“It’s pretty intense,” he said. “The police and firefighters got them out before any damage occurred.”

Growing up in Southern California, Coda said he has seen his share of wildfires.

In 2003, Coda said wildfires came within a quarter mile of his house.

“The world is orange, the skies are orange and gray and it feels like Armageddon,” Coda said. “People kind of envision California as the place of earthquakes, but the fires are more common and do a lot more damage.”

Rob Keller said his friends in San Diego have seen that damage first hand. A friend’s house was consumed by flames.

“They don’t know where to go,” the first-year medical student said. “Life is a little bit harder now.”

Keller said his parents haven’t yet received word to evacuate. The fires, however, are unpredictable, and that could quickly change.

“Is my childhood house going to burn down?” Keller said.

While wildfires are common in Southern California, they’re never easy to deal with, especially when they move out of the mountains and into cities, Keller said.

“It’s going to be a big strain on the population out there,” he said.

That strain, however, is something the city of San Diego has come together to shoulder, said Michael Chandler, who moved to San Diego after graduating from MSU in 2003.

Earlier today, Chandler said he ate at a local restaurant which was donating part of its proceeds to the Salvation Army for relief efforts. Aid also was arriving from Tijuana, Mexico.

“The community has really come together,” Chandler said. “If you open your eyes, you see everyone’s making an effort.”

With the fires burning about six miles away from his beach-area apartment, Chandler said he has seen ash fly through his windows and cover his floor.

“If I lived in East Lansing, it would be like Okemos is on fire,” he said.

While his apartment is safe, Chandler said others haven’t been so lucky.

“People are losing memories and what they’ve built their lives on,” he said.