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The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department is holding an 11 a.m. news conference today to make a “significant announcement” regarding its arson-homicide investigation of the Esperanza Wildfire. The news conference is set for the county Board of Supervisors chambers in Riverside. The sheriff’s department, in a statement, announced those attending the news conference will include representatives of the sheriff’s department, the Riverside County Fire Department, the county District Attorney’s Office, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the, FBI, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and unspecified elected leaders “from all levels of government.”

FIREFIGHTERS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA HAMPERED BY WINDS & LOW HUMIDITY High pressure today has sent more gusty east winds into the mountains, passes and canyons of Southern California as firefighters attempt to gain the upper hand on a fast-moving wildfire in Riverside County. Fox News Channel is reporting another brush fire has erupted in Orange County. Wind Advisories are in effect through this evening. The combination of winds gusting up to 45 mph and extremely low humidity will keep the fire danger at an extreme level into Saturday. By Sunday, an onshore flow will calm the winds and bring moist...

(AP) BEAUMONT, Calif. About 1,750 firefighters Friday battled a wind-driven wildfire that scorched more than 25,000 acres in Riverside County, killing four firefighters, destroying 10 homes and threatening 500 more. Meanwhile, a manhunt involving several agencies was under way for the "scum" who set the blaze.The fire, which grew explosively in a 24-hour period because of powerful Santa Ana winds, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of residents, was 5 percent contained this morning, according to fire commanders. The Esperanza Fire broke out in the San Gorgonio Riverbed at Esperanza Avenue just after 1 a.m. yesterday and was quickly determined to...

THE ESPERANZA ARSON WILDFIREThis is the personal story of a very brave CDF Dispatcher from Riverside County Volunteer Fire Station 63 located in Poppet Flats. Monday, October 30, 2006 12:36 PM Subject: Fire update from Poppet Flats Here is a report of what happened on Thursday, 10/27/06 in Poppet Flats. My pager went off at 2 am on Thursday morning not sure what day, they have all run together. I am in charge of calling all of our firemen at Station 63, since my antique pager is the only one that works up here in the mountains. I have been a...

Tree-cutters have removed dead and dying trees from 30,000 acres near Idyllwild, but plenty of fuel remains on the 70,000 acres that haven't been cleared, officials said. Limited resources for tree cutting have been concentrated on clearing hazards near highways and in populated areas and on building firebreaks. "We've tried to do everything we can with the money we have to protect the towns of Idyllwild and Pine Cove," said Bob Sommer, a vegetation management specialist with the Forest Service. Since Thursday, the Esperanza Fire has consumed more than 40,000 acres of dry vegetation in the San Jacinto Mountains. Three...

I cannot post Desert Sun but here is the link. http://thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061029/BREAKING01/310290001

BEAUMONT, Calif. (AP) -- As flames roared through the canyons of Southern California, authorities increased the reward to $500,000 Friday for the arrest of the arsonist responsible for the deaths of four firefighters in the nation's worst such tragedy in five years. A fifth firefighter lay in grave condition with burns over 90 percent of his body. Firefighters labored through thick smoke as curtains of wind-whipped orange flame pushed through uninhabited brushland about 90 miles east of Los Angeles. The blaze that broke out Thursday destroyed about 10 structures, including homes, forced 700 people to flee, and flushed coyotes and...

ASIAN TSUNAMI WAS PRECEDED BY PROPHECY AND FOLLOWED BY REPORTS OF MIRACLESIn the gloom -- and it is gloom -- come the accounts of miracles. A missionary escaping the tsunami with thirty students calls out the Name of Jesus as a wave sweeps into a lagoon and the wave seems to halt. This in Navalady, Sri Lanka. There is also the young American couple at a beach in southern Thailand. Clinging to a jungle gym under a thatched roof in a play area, the man shouted prayers amid the flooding. The thatched roof lodged against the jungle gym, and they...

FROM THE MAILBAG: ESPERANZA PROPHECY ON TECHNOLOGY BACKED UP BY READERS www.spiritdaily.com An unusual message from Venezuelan seer Maria Esperanza about the future of technology has drawn reaction from those who assert that some of the predictions -- conveyed to her in 1981 -- may already be materializing. Esperanza, who is recovering from a severe respiratory attack that left her hospitalized last week in New Jersey [see story], is associated with the Church-approved apparition site of Betania near Caracas. Her prophetic messages are not directly sanctioned and are submitted only for personal discernment (as with all private revelations). Esperanza, now...