largest evacuations in the history of California.
The San Diego Community College District on October 22, 2007, initially closed Miramar College, followed by Mesa College and selected Continuing Education sites in the northern area of the District. Effective at 3:00 p.m. the same day all colleges, campuses and sites of the San Diego Community College District were closed and would remain so through at least October 23, 2007. Students and faculty were urged to seek an update on possible closures on October 23 after 5:00pm local time. Numerous other schools, businesses and universities have closed as well, including California State University, San Marcos, San Diego State University, UC San Diego, the University of San Diego and the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Classes for Tuesday, October 23 have been canceled for all of San Diego Unified School District and Sweetwater Union High School District as well as all other districts in the county and all schools in the municipalities of Tijuana, Tecate and Rosarito, located across the border in Baja California, Mexico.
In the Santa Clarita area, classes and events were cancelled at College of the Canyons and CalArts; local public schools were cancelled as well. All public schools were closed in Malibu, and there were some school closings in Orange County, Ventura County and San Bernardino County.
By mid-morning on October 22, 2007, thousands of evacuees were taking shelter in Qualcomm Stadium and other locations throughout San Diego. On the afternoon of October 22, 2007, the Marines were evacuating some planes from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar to other military bases in California and Arizona. The San Diego Wild Animal Park moved some animals to the on-site animal hospital for their protection.
As of October 22, 2007, with Qualcomm Stadium still hosting evacuees, the San Diego State University football team postponed their Saturday game against BYU to December 1. Some players and coaches have been affected by evacuations. Numerous San Diego area high schools canceled games and practices at least through October 24, 2007. With many players from the San Diego Chargers affected by evacuations, the team has moved practices to Arizona and they may move their upcoming game there as well.
Smoke fills the horizon in East San Diego County, October 22, 2007.