ShareThisBy RYAN LILLIS, TODD MILBOURN, DOROTHY KORBER
Sacramento Bee
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
More than a half million people have been ordered from their homes in San Diego County as the monumental evacuation in the face of wildfires continued Tuesday.
"We have sent mandatory evacuation orders to 513,000 people in the county of San Diego," county spokesman Luis Monteagudo said late Tuesday morning. "It's a mass migration here as we try to get people out of harm's way and into shelters or safe areas."
No one will be let back into their homes until officials are sure the neighborhoods are safe, Monteagudo said.
"We don't want a situation where we let people back in, and then the winds change, the fire returns, and they are in danger again," Monteagudo said. "We are also moving people to shelters in Orange and Riverside counties. We are getting our people out."
As of Tuesday morning, he said more than 200,000 acres had burned in the county, and more than 1,000 homes have been lost.
"But that number will be changing -- upwards," he said.
The county had 23 shelters open Monday night -- five of them were already full Tuesday.
Traffic was stopped in some places as the fire immigrants poured onto the county's streets and highways.
"We have had some gridlock; long lines of cars trying to get out," Monteagudo said. "The good news is that Interstate 15 is open today (Tuesday)."
The fires that swept out of control Sunday continued to be fueled by strong Santa Ana winds and have charred neighborhoods and canyon areas from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border. At least two people have been reported killed, with at least 39 injured so far.
Among the latest areas of destruction were sites in San Bernardino County, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger toured fire-ravaged Lake Arrowhead Tuesday. Schwarzenegger has declared emergencies in seven counties so far, and President Bush issued similar declarations Tuesday and offered help from the Federal Emergency Management Administration.
Two big fires continued to rage near Lake Arrowhead in the mountains above San Bernardino, sending a steady plume of smoke into the hazy skies.
The Slide Fire continued to burn near the small town of Running Springs. The fire destroyed several homes overnight into Tuesday, as fierce winds spread the blaze through dense timber.
The fire had burned about 1,500 acres and destroyed 20 homes, according to information released Tuesday morning on the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's Web site.
The fire continued to threaten 400 homes and mandatory evacuations were in place for the Green Valley Lake, Arrow Bear and Running Springs areas, the Web site said.
Meanwhile, teams of firefighters were heading out to the densely populated hillsides west of Lake Arrowhead, where at least 138 homes have been destroyed by the Grass Valley Fire, which broke out at 5 a.m. Monday. The blaze had burned about 300 acres.
About 1,500 homes continued to be threatened by the fire, which prompted mandatory and voluntary evacuations of several areas, including Lake Arrowhead and Crestline, according to online Cal Fire information.
Numerous firefighters, including units from Woodland, UC Davis and West Sacramento fire departments, were called in to battle the Slide and Grass Valley fires.
Elsewhere, wind-fueled wildfires stretching across Southern California destroyed more than 1,000 homes and businesses in San Diego County alone, and showed no signs of slowing Tuesday as thousands more joined a mandatory exodus from their homes.
Fire crews and other disaster workers from throughout Northern California and the Sacramento area arrived at various scenes in the fire area and were at work trying to save homes and douse flames.
In northern San Diego County, about two dozen Placer County firefighters huddled around strike team leader Kevin Wegener early Tuesday morning. He said the day would be critical. Winds were expected to change. Temperatures were rising.
And since many of these firefighters had battled the blazes for more than 24 hours straight, injuries were more likely.
"You guys are tired, you're hungry, you're not getting relief," Wegener said. "You gotta be on guard."
This group of firefighters got the call late Sunday that they were needed here in Southern California. After making the 8-hour drive, they've worked with only a couple hours rest two days. Tuesday, their job was to patrol Rancho Santa Fe, a community of 3,200, putting out spot fires that threatened multi-million dollar homes.
Wegener said the fire had moved so fast and spread so far, they didn't expect to be relieved from duty any time soon. Although the situation appeared calm, he said that could change in an instant.
"You check a house and it's fine, 10 minutes later it's on fire," Wegener said. "You don't know if there's an ember in the attic."
About 20,000 evacuees had taken refuge at Qualcomm Stadium, home of the San Diego Chargers. They were sleeping on blankets and cots in the concourse, lying on pillows in the stadium seats and holing up in their cars in the parking lot. May Oh said her family arrived from burned out Rancho Bernardo around 3 p.m. on Monday. Monday night the family _ five kids under 10, and two parents _ spent the night crammed into sleeping bags in their Ford Aerostar. The kids occupied themselves playing Elite Agent on their handheld videogame consoles. Oh tried to keep a positive outlook.
"We watched our neighbor's house (burn) on television," she said. "All we can do is pray and hope we can get back home soon."
After a hectic Monday of traffic jams and confusion on San Diego freeways, roads were moving smoothly Tuesday morning as more residents heeded Mayor Jerry Sanders' request that people stay home if they don't need to be at work.
The mayor also called on San Diego residents to stay off cell phones so that firefighters could communicate.
By mid-morning, however, a series of evacuations were being called for several thousand Chula Vista residents as the nearby Harris fire threatened to move toward the city, Caltrans officials said. Evacuation centers were being set up in San Ysidro.
"The initial call this morning was for 3,000 evacuations, then another 1,500, and there is the potential for a larger scale evacuation," Caltrans spokesman Edward Cartagena said.
The massive Witch fire to the east continued to spread Tuesday and threatened to force closure of a portion of Interstate 5 -- the county's main north-south thoroughfare -- near Solano Beach and Del Mar areas.
Mass notification phone systems were being used to contact residents and tell them to leave, according to Holly Crawford, public information officer with San Diego County's Office of Emergency Services.
(Ryan Lillis reported from Lake Arrowhead, Todd Milbourn from San Diego County and Dorothy Korber from Sacramento. Bee Staff Writer Niesha Lofing in Sacramento and the Associated Press contributed to this report.)
