Steve Fisher’s family was able to return home Wednesday after the California wildfires had forced the Fishers to drop everything and flee.
“We had 70-m.p.h. winds Sunday night,” the San Diego State basketball coach told me. “Around 5 o’clock we heard a crash. A 150-foot Torrey pine uprooted in our yard.
“They told us to evacuate Monday morning. Who would have thought a fire could jump the 5 Freeway and keep coming toward you? Now that’s a frightening sight.”
Bill Frieder’s home is about a half-mile from that of Fisher, who replaced him as Michigan’s basketball coach during the NCAA championship season of 1988-89.
“I was in New York when the fires broke out,” Frieder said on his cell phone Wednesday just as he was pulling into his Del Mar, Calif., driveway. “My wife’s 90-year-old mother was here and Steve helped to get her to a hotel. I guess we have a lot of smoke damage, but everybody’s OK.”
Chuck Long’s family had to be evacuated from its house in nearby Poway. Every member of the San Diego State football coach’s staff also had to leave their homes.
“You and I grew up with blizzards and tornadoes. At least with a tornado you know it’s coming,” said Long, a Wheaton native who as Iowa’s quarterback finished second to Bo Jackson in the 1985 Heisman Trophy vote.
“I’ve never seen anything so dangerous as this. We had tornado-force winds Sunday night. Trees were bent over. A neighbor called me Monday around 5 in the morning and he said, ‘I think we’d better get out of here right now.’ We hadn’t received the reverse 911 call to evacuate yet, but we didn’t hang around and wait for it. We got out.”
Rick Smith’s family lost its San Diego house in the Scripps Ranch district to similar wildfires in 2003. They rebuilt on the same spot. Now it’s in danger again.
“I’m waiting by the phone to hear,” said Smith, the long-time media relations director for the NFL’s Rams, when I reached him in St. Louis. “It’s our dream house. Our daughter ran up to the house to grab what she could. I told her to be sure to get the architectural plans in case we have to rebuild it from scratch all over again.”
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Thousands with athletic ties found themselves in the line of fire during what CNN reported as “the largest U.S. evacuation since the Civil War.”
Fisher’s and Long’s athletes spent countless hours at Qualcomm Stadium, passing out blankets and clothing to families that had gone there for shelter.
“They’ve been unbelievably great,” Long said. “This is like a war zone.”
San Diego State’s baseball coach, Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, owns a home near Long’s and also had to evacuate. He and his wife saw on the TV news which areas were being most affected by smoke and flames. They fled just as their power went off.
The nearby home of San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy was evacuated as well. Chargers general manager A.J. Smith’s home was reportedly in danger.
In the exclusive Rancho Santa Fe region 30 miles north of downtown San Diego, 40 homes burned to the ground and those belonging to athletes such as Padres relief pitcher Trevor Hoffman and golfer Phil Mickelson remained in jeopardy as the inferno continued to spread.
The Poway home of former major league baseball star David Justice was reported destroyed. That of former New York Giants and LSU head coach Bill Arnsparger possibly was as well.
“That’s what I heard about Justice and Arnsparger,” the Rams’ Smith said. “I know Phil Nevin’s was in danger, too, but I heard it survived.”
Nevin, who played for the Cubs briefly in 2006, confirmed that his house was OK. As for the neighborhood, Nevin told a San Diego newspaper, “It looks like Mars.”
Long said the air quality was so poor, it was difficult to breathe for anyone who went outdoors for more than a few minutes’ time. He has called off Aztecs football practice indefinitely and Saturday’s game with BYU has been postponed until Dec. 1.
“We’re all still on pins and needles here,” Long said.
Fisher, who once was the basketball coach at Rich East in south suburban Park Forest, has seen natural disasters and inclement weather of all kinds, but none quite like this.
“You always worry when they say a fire’s coming your way,” he said. “But when they say a fire’s on its way and you and your neighbors better not wait one more minute to get out of there, that’s a scary thing to hear.”
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