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« October 22, 2007 |
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Qualcomm Stadium:
It was not Dennis Gulyas' first fire. So when his brother called at 4 a.m. Monday with the news that the Witch fire was heading toward Rancho Penasquitos, he rolled over and went back to sleep.
By 6 a.m., with Gulyas still in bed, his wife, Rosa, daughter, Kimberly, and son, Dennis Jr., began packing valuables, their five cats and dog.
"I grew up in San Diego. I'm used to fires," Gulyas said. "I figured I'll get up later and water down the roof."
His family left for Qualcomm Stadium, arriving at 8:30 a.m.
By 11 a.m., Gulyas was on top of his house, hosing the roof.
"I noticed there was nobody in the neighborhood. There was a lot of ash and smoke but no flames," Gulyas said. "A cop drove up and told me to leave."
On Tuesday, Gulyas' family camped out under the shade of a pine tree in the stadium parking lot. He slept on the sidewalk on an inflated mattress, while his wife and daughter slept inside a tent. Dennis Jr. and a friend slept in another tent.
"We're all getting back to the basics, even Buddy, our dog," Gulyas said. At home, "he uses our cat box litter box. This morning he had to do his business on the ground like a normal dog."
Gulyas said he was a Red Cross volunteer at the 1994 Northridge quake.
"The relief effort is much more orderly here," he said. "People aren't pushing, yelling and fighting like they were in L.A."
-- H.G. Reza
Malibu:
Rod Percival, 46, coasted his mountain bike down Las Flores Canyon Road, his dog Ayla skittering behind him. Like many residents, Percival and his wife had refused to leave Malibu. Late Tuesday morning, he used his trusty bike to take stock, as best as he could, of the fire danger.
A neighbor, Bruce Bolander, 43, asked Percival how things looked.
"We're safe. I've just ridden around the entire canyon," Percival responded. "The fire's out."
Bolander asked his friend if he thought there was any way to sneak his wife Bonny passed the sheriff's barricade. She was at Duke's, a popular restaurant down on PCH.
"Is she prepared to walk?" Percival asked, not conveying much optimism.
Bolander muttered an expletive.
Percival himself wanted to go down to PCH, but knew that if he did so, he would not be let back in.
"I need some beer. I'm out of beer," Percival joked. "This is terrible."
High above Las Flores Canyon, at fire Camp 8, L.A. County Fire Capt. Jeff Kaliher said the situation in the still smoldering mountains of Malibu was improving. Firefighters below and aircraft in the sky had kept a critical front of the wildfire from marching toward Topanga Canyon.
"We're holding the eastern line," Kaliher said.
Things had improved to the point where his strike team could relax a little, roughhouse with the two camp dogs, picnic and lather up their fire engine. Planes surveyed the fire from above.
Kaliher had not been impressed with choices made by some Malibu residents. Some of the homes had terrible brush clearance, he said.
"There's some homes, the only reason they're here is because engines were here to save them," Kaliher said.
The fire captain said he was hopeful the Malibu fire could be contained soon. But he also knew, one way or another, his team's job was far from done.
"You've got San Diego. You've got Arrowhead," Kaliher said. "Once they determine we're not needed here, we'll be reassigned elsewhere."
-- Tami Abdollah
Lake Arrowhead:
At the command post at Rim of the World High School, authorities said Running Springs is the area of greatest concern because the Slide fire continues to move in multiple directions.
The entire area from Snow Valley Lake west to the Valley of Enchantment are under mandatory evacuation, including all of Lake Arrowhead.
The west and north sides of Lake Arrowhead were evacuated Monday. On Tuesday morning the west and east sides of Lake Arrowhead were evacuated.
The East side of the Grass Valley blaze is fairly well controlled, while the West side is more active, according to CDF spokesman Glenn Barley.
Barley said there were no additional structures burned in Lake Arrowhead today as of 7:20pm Tuesday night.
-- Maeve Reston
Carlsbad:
If you are driving around the El Camino Real Mall in Carlsbad and you think your eyes are playing tricks on you, they aren't.
