Calif. firefighters work to hold gains
Pastor Dale Morgan
Calif. firefighters work to hold gains*
By Garance Burke, Associated Press Writer
LAKE ARROWHEAD, Calif. — Crews on Sunday worked to contain the wildfires
that still burned in Southern California as warmer, drier air replaced
the moist weather that had earlier allowed firefighters to make strong
gains.
The cloudy system that brought rain to some areas was moving out of the
region, and wind up to 15 mph was expected.
"Nothing like we were seeing at the beginning of the week," said Daniel
Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire
Protection. "This is fire conditions that we can actively fight, unlike
the Santa Ana winds."
But there was a possibility of strong offshore winds in another seven
days, he said.
It was the onset of the seasonal Santa Anas — fierce, dry wind blowing
from the desert and out to sea — that spread fires across more than
500,000 acres during the week, chasing people from communities as homes
burned.
As of Sunday, the state Office of Emergency Services tallied 2,767
structures destroyed. OES spokeswoman Kim Oliver said the number
included 2,013 homes.
With more than a dozen fires fully surrounded, firefighters were pushing
to complete lines around seven others. Containment of those blazes
ranged from 50% to 97%.
Blazes continued to burn in the Lake Arrowhead resort region of the
towering San Bernardino Mountains, 100 miles east of Los Angeles. They
also burned in rugged wilderness above isolated canyon communities of
Orange County, southeast of Los Angeles. A blaze 60 miles northeast of
San Diego stopped its advance toward the mountain town of Julian.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Saturday visited a command post near
Orange County's Santiago Canyon fire to announce assistance for people
with losses, warn of contracting scams, and pledge to find whoever set
the nearby blaze that continued to threaten homes after destroying 14.
Addressing controversy over state rules that caused delay in getting
military aircraft into use against the fires, Schwarzenegger said it
sometimes takes disaster "to really wake everyone up."
"There are things that we could improve on and I think this is what we
are going to do because a disaster like this ... in the end is a good
vehicle, a motivator for everyone to come together," he said.
Seven deaths have been directly attributed to the fires, including those
of four suspected illegal immigrants, whose burned bodies were found
near the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday.
Eleven Mexicans were being treated at a San Diego hospital for burns
suffered in the wildfires after crossing the border illegally, the
Mexican government confirmed Saturday. Four were in critical condition.
About 4,400 people remained in 28 shelter sites in Southern California,
while others waited out the fires in makeshift encampments.
In the Rancho Bernardo section of San Diego, mortgage broker Mike
Bartholemew, 37, removed rotten food from his refrigerator Saturday as
he waited for cleaners to vacuum soot from inside his home, which
survived the flames.
Bartholemew said it was eerie to be surrounded by ruined homes but he
was anxious to come back home as soon as electricity was restored.
"I could move to Indiana, but they have tornados and floods," he said.
"Everywhere you go in the country you get something. Here we have
earthquakes and fires."
Contributing: Associated Press writers Elliot Spagat in San Diego, Aaron
C. Davis in Orange and Jacob Adelman in Los Angeles contributed to this
report.