"Armed" National Guard to help in San Diego County

[itsrobert]

Just heard, we are getting National Guard help, they will be armed. Why? I don't know. This was just reported on KFMB Channel 8 at 7:36 Pacific Time.

[kurth]

1. Nobody called Blackwater yet?

[begin_within]

5. The ranch Blackwater wants to build on miraculously escaped being burned (so far), while

the neighboring community around it was hit hard by fire. An inside job, to wipe out the complaining neighbors and clear the way for Blackwater to move in without neighbors complaining? You be the judge.

[Webster Green]

2. To prevent looting? (n/t)

[haele]

10. Actually, there was a problem with looting - and not in the rich areas

Some of the reporters early on made it clear that if they saw any vehicle that looked suspicious (pickups with young men cruising a evacuated neighborhood, etc) they were going to take down licence plate numbers and call the cops.
Lots of vultures out there that are looking for easy pickings, and not only are these creatures taking from distressed families, they're taking away from resources that should be used fighting the fire by putting themselves in a potentially dangerous area.

Haele

[begin_within]

3. To defend Janet Jackson's home in Rancho Santa Fe from looters?

[nonconformist]

4. To discourage looting, probably....

[mrdmk]

6. To stop the looters. There 250,000 people who had to leave their home

including my family. Ripe for the pickings if you want to burglarize a neighborhood.

[itsrobert]

7. Okay, I have to agree

All those empty homes, ripe for the pickings.

[KharmaTrain]

9. These Aren't Just Any Homes...

One of the areas affected is Rancho Santa Fe...big time homes and money in that area. With no electricity to maintain security systems, it's a looters dream come true. It not unlike precausions that took place during the Oakland Hills fire...with police and fire over-extended, it's an easy target for someone intent on rumaging around...especially in areas that haven't been affected by the fire.

[Lex1775]

8. Just got a call from my USMC brother-in-law at MCAS Miramar.

Apparently the San Diego government (city, county... not sure which) asked the Marines for help with the fires. Marines told them to go jump in a lake. My brother-in-law is an Air Wing jarhead and he and my little sister were evacuated from their home to Miramar about 6 hours ago. They are giving all the Marines a crash course in fire safety and sending them out to the base perimeter. Anything that can fly is being evacuated to MCAS Yuma and points beyond. He also told me that the higher ups at Miramar are saying the fire had jumped the perimeter at Camp Pendelton and part of the base housing there was being evacuated.