That's a traveling zoo tucked next to the loading dock area near Macy's, complete with a Bison named "Baby Bo," llamas, kangaroos, alligators, monkeys, exotic birds, snakes, a chinchilla, a sloth and even hissing cockroaches.
Driven from their 5-acre Fallbrook ranch and animal house by the wildfires Monday afternoon, the owners of Pacific Animal Productions pulled off the 78 freeway seeking shade for their 100 animals.
But when the three-trailer caravan pulled into the parking lot, Westfield mall officials began setting up a temporary animal shelter.
"Before we knew it, they started pulling out electrical cords and water hoses," said Karla Majewski, who owns the zoo, which provides educational programs at schools, fairs and festivals.
"We didn't have any intention of staying here. We came here to stop and regroup. It's almost like they knew we were coming. They didn't blink or flinch."
News of the traveling zoo spread fast and within hours, nearby grocery stores and health-food stores had dropped off food and water for the animals. Every few hours, mall security workers stop by to pick up a new load of animal waste.
In the afternoon, Majewski and her crew of friends and family took the restless animals out of their trailers to stretch their legs and see the sights. For about half an hour, the RV evacuation center became a petting zoo.
"People were wondering what all these crazy critters were doing marching toward them," Majewski said.
-- Dave McKibben
Continue reading "Hissing cockroaches and a chinchilla" »
San Diego:
San Diego-area officials said at a briefing Tuesday night that about 200,000 acres had burned in the county and mandatory evacuation orders had gone out to 560,000 residents. Of those, about 50,000 have been allowed to return to their homes, mostly in Scripps Ranch, Poway and Del Mar. Firefighters said shifting winds had made the fire increasingly unpredictable.
"This was going to be, and is, probably, the worst fire this county and state has ever seen," said San Diego County Sheriff William B. Kolender. "It is extremely difficult and very hard to solve something that you cannot control. I think it will end up okay. None of us really know."
Officials also said that Tijuana fire officials offered Tuesday to bring 34 firefighters and equipment over the border to help out. The offer was accepted immediately, officials said, and the firefighters were expected to join the front lines late Tuesday night.
-- Scott Gold
San Bernardino:
As manager of the Green Valley Water District, in a rural mountain village of 750 that has lost at least 55 homes, Rick Mull took upon himself one of the most unassuming but critical jobs.
As homes burned around the town's picturesque Alpine lake, he was close behind to turn off the water.
"Many folks took up and left in a panic and forgot to turn their water off," Mull said.
Mull, 51, has spent his whole life "on the mountain," and while his home was safe from the fire, many of his friends' and neighbors' homes were now burning piles of rubble.
They left in a panic, and did not turn off the water in their homes. Therefore, when the property burned, water that supplied the communal tanks was flowing freely on these burned homes, taking water away that could have been used by firefighters.
"In the last few days, we've gone through 400,000 gallons of water on just one neighborhood street because of leaking pipes," he said.
Mull's job has been to go to burned property and lift the heavy lids off water meters. He then probes several feet down into the hole with a 4-foot-long steel rod with a key at the end, turning each home's water system off.
His mantra: "If we don't get the water turned off, the fire department won't have water for their hoses, and we'll lose more homes."
But it was rarely as easy as that. In one case he had to walk into a pile of burning rubble, at the edge of a 3-foot jet of flames spewing out of a broken gas line, in order to turn off water gushing out of a broken pipe a few feet away .
As he walked back to the street he said: "Well, that wasn't exactly the safest thing to do, but hey, it's not draining our tanks anymore."
-- Louis Sahagun
Rancho Bernardo:
Joe Fiore, 56, an emergency room doctor, was picking up debris around his Aquamiel Road house. His house had survived.
He had ignored orders from police and firefighters to evacuate. His wife would have been there too, but a flying ember hit her in the eye and she went to seek medical help.
"I was so lucky. I had a million embers flying at me. It was very, very, very scary.''
Seven houses on his cul-de-sac were completely destroyed. Here was a collapsed wall, there a charred window frame, a flattened pile of shingles, some twisted metal, all covered in ash.
