Well from someone based just North of San Diego.......
We are about 20 miles from the fires and located on the coastline. At present the visibility is about 3/4 of a mile in smoke - no flying today.
Luckily the winds are starting to die down and the humidity is set to rise again.
As far as fighting the fires in San Diego go it spread alarmingly fast, and frankly caught everyone off guard. Unfortunatley the majority of fire crews were up North fighting the fires in San Bernadino. The San Digo fire fighting helicopter was deemed a waste of money two weeks ago, so was sent away (not that one aircraft would have a difference - but every little helps). By the time any fire crews were brought back in the damage was done.
The one fact that I don't understand is that San Diego has one of the largest concentrations of military helicopters around. Bases such as Miramar, Pendleton, North Island have a huge number of CH46's, 53's, Blackhawks, Hueys etc sitting around doing nothing, along with their pilots. What politics dictate that they are not airborne? Or is it simply that they do not have the right equipment?