Distraught San Diego Fire Refugees Show Patience At Qualcomm Stadium
For most of them, they aren’t far away from home.
Yet, they’re a world away.
Some of the adults look stunned. And some of the kids look overwhelmed.
You can see literally thousands of them here in San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium, the 71,500 seat football stadium that normally hosts happier events, such as San Diego Chargers football games and rock concerts.
But this time the massive stadium built 40 years ago isn’t hosting boisterous, tailgating, sometimes combative Chargers fans. Now, it’s a makeshift refuge for San Diegans of all income levels and all religious, ethnic nationalities and political persuasions — and of all ages.
This time, the stadium’s 18,500 parking spaces aren’t dotted with fired-up people “tailgating†by grilling hotdogs and hamburgers but with fire-chased people — some of them with uneasy looking displaced pets. These people sit in beach chairs next to cars filled to the brims, or under canopies of two person tents sleeping bags.
This time, it isn’t friends who come over to the people in these spaces to playfully steal a beer but volunteers of all ages including diligent San Diego teens handing out coloring books, canned food, water and offering news on cots that’ll be available later in the night. This time, the uniformed people aren’t stadium security people but tirelessly working National Guardsmen unloading huge bags of food, used clothing, emergency bedding and other supplies from big trucks.