Up the hill, Corazon Place was a scene of total devastation. All of the cul-de-sac's 11 homes were destroyed, and a small dead bird was lying up against the curb. The hulks of two Mercedes rested on their rims. Residents were down the street at the police blockade, hoping to get back in soon to see if their houses had survived. The Bonnett family had somehow arranged for a police escort and found their house still standing. Daughter Jessica, 17, was emotional, her hands shaking.
"My fish is alive!'' she said, crying and laughing at the same time.
Don and Susan Buckley, both 49, sneaked around a police barricade in Highlands Ranch to check their Mediterranean style house on the edge of steep ravine.
They walked the last couple hundred yards in silence, holding hands. As they rounded a bend, Susan let out a deep sigh: "It's there! Oh my God we are so lucky! We are so lucky.''
They embraced, kissed briefly, then walked through the front door, which had been broken in by firefighters. Fire had burned to within 10 yards of the house, destroying a vegetable garden and solar collector, and some palm trees they had planted. Their pool had a thick black layer of soot and grime. Up the hill, they gazed out onto what had been four mansions. Nothing remained.
Susan: "Oh my God, look-the whole hillside is gone. It couldn't have come any closer."
On the kitchen counter were empty Gatorade bottles, energy bar wrappers and a note from San Diego Fire Engine 12, Lincoln Park:
"House saved,'' it said. "Sorry about the door!''
-- Joel Rubin
Ramona:
Hemet Airport has been supporting aircraft for fires to the north, outside of San Diego County. Gillespie Field in the southern part of the county is launching helicopters.
There are 12 choppers on the Witch fire, eight on the Harris and half a dozen on the Rice fire.
Ramona airport people also are supporting the Poomacha fire in Palomar, the Witch Fire and the Rice fire
Ramona-based retardant crew foreman Gawain Saunders said: "Each member of my team is just as important as the next guy. It's a tough day, but we're all very happy about what we're doing."
So far this year, he's been to fires in Arizona and Utah.
Ray Chaney, the spotter, came in for a half-hour break at noon, grabbed a cheeseburger and told everybody, "the whole county is on fire."
In an interview, he said that when he was up there "it's pretty ominous to see. You're looking at an entire column of fire from the Mexican border to the Palomars."
At 1 p.m. there was a conference call with guy named John Richardson, who had just arrived at Ramona, and was in charge of all air operations in San Diego County. He's the incident command team air operation branch director from CalFire.
He took part in a 45-minute conference call where officials in charge of air resources throughout Southern California talked about their problems and jockeyed for resources. "When you need a priority aircraft, you can't get anyone. I hate going outside the chain of command, but it might be 20 minutes before you can get anyone on the phone," said Richardson.
He's got 5 planes and teams for three major fires. You can make them go only so long, seven hours at a time. Unless he gets a new team, one of the fires will have no spotters this afternoon.
At 12:45, there was a report of a fire at the airport itself. There were no firefighters handy, so they had to call some in. At 1:15, the airport manager wanted to shut down the airport, but the firefighters got there just in time.
Richardson said a lot of the planes coming in and out were 40 and 50 years old; some were military aircraft used in Vietnam. Some have bullet holes. "It's like fighting a fire with a bunch of 1950s Mustangs with a nice paint job."
Aircraft are coming in from other states. Lutz keeps asking for a DC-10. The present planes carry 1,200 gallons, a DC-10, double that.
-- Garrett Therolf
Qualcomm Stadium:
Ying Huang arrived in San Diego on Sunday night after a cross-country flight. The Harvard Law School student had a week of local job interviews scheduled.
By 5 p.m. Monday, her family knew they would have to leave their Carmel Valley home. But Ying's mother, Yali Huang, was worried about leaving her house dirty.
"I couldn't believe it. My mom was hurrying through the house cleaning and dusting the blinds," Ying Huang said. "We finally convinced her that coming back to a dirty house would be a good thing."
The family arrived at Qualcomm Stadium at 9 p.m. Monday and slept on donated cots and bedding.
"It's been a crazy week," Ying Huang said. "I brought my interview suits. But I won't be needing them on this trip. My interviews have been rescheduled."
