That same CNN story quoted a man from El Cajon, who sought refuge at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, home of the Chargers. The photo at right is from Rancho Bernardo, a community in San Diego.

Unusually strong Santa Ana winds, occasionally gusting at hurricane force, and very low humidity have fueled fires stretching along the California coast from Santa Barbara south to San Diego. Until the winds die down, there’s little chance that the more than 5,000 firefighters on the scene can make any substantial headway.

Johnson specifically remembered a fire that swept through his old neighborhood; though many homes there were destroyed, the one he grew up in remained standing.

“Unfortunately, it’s something that Southern Californians have to live with,” he said.

And really, that’s true of everywhere on the West Coast. Wildfires are a threat from Seattle to San Diego; even though it’s nowhere near the coast, my brother-in-law was forced to deal with a substantial wildfire on the mountains surrounding his home in Hailey, Idaho, near the famous Sun Valley resort.

Remnants of a wildfire are easily seen on the outskirts of my wife’s hometown of Bend, Ore. Driving down a mountain in Reno, Nev., the hillside was blackened from a fire that had swept through several years prior.

“I hope everyone is OK out there, and I know that’s a crazy request,” Johnson said.

Crazy though it may be, it’s one we certainly echo.

• CARL EDWARDS is scheduled for a teleconference this afternoon, too. Perhaps he’ll be able to shed some light on the skirmish he had with teammate Matt Kenseth after Sunday’s race at Martinsville.

If you haven’t seen the video, here it is. Kenseth is about to be interviewed on Speed when Edwards appears out of nowhere and pushes him away, almost like Edwards is pushing him out of some bad situation.

Words are exchanged and at the very end, Edwards raises a fist like he’s about to punch Kenseth in the mouth. Kenseth noticeably flinches, and is seen with a deer-in-the-headlights look on his face.

Perhaps Edwards can explain what really happened. Certainly there’s got to be more to this than what was said on Speed.

Johnson said he did see the replay and was “shocked.”

Check back for an update, and we’ll let you know what Edwards had to say.

• UPDATE: NASCAR’s transcript hasn’t been forthcoming, but Dustin Long’s blog has a good write-up of what was said.

It was the concilliatory thing you’d expect Edwards to say. He’s sorry, apologizing to Kenseth, Office Depot, DeWalt, Jack Roush, fans and anyone you can think of.

Now, it’ll be interesting to see what happens. Is this a situation like the one in Chicago between Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin, where team owner Joe Gibbs flew in from his vacation to settle differences between the two? Will Roush do the same in some sort of pow-wow?

Or now that it’s out in the open, does Roush simply need to make sure Edwards follows through on what he says?

We’ll have to wait for Kenseth’s response, which will probably come on Friday, assuming he has media availability in Atlanta.

Even so, this is a situation worth watching. It’s one thing when you have two random people getting upset with each other - think Gordon/Stewart, Kahne/Stremme or any of the other recent skirmishes we’ve seen. But it’s a whole lot different when you have teammates sniping in public and nearly coming to blows.

Whatever Roush does, he’ll have to squash this quickly. Even if things aren’t always pretty over at Hendrick Motorsports, at least they keep the dirty laundry in-house.

(Photo by Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press)