San Diego County fires - Live Thread 10/26

[Brad’s Gramma]

Ventura County firefighters look at a twister of flame from a wildfire, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2003, in Simi Valley, Calif. The fire has destroyed several homes and burned more than 45,000 acres. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

[arasina]

My sister lives in Agoura Hills. I told her to have an evacuation plan. She also told me the Reagan Library is threatened with the fire. Is this true?

[Brad’s Gramma]

Smoke from wildfires burning near homes is seen in Rancho Cucamonga, California. The fire, one of several sweeping California, is believed to have been started by arson.(AFP/File/Robyn Beck)

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

Cool. Arnold's OK. I probably would have voted for him if I lived in California. But Kobe's an admitted adulterer. As someone who has been cheated on, I don't bother being nice to guys like that. Especially with real problems in the world like these horrific fires. I may know people in affected areas, but the information is coming so fast and furious that it's very hard to tell. I know people in Big Bear Lake, Anza, Oceanside, Wrightwood, and Whitewater, and I've been to Julian and Idylwild this year besides all those places. My sister lives in Santa Barbara (which sounds like it's well north of all this mess, thankfully).

It was unnerving enough to hike through burn zones this year, so I am helpless to do anything but offer good wishes to those truly threatened, Freepers or otherwise. And of course, I hope nobody I know personally loses his life or home.

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

Fire fatalities

1 in the 2900 block of Yellowbrick Road in Valley Center in a trailer
3 on Muth Valley Road off of Wildcat Canyon Road (2 dead in car and one on foot running away)
3 on the Barona Reservation near the Barona Community center. (1 in a vehicle, 2 on foot.)
1 on Muth Valley Road in a motorhome.
1 near the fire station in Valley Center in a vehicle.
2 dead on arrival at area hospitals.
Source: San Diego County Sheriff's Department

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/fires/20031026-1930-sdfires.html

[Brad’s Gramma]

It was yesterday. Then it wasn't today. Then I THINK, and I stress I THINK....it is again.

[Andyman]

Thanks for the pics. We used to live in Tierrasanta. We still know a lot of people who still live there, some near the NE corner of the place. We lived in Portofino, with tightly spaced houses and cedar roofs.

[spectr17]

[Mo1]

I'm watching my local Philly news and I think I have seen more reported here then on the cable channels

The damage and fires are unbelievable

Prayers to you folks in CA

[Brad’s Gramma]

Firefighter Tim Troxel sets backfires to control the fireline as wildfires continue to burn near homes in Rancho Cucamonga, California. The fire, one of several sweeping California, is believed to have been started by arson.(AFP/File/Robyn Beck)

[Brad’s Gramma]

Los Angeles County firefighter Manuel Urquiza, left, sprays hot spots near homes in the foothills of La Verne, Calif., after firefighters attempt to stop the advance of the wildfires Sunday, Oct. 26, 2003. Flames stoked by powerful winds raced through Southern California on Sunday, growing to more than 208,000 acres, destroying 500 homes in densely populated suburbs and causing at least 11 deaths.(AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

[Brad’s Gramma]

Several homes burn as another block is lost to wildfires in San Diego, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 26, 2003. Wildfires are burning out of control in numerous areas around San Diego county. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

[onyx]

Little kids and their families are sleeping on the streets near the stadium. People are trying to get thru to Qualcom to drop off blankets and sleeping bags. My God, I am stunned.

[Brad’s Gramma]

A San Diego firefighter holds his helmet as a wildfire burns along Highway 163 Sunday, Oct. 26, 2003, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

[null and void]

Just got a hold of my friend in Santee, fire coming down hills. Says its about 4 miles away. Will evac if it burns the Walmart!

She says it looks like lava...

[Brad’s Gramma]

A brush fire spreads smoke in La Verne, Calif., Sunday, Oct 26, 2003, about 25 miles east of Los Angeles. Nearby, in a canyon at the edge of Claremont, west of San Bernardino, about 50 homes were in flames Sunday morning as the winds swept a more than 34,000-acre wildfire into Los Angeles County. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

[bonesmccoy]

Doesn't American Red Cross have cots?

[Mo1]

God Bless these folks .. sending prayers

A fire crew huddles behind a wall for protection from high winds while helping fight a wildfire near California State University at San Bernardino. (Photo: AP)

[I'll be your Huckleberry]

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - Wildfires that have burned for days merged into walls of flame stretching across miles in parts of Southern California on Sunday, leaving 13 people dead, burning 650 homes and frustrating overmatched firefighters who worked relentlessly against fierce winds.

The state's largest fire, in eastern San Diego County, caused at least nine deaths, including two who died inside their car as they apparently tried to escape the flames,

A total of ten major fires burned in Southern California, one large cluster in the San Diego area and another about 100 miles north near San Bernardino. By Sunday night, the fires had blackened 264,000
acres.

Fire also forced the evacuation of a Federal Aviation Administration control center in San Diego, disrupting air travel across the nation. Some airlines canceled flights into the region.

The biggest, at 100,000 acres, started Saturday near the mountain town of Julian when a lost hunter set off a signal fire, authorities said. The hunter was detained and may face charges.

Among those killed were one person whose body was found in a motor home, and three in other vehicles, county sheriff's spokeswoman Susan Knauss said. Three were killed while trying to escape on foot and two were dead on arrival at local hospitals. About 260 homes were destroyed, San Diego police said.

Another fire near San Diego that started Sunday killed two people and destroyed 36 homes while burning 3,000 acres, Lora Lowes of the California Department of Forestry said. It also prompted evacuations in northeastern Escondido.

Around the congested suburbs of San Bernardino, a city of about 200,000 about 50 miles east of Los Angeles, one flank of a 50,000-acre fire burned through four towns while the other flank destroyed more than 300 homes.

Two men collapsed and died, one as he was evacuating his canyon home and the other as he watched his house burn, the county coroner said.

The 30-mile fire in the San Bernardino area was formed when two smaller fires merged, covering the region with thick smoke and ash.

Other fires on the outskirts of Los Angeles County merged to create a 80,000-acre fire that threatened 2,000 homes in four communities and closed four highways, sealing off access to two mountain towns, fire spokeswoman Michele Alcorn said.

"If the fire starts to crown, racing from one tree to the next, it will be an extreme situation," Florea said.

Some of the evacuations ordered included Indian reservation casinos, California State University, San Bernardino, where fire burned two temporary classrooms and a temporary fitness center, and Patton State Hospital, home to 1,300 mental patients.

About 1,100 prison inmates also were evacuated, and at least 200 juvenile wards were evacuated Sunday from two probation camps in La Verne, said Ken Kondo, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Probation Department spokesman.

About 1,000 people packed the San Bernardino International Airport center. Fifty of those evacuees were elderly people in wheelchairs who were taken from a convalescent home.

The National Football League moved Monday night's football game between the Chargers and Miami Dolphins from Qualcomm Stadium, which is being used as an evacuation center, to Tempe, Ariz.

The winds were expected to subside Monday before picking up later in the week in the San Bernardino area, National Weather Service meteorologist Robert Balfour said.

"We'll have a 24- to 36-hour window where winds will die down, but the vegetation is so dry and the terrain so steep that the fire will probably take off and go into the mountains then," Balfour said.
"It will want to race up the ridges."

[Porterville]

It is a damn shame that unions and the state require that firefighters be hired only under the stricktest conditions with pay at 40-100 thousand dollars because if the split the pay by 1/3 they'd have 33% more firefighters.... hmmm. Alot of people want to be firefighters, except unions.