Checking in from Tustin (Santiago fire)...lots of smoke and ash but the wind has shifted for now. We've had the doors and windows shut since yesterday but there is still a strong smoke smell inside the house. We could see the orange glow of the fire in the night sky and now the smoke plume in the daylight.

We are just one mile from the boundary of last night's evacuation area but we live in a highly developed residential area, so hundreds of homes would be burned if the fire got any closer to us. Thankfully, that didn't happen. It did burn right up to one of the major local streets that divides the undeveloped canyons from the residential areas, but I understand that no homes have been lost.

Having lived here all my life, I remember many Santa Ana winds and brush fires in October. However, we had so little rainfall in the past year that the brush is very dry which I believe is making the situation worse this time.

Dena