A wildfire in the rugged hills near the U.S.-Mexico border exploded to several thousand acres Friday, charring land near Lower Otay Reservoir before east winds yielded to an onshore flow that may have helped push the fire east toward Dulzura.
Several people awoke Friday — some in the middle of the night — to evacuation orders throughout the Otay Wilderness Area, and evacuation warnings to neighborhoods just west of the reservoir. The blaze, named the Border 2 fire, also triggered school closures and smoke advisories in southern and eastern portions of the county.
Crews spent the week running from fire to fire in the region, as high winds from the east, low humidity and critically dry brush combined to create conditions favorable to flames. But a Pacific storm headed for San Diego County in waves starting late Saturday night could produce enough rain and snow to lower the threat of wildfires.
The Border 2 fire grew Friday to nearly 6,300 acres, the county’s biggest blaze of the week. Nearly 700 firefighters were assigned to the fire, and crews had contained only about a tenth of it as it continued growing.https://wpdash.medianewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/FINAL.-Aircraft-Work-On-Border-2-Fire.mp4
“We are hoping for favorable conditions tonight, and that firefighters can continue to make good progress,” Cal Fire Capt. Robert Johnson said.
The weather change could bring good news.
“Anytime we get increased humidity as well as precipitation, the fire activity tends to decrease,” Johnson said.
No one appears to have been injured, nor have any structures burned.
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High winds overnight Thursday to Friday also led San Diego Gas & Electric to shut off electricity for as many as 20,000 customers countywide, most of whom were in rural and backcountry communities, to prevent power lines from falling over and sparking more fires. Everyone had power restored by the afternoon.
Evacuations
The evacuation area included the Otay Open Space Preserve, the Olympic Training Center and the Pio Pico Campground.
Roy Carmichael, a 66-year-old who lives at the campground in an RV, said he first spotted an orange glow atop Otay Mountain on Thursday night.
“We thought everything was going to be OK,” he said. “But the wind direction changed.” He fled the area around 2 a.m. and was one of dozens who parked Friday at the Regal Edwards Rancho San Diego movie theater, one of three designated spots for the displaced.
Among the group was Carmichael’s 80-year-old neighbor, Jerry Campbell. He hadn’t been able to hook up his trailer to an SUV in time, and the two men were worried that Campbell’s RV might be lost if the campsite burns.
Roughly 600 people are under an evacution order, and another roughly 6,800 are under an evacuation warning, according to county officials.
In addition to the theater, which has since closed, the second evacuation point is Southwestern College in Chula Vista at 900 Otay Lakes Road. Chula Vista police said the latter site was for residents living south and west of the lake, and few people were there when a reporter visited around noon.
Officials later closed the Southwestern College evacuation point and added a different location where evacuees would be able to sleep and eat: Cuyamaca College by 900 Rancho San Diego Parkway.
By late afternoon about 50 people had showed up. Most, if not all, came from the RV park. The Red Cross handed out food and water while the county’s animal services department arrived with crates and blankets. At that point, just one cat was in need of aid.
Closures
Plumes of smoke were visible from as far as Del Mar.
The San Diego County Air Pollution Control District sent out an air quality advisory for southwestern, central and eastern San Diego County. The affected communities included El Cajon, Alpine, Pine Valley, Jamul and surrounding areas
Concerns about the quality of the air helped shutter a number of schools Friday, from Eastlake High to Arroyo Vista Charter. Eight institutions from the Chula Vista Elementary School District closed their doors. The same went for schools in the Dehesa, Mountain Empire Unified and Warner Unified districts, according to the San Diego County Office of Education.
Southwestern College moved to remote learning Friday.
“Air quality is what we’re mostly concerned about,” said Brian Melekian, who runs the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center, a facility facing an evacuation warning.
There are not currently any evacuations underway at prisons or jails.
The sheriff’s department did suspend visits at three county jails in the Otay Mesa area and outdoor activities have been canceled at the Richard J. Donovan state prison. That complex is only a few miles southwest of the fire, but the blaze appears to be moving away from prisoners and officers.
The fire
Cal Fire first posted about the flare-up mid-afternoon Thursday, saying on social media that some brush had ignited along the Otay Mountain Truck Trail. Soon after, the Air Pollution Control District warned residents in the southwestern part of the county about smoke.
Johnson, the Cal Fire captain, said about 200 firefighters were initially deployed. That total more than tripled when the blaze spread out in multiple directions. Crews were seeing “some extreme fire behavior,” Johnson said shortly after 4 a.m.
Although the speed has since slowed, the captain remained concerned about the wind blowing embers to other parts of the county — and gusts picked back up late morning.
The region continues to suffer from a lack of rain, low humidity and fast-moving Santa Ana winds, setting the stage for small fires to quickly grow. The National Weather Service put San Diego valleys and mountains under a red-flag warning — meaning the conditions were perfect for a fire — until at least 10 a.m. Friday.https://wpdash.medianewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SUT-L-BORDER2-FIRE-VIDEO-FRI-MORN.mp4
A crowd of police officers, firefighters and other officials watched planes and helicopters drop water on the blaze from county Fire Station 38, which serves as the local command center. The planes had to refill farther north in Ramona, but the helicopters could use the nearby reservoir.
Leaders hope that body of water will protect Chula Vista’s Otay Ranch neighborhood.
Cal Fire was using 10 helicopters as of Friday morning and Johnson said crews were “making good progress.” Firefighters from Northern California had luckily arrived in the San Diego area earlier in the week. One man from Sacramento said his team previously helped battle the Palisades fire in Los Angeles County.
Gusts from the east were at one point blowing at nearly 30 mph around Otay Mountain and the relative humidity was just 2 percent. Although a storm may be coming, rain isn’t likely to arrive until the weekend. Forecasters said the weather will cool Saturday while scattered showers might reach the fire by Sunday.
Approaching storm could reduce wildfire threat across San Diego County this weekend
Lin Green, another resident of the Pio Pico Campground, hadn’t been sure that she had enough gas in her RV to make it to the evacuation point.
“I had paid all my bills and thought, ‘Well, I don’t really need gas until the 31st,’” she said. After seeing the order to leave, she thought about taking only a car and abandoning the RV. “But this is home,” she added, her RV safely parked near the theater. “We just couldn’t leave it.”
For a map with updated emergency evacuation information visit: OES Emergency Map.
Staff writers Kelly Davis, Rob Nikolewski and Gary Robbins contributed to this report.
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