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Wildfires Consuming Southern California

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By TONY PERRY and ANDREW BLANKSTEIN, Los Angeles Times

Published: October 23, 2007

SAN DIEGO - Wildfires burning out of control for a second day destroyed more than 600 homes Monday in Southern California as authorities warned about 265,000 households to evacuate. About 100 businesses also burned down.

'We have more houses burning than we have people and engine companies to fight them,' San Diego Fire Capt. Lisa Blake said. 'A lot of people are going to lose their homes.'

At least one person was killed in the fires, and dozens were injured.

About 500 homes and 100 commercial properties were destroyed by a fire in northern San Diego County that exploded to 145,000 acres, said Roxanne Provaznik, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry. The fire injured seven firefighters and one civilian, and was spreading unchecked. Blazes across the state blackened 310 square miles.

'The sky was just red. Everywhere I looked was red, glowing. Law enforcement came barreling in with police cars with loudspeakers telling everyone to get out now,' said Ronnie Leigh, 55, who fled her mobile home in northern Los Angeles County as smoke darkened the sky over the nearby ridge line.

Firefighters, who lost valuable time trying to persuade stubborn homeowners to leave, were almost completely overwhelmed as gale-force winds gusting to 70 mph scattered embers.

California officials pleaded for help from fire departments in other states.

A pair of wildfires consumed 128 homes in the Lake Arrowhead mountain resort area in the San Bernardino National Forest east of Los Angeles.

At least 14 fires were burning in Southern California, said Patti Roberts, a spokeswoman for the Governor's Office of Emergency Services.

From San Diego to Malibu, more than 150 miles up the coast, people were warned to leave their homes.

More than 250,000 were told to flee in San Diego County alone, where hundreds of patients were moved by school bus and ambulance from a hospital and nursing homes, some in hospital gowns and wheelchairs.

A 1,049-inmate jail in Orange County was evacuated because of heavy smoke. The prisoners were taken by bus to other lockups.

The number of people urged to evacuate by reverse 911 calls is equivalent to calling every person in St. Petersburg.

Some evacuees ended up at Qualcomm Stadium, home to the NFL's Chargers.

About 1,000 people sat in the stands watching television monitors chronicling the destruction of neighborhoods.

Michael Craig, 47, fled with his wife, two children and a grandchild. He was careful to take water and blankets.

'I'm just happy to get out alive,' he said. 'The house may burn down, but we're safe for now.'

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger toured some of the damaged areas and directed the California National Guard to make 1,500 Guardsmen available to be deployed as needed. They would join approximately 7,500 firefighters already working the lines.

San Diego Fire Chief Tracy Jarman said, 'We're stretched about as thin as we could possibly be. We've never seen conditions like this.'

Emergency officials urged residents to limit cell phone calls and to use major highways for emergencies only. However, people who heeded warnings to get out of the way of the fires mostly left by car, clogging roads.

At least one of the fires, in Orange County, was thought to have been set. Another blaze was started by a car fire. Flying embers started new fires.

One of the San Diego fires was burning so fast that authorities did not have an accurate count of how many homes had been destroyed.

'It was nuclear winter. It was like Armageddon. It looked like the end of the world,' Mitch Mendler, a San Diego firefighter, said as he and his crew stopped at a shopping center parking lot to refill their water truck from a hydrant near a restaurant. Asked how many homes had burned, he said, 'I lost count.'

Tom Sollie, 49, ignored evacuation orders in Rancho Bernardo to help his neighbors spray roofs on his street with water. His home was untouched, but he watched a neighbor's house reduced to nothing but the remnants of a brick chimney. 'The house went up like a Roman candle,' Sollie said.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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