****
Earl Sanders looked out of a broken down car he called home and saw the mountain above Spring Valley on fire.
Sanders, disabled and homeless for about a year, grabbed his cane and belongings, which were shoved inside a trash bag. He put both in a shopping cart and walked to a nearby McDonald's.
"I had to evacuate, but I had no transportation and no money," he said. "I slept on the sidewalk in front of McDonald's and asked God what he had planned for me."
About 9 a.m. Tuesday, a good Samaritan gave him $5, enough for a bus ride to Grossmont Center in La Mesa and trolley fare to Qualcomm Stadium.
There, Sanders, 48, was given a meal, a change of clothing, a cot and bedding.
"God is working it out for me,'' he said, tears streaming down his face. "I was sleeping in a car last night. I will be sleeping in a bed tonight."
"It's bad being homeless," Sanders said. "But it's also sad to see people lose their homes and valuables. There's always somebody worse off than me."
-- H.G. Reza
Saugus:
California Fire Chief Ralph Alworth at the Southern California Geographic Area Coordination Center in Riverside said here was what they knew about the second fire-related death in L.A. County:
On the first day of the Buckweed Fire, a civilian trying to flee in his car got into a wreck and his car caught fire. His death today is being classified as fire-related.
San Diego:
At about 2 a.m. Tuesday morning, 75-year-old Don Jenkinson's life at the retirement home was thrown into upheaval.
Grab three things: your medication, your identification and a change of clothes, he was told. Soon he and 120 other residents of the Mount Miguel Covenant Village Retirement Community in Spring Valley were lining up to board buses.
"We could see the flames," he recalled. "It was scary."
The facility was in the path of the Harris fire burning along the Mexican border. The buses were moving residents several miles away to a shelter at the San Diego High School gym.
Things were calmer by Tuesday afternoon. Jenkinson was playing a word puzzle in the campus courtyard. Other retirees were playing bridge; some took strolls.
They have what they need and they're being treated well, Jenkinson said.
-- Ari Bloomekatz
Gov. Schwarzenegger announced a toll-free hot line for businesses to donate large amounts to Southern California fire victims. The line, 800-750-2858, will be staffed from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
El Cajon:
With the Harris fire churning to the west, El Cajon became a whirlwind of activity Tuesday night. Cars streamed into motels. At a Best Western, as a haze of smoke settled into the nearby foothills, workers hurriedly sawed the largest limbs from a patch of eucalyptus trees.
The hotel had been busy with fire evacuees since Sunday and was full at one point. Earlier Tuesday, some evacuation orders were lifted in places like Scripps Ranch, and rooms became available. They soon filled up with evacuees from new communities threatened by the advancing blaze. By nightfall, the hotel had just three rooms left again.
Richard and Christina Greer of Lakeside and their sons, 4-year-old Jaimin and 5-month-old Jayce, made a run for it on Monday. Unable to find an available hotel room, they evacuated to Christina's sister's house, but that was in Santee -- not much of an improvement. Once Christina learned that some evacuation orders had been lifted, she tried again, this time finding a room at the Best Western. They arrived about 6 p.m., toting Oreos, toy airplanes and a pillow covered in a pillowcase from the movie "Cars." Jaimin was still wearing the pajamas he'd been in for two days.
"It's been crazy," Christina Greer said.
She said there had been widespread confusion in Lakeside about whether or not they were under an evacuation order.
"But with two kids, we were out of there," she said, as Jayce chewed on her finger. "We weren't going to take any chances."
-- Scott Gold
Saugus:
Thirty-two structures were lost in the Buckweed fire north of Saugus, including 15 homes, said Fire Inspector Frank Garrido of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
"There were 38 miles of fire lines to contain, and we have 80% containment," he said. All roads were opened up to residents, except for the northern end of Bouquet Canyon Road, he said.
Four injuries were reported, minor ones for two civilians and one firefighter, and more serious ones for another civilian, he said.
--Tami Abdollah
La Jolla:
Late Tuesday, UC San Diego Medical Center's burn unit received more fire victims.
