SAN DIEGO - Chances are the biotech community in Southern California is not reading this article. More likely, they are still glued to their TV sets, trying to determine whether or not their homes are safe, as they have since the fires began.

The smoke started rolling into San Diego on Sunday afternoon. By that evening, two fires raged, and, by Monday morning, two had become eight. Strong Santa Ana winds from the desert prevented firefighters from mounting an aerial attack, and flames spread across the county, barely preceded by evacuations and followed by a trail of destruction.

The fires threatened biotech hubs in Carmel Valley, Sorrento Valley and Carlsbad, as well as surrounding neighborhoods, where employees live. In San Diego County alone, there are about 500 life sciences companies with a total of 36,000 employees, according to figures from BIOCOM, Southern California's life sciences industry association. Tim Ingersoll, spokesman for BIOCOM, told BioWorld Today that half of BIOCOM's staff had been evacuated as of Tuesday.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Associated Press had reported that more than 300,000 people had to flee their homes, and nearby areas such as Carlsbad, which is home to biotech companies Isis Pharmaceuticals and Invitrogen Corp., were under suggested evacuation orders. And, in the seaside community of La Jolla, academic institutions The Scripps Institute, the Salk Institute and the University of California at San Diego, all were closed Tuesday, though a spokesperson for UCSD said that the campus was closed "only to nonessential personnel - there are many people at work." In other words, time-sensitive biomedical experiments are not being unduly disrupted, at least for the time being. The spokesman also said that "the labs are open [and] the animals are being cared for."

Many companies also closed for business, such as Biogen Idec Inc.'s San Diego facility, which houses the company's oncology business division and rheumatology commercial operations. The company halted operations Monday and Tuesday because of its proximity to the fires and also to give the facility's approximate 400 employees "time to do what they need to do," since many had to evacuate their homes, said Naomi Aoki, director of corporate communications for Biogen.

Biogen has "standing [crisis management] plans for various things," she added, and those include fire emergencies, especially since Southern California is no stranger to wildfires. Almost exactly four years ago, nearly 280,000 acres were destroyed by the so-called Cedar Fire.

This time, the damage might be far worse. According to AP stories, the wildfires had burned more than 1,300 homes and businesses by the third day, and had set about 373,000 acres ablaze. With the temperatures rising and the wind gusts - some as strong as 70 mph - some experts have predicted the flames could travel all the way to the coast.

As of yesterday, the fires had not reached Amgen Inc.'s campus in nearby Thousand Oaks, Calif., but the firm is making sure employees stay informed. "We have encouraged any staff member whose home may be in a fire danger zone to follow directions of municipal authorities to protect or prepare to evaluate their properties," said Sarah Rockwell, senior associate of corporate communications at Amgen.

For now, it's too early to tell what sort of impact the fires will have on the biotech industry in the area, in terms of damage to offices and plants, as well as the loss of business days, but, even as the fires evoke the sort of gripping horror and fear that makes it almost impossible to turn off the local news, they've also inspired enormous generosity. Thousands of firefighters from surrounding areas poured into the county, working for days on end without food or rest, and donations started coming in from local individuals and companies, such as law firm Cooley Godward Kronish, which cancelled a Thursday open house celebration and offered its catering fund to help prepare and deliver meals to evacuation centers and firefighters throughout the county.

And in every neighborhood not threatened, cars lined the streets as friends and relatives opened their homes to evacuees. That same generosity also was found by members of the biotech community, whose evacuees can have some unusual requirements. Greg McKee, CEO of Nventa Pharmaceuticals Inc., told BioWorld Today his firms is considering what to do with their cell lines should the company's facilities - combined lab and office space near University Town Center - need to be evacuated. Those cell lines need to be frozen at -80 degrees Celsius, which means company staff can't just take them home and store them in their refrigerators for a few days. McKee, however, is optimistic, since the region is rife with a network of biotech companies that have similar infrastructure needs. "I'm sure, if need be, we'll find a home for them," he said.

Nventa's building, as of Tuesday, had not had problems with either power or water. And "the timing has been right" in terms of experiments," McKee said. Nventa has been in a position to finish up its experiments and is holding off starting new ones for the time being. How long an experimental setup can be abandoned in the case of an evacuation depends on the specifics, but Nventa's grace period before loss of data occurs would be fairly short, he added. "A day or so is OK, but we don't want to risk much longer than that."