More Than 300,000 Hectares
Destroyed By California Wildfires
The
destructions caused by wind-fueled fires in Southern California
that have burned more than 800 homes and chased away about three
hundred thousand residents are far from being abated.
Hotter temperatures and more explosive gusts have been predicted
for the region in the coming days.
The blazes bedeviled firefighters as walls of flame whipped from
mountain passes to the edges of the state's celebrated
coastline, spreading so quickly that even hotels serving as
temporary shelters for evacuees had to be evacuated.
President Bush has declared a federal emergency for seven
Southern California counties, a move that will speed up
disaster-relief efforts.
The wildfires are said to have claimed one life in San Diego
County and injured 42. At least 16 of the injured were
firefighters.
Fire crews and fleeing residents described desperate conditions
that were sure to get worse. Temperatures across Southern
California were about 10 degrees above average and were expected
to approach 100 degrees on Tuesday in Orange and San Diego
counties.
Captain Don Camp, a spokesman for the California Department of
Forestry and Fire Protection said, “We are getting very strong
northeast winds. They are very erratic, causing us to modify our
procedures.
Degree Of damage
“The fires were exploding and shooting embers in all directions,
preventing crews from forming traditional fire lines and
severely limiting aerial bombardment,” he added.
Thousands of residents sought shelter at fairgrounds, schools
and community centers. The largest gathering was at Qualcomm
Stadium in San Diego, where evacuees anxiously watched the
stadium's television sets, hoping for a glimpse of their
neighborhood on the local news.
San Diego County was ablaze from its rural north to its border
region with Mexico, where the wildfires that started on Sunday
have caused havoc.
The only fatality to date, from the incident is:
Thomas Varshock, 52, of Tecate, a town on the U.S.
side of the border southeast of San Diego. His body was found on Sunday
afternoon. The San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office said.
At least 250,000 residents in San Diego County alone were
ordered to evacuate. Public schools were closed, as were
campuses at the University of California, San Diego and San
Diego State University.
Spread
In the northern part of the county, more than 500 homes and 100
businesses had been destroyed as a wildfire exploded to 145,000
acres and marched toward the Pacific Coast enclave of Del Mar,
forcing a partial evacuation.
The scope of the infernos was immense and was reminiscent of the
blazes that tore through Southern California exactly four years
ago, killing 22 and destroying 3,640 homes.
The fires that started on Sunday were whipped by ferocious
winds, generating walls of flame that bore down on housing
developments in a wide swath.
Homes burned from the beaches of Malibu to the mountain retreats
east of Los Angeles and south through Orange and San Diego
counties to Mexico.
East of Los Angeles, a two-front fire destroyed at least 160
homes in the Lake Arrowhead area, the same mountain resort
community where hundreds of homes were lost four years earlier.
Warnings
As the fires spread, most out of control, smaller blazes were
merging into larger, more fearsome ones. Evacuations were being
announced in one community after another as firefighters found
themselves overwhelmed by gale-force Santa Ana winds, some
gusting to 70 mph.
The winds — which are sweeping through Southern California's
canyons in fall and winter — are stronger than normal, turning
already parched scrubland into tinder.
The Department of Defense agreed to send six Air Force and Air
National Guard water- or retardant-dropping planes by Tuesday to
aide the massive firefighting effort after a request by Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Touring an evacuee camp at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, the
governor pledged to do everything in his power to assist the
firefighting effort and help those who have lost their homes.
"I will be relentless all the way through this," Schwarzenegger
said.
AP/YINKA
