Freeways are jammed and air quality has closed schools and workplaces.

Freeways are jammed and air
quality has closed schools and workplaces.

STAFF/WIRE REPORTS

Some transplanted Ohioans living in Southern California are hunkered down, forced to stay inside to avoid breathing thick smoke and ash from raging wildfires.

“The air quality is horrible; you can’t get fresh air anywhere and it’s almost 100 degrees. You can even smell the smoke in downtown San Diego,” said Austintown native and former Marine James Castrodale. “It looks like LA smog, and we normally don’t have that.”

Until 5:30 a.m. Monday, Castrodale lived in the La Terraza apartments in Rancho Bernardo. He was told to evacuate, thinking it would just be temporary, and then learned Tuesday night that fire had destroyed his condo complex.

“I lost everything. I lost all the photos I ever had of family and from when I was in the Marines and all my Marine stuff; it’s all irreplaceable,” Castrodale said. “I was lucky. I got a room at the Hyatt in downtown San Diego. They’re offering reduced rates, being really good to people, charging $129 versus $300 [a night] and you can bring pets. They’re not trying to take advantage of anyone.”

Castrodale, 28, a Vindicator carrier when he was 14 in Austintown, served four years in the Marines and is now an operations manager for an environmental company. “We’re client-driven and still waiting for them to open; many are closed,” he said.

So far, there’s been minimal containment of the wildfires, Castrodale said, with new ones continuing to break out. He said firefighters will likely have to let some of the fires run to the ocean.

“The air quality is so bad we’re not supposed to go outside. It’s hard to breathe, the smoke is so thick. I’ve had the house closed up since Sunday,” said Georgann Sandoval, originally from Cortland, who lives in Escondido with her husband and two teenage daughters. “It’s dark outside from smoke, the air very heavy and the humidity low so it’s very dry. My van is covered with ash.”

She said the schools are closed until Monday in San Diego County.

“I work for an ophthalmology practice, but my doctor was evacuated,” said Sandoval, who moved to California 20 years ago. She said she doesn’t think they’ll be evacuated but is prepared if it happens. The family could seek shelter at her sister’s in Poway, Calif., or Qualcomm Stadium, home of the NFL’s San Diego Chargers.

Sandoval, 43, said there are two fires in her area — one is about 12 miles away to the north, called the Rice Fire — and the second is east behind a mountain, called the La Hoya Indian Reservation Fire.

“My husband went to work Monday. It took him 3 1/2 hours because of the freeway closures. It usually takes him an hour. His construction site in Spring Valley was evacuated Tuesday,” Sandoval said. “There’s news about the fire on every channel, no other programming.”

When asked how she’s passing time in confinement, Sandoval said: “My house is very clean and the laundry’s done.”

Sandoval said she went to a pharmacy Tuesday and described it as crowded, with most people wearing protective masks. The customers were quiet and looked somber and worried, she said.

Anne Harvey, Sandoval’s 48-year-old sister in Poway, said the fire is about 10 miles from her. “The sidewalk is black from ash. We’ve been keeping the cars in the garage.”

Harvey went to a Costco on Tuesday and found it closed, as was the Home Depot. The parking lots, though, were filled with the motor homes of displaced people camping out.

Her teenage daughter is home from school, too, because of air quality. Some of the girl’s classmates were evacuated from their homes.

Harvey has been in California for 30 years. She is a configuration analyst — computer work — at Northrop Grumman, a defense contractor. Air quality kept her home Monday and Tuesday, but she returned to work Wednesday.

The fires started Sunday. Forecasters said Wednesday the Santa Ana wind whipping across Southern California will begin to weaken, followed by cooling sea breezes. The 16 wind-fed wildfires have destroyed nearly 1,300 homes and forced the largest evacuation in the state’s history.

“When I drove to work Monday, up near Del Mar, there was ash falling on my car, and then we got evacuated from the building,” said former Howland resident Bryan DiBacco, 29, who moved to San Diego in 2004. “I don’t go back to work until Monday due to air quality.”

DiBacco, who works in real estate, said his apartment is probably 15 miles from the fires. He said the sky, usually blue, is now gray from smoke — “It’s absolutely amazing.”

He was on alert for evacuation to Qualcomm Stadium. He said 24 shelters have opened up in San Diego County.

“My mom’s a nervous wreck, me being her only son,” DiBacco said. His parents, Don and Lynda, live in Warren.

Pat Perry, who moved to just south of Escondido from Youngstown about a month ago, said he had to evacuate to stay with friends in Temecula, just north of San Diego. Perry, who lived in California for about 10 years, came back to Youngstown to care for his mother, who has since died. He grew up in Hubbard and went to Ursuline High School.

Perry, 54, said fire spread to his friends’ horse ranch in Escondido. He pitched in to move the horses to what Californians call a safe zone.

“We got the horses out, and so far the house is still standing, but it’s surrounded in flames,” Perry said. “In the middle of the day the sky was black on Tuesday. We wore eye goggles and face masks.”

Perry, who does athletic footwear marketing, said it’s amazing how everyone clings together to help.