Among the 17 patients are five firefighters, caught while battling the Harris fire in the border area of south San Diego County, according to Dr. Raul Coimbra, the hospital's chief of trauma, surgical critical care and burns. This is the county's only regional burn center.
Two of firefighters, brought in Sunday, were in critical condition with serious burns to their faces and upper extremities and inhalation injuries, caused by breathing in fiery smoke, he said. Three others were in fair-to-good condition. A sixth firefighter was discharged today.
Coimbra said it was tough for the doctors and nurses to see the firefighters in such a bad way.
"They bring in burn patients every day to us and it's hard to see them getting hurt," he said.
Other patients were civilians who "stayed where they were too long," Coimbra said. But one group of patients was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"We had a number of people that we call 'border-crossers' that got caught in the fire in the area of Tecate," he said, explaining that the information came from the paramedics who brought them in.
Social workers must wait for some of these patients, who remain in critical condition, to become well enough to give them some way to contact relatives. "Nobody will come to the hospital looking for them," he said.
Other info:
*The unit's patients were burned on 2% to 60% of their bodies. Patients who suffer severe inhalation injuries must be sedated so that a ventilator can breath for them. They also are given fluids and pain medications.
*The unit has 8 intensive care beds and 20 intermediate and floor beds, and can access 26 more surgical intensive care beds.
* Only one admission today, a firefighter.
-- Tracy L. Weber
Chula Vista:
Navy pilots James Cluxton and Don Garcia lifted off in two SH-60 twin engine helicopters at about 9 a.m. Tuesday morning to help fight the eastern end of the Harris fire, which was threatening communities around Spring Valley and eastern Chula Vista.
The men dropped dozens of 420-gallon buckets of water, successfully knocking back the fire around the Sweetwater reservoir.
Cluxton and Garcia both said they were frustrated with other difficulties they had battling the flames.
At noon, the two helicopters had been attacking a larger portion of the fire near Spring Valley, and had successfully contained it, but had to break away to refuel on Imperial Beach. When they came back about 20 minutes later, the fire had re-consumed the hill they had just cleared.
"You almost feel like you did it all for naught," Garcia said, adding that they had to spend about two more hours fighting the flames in that same spot.
Cluxton and Garcia are "High Rollers," a nickname for their air crew stationed at the Navy base on Coronado.
Brian Wilderman, another pilot who worked Monday combating the Witch fire in the northern part of the county, said he had recently returned from a deployment to Baghdad. The flying conditions Monday in San Diego were as hostile as those in Baghdad, except "we weren't worried about being shot at," he said with a laugh.
-- Ari Bloomekatz
El Cajon:
Frustrated with a lack of answers from law enforcement officials, many evacuees have developed a new trick for checking -- maybe -- whether their home survived. They call their house every hour or so, and as long as they get the answering machine, they assume it's still standing. It's a simple ploy that refugees have passed through word of mouth.
"It's a good sign, right?" said Linda Stillwell, who evacuated from Ramona on Monday night and is staying with her husband, Bob Stillwell, and her dog, Gidget, at a hotel in El Cajon. "So I just keep on calling."
-- Scott Gold
Santiago Canyon:
When Julie Ann Treloar, 47, and her three children were evacuated from their home in Santiago Canyon Estates about 3:30 Tuesday afternoon, Treloar drove to a park at the entrance of the development to watch the fire. Before the family sat down to a picnic lunch of barbecue sandwiches, French fries and cole slaw that a neighbor had brought them, Treloar said a prayer:
"Dear God, we pray you put these fires out and protect our neighbors and pray that they get out in time."
Treloar said her children, Sterling, 9, Tivoli, 6, and Hudson, 4, hadn't eaten all day. "I thought this was a nice picnic in the park. I wish it were under different circumstances."
-- Jason Song
San Diego County:
As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, state public health officials said they were aware of at least 11 nursing homes that had evacuated as a result of the wildfires in San Diego County. Residents have since returned to three of those homes; the remaining eight homes account for 578 displaced residents.
Several other healthcare facilities also have evacuated.
"The primary focus of the last 24 hours is to make sure patients are placