Jan 13, 2025
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) -- A Red Flag Warning lasts across the San Diego County mountains and inland valleys from Monday night until Wednesday at 6 p.m. Preparing for yet another Red Flag Warning at Ramona Family Naturals Market has grown tiring for store owner Victoria Bradley. “I’m ready for the winds to be over,” she said. Entire shelves of produce and refrigerated items went bad in a matter of hours after dealing with power outages from a similar Santa Ana wind event in December. “This is the area that really took a hit,” Bradley said, showing me the coolers with snacks, bread and frozen vegetables. She lost $20,000 in sales alone, and that doesn't account for all the product she had to throw away. “We had an entire dumpster of food that we had to throw away," she said. To prevent that from happening again, she rented out a generator that cost her about $5,000. “They pick [the generator] up tomorrow, so the timing’s not great,” Bradley said. Now, she has to decide if she’ll keep it another week. “This is fire behavior that we typically see in August, September, October, November,” Cal Fire Cpt. Mike Cornette said. He says the dry vegetation and strong winds pose a serious risk of fast-moving fires. “I think it’s not a matter of if it’s going to happen, it’s a matter of when it’s going to happen in San Diego,” Cornette said when asked about the chance of fires. So, he says, Cal Fire has prepared by increasing staffing and bringing additional air tankers to the Ramona Air Base, hoping to keep fires down to ten acres or less. “There’s a hot load at the tail, so they’ll come in and the firefighters will stick that hose into the back of that air tanker and refill them with retardant,” Cornette said as he walked through the process to refill tankers with retardant. Cornette advises against outdoor burning and encourages people to prepare go bags in case a blaze breaks out. Back at the market, Bradley plans to unload the most at-risk items into a walk-in refrigerated truck. “If they shut off the power in the middle of the night, I lose all of this, so we put all of this in the walk-in, so we make sure it’s fine,” Bradley said as he showed FOX 5/KUSI the cooler with the store's deli items. She says she’s preparing for the worst and hoping for the best as she awaits yet another critical fire weather watch to expire. “It’s worth it, and you know, this is hours and hours of work,” she said. You can find the latest updates on Cal Fire’s social media pages or on the Genasys Protect app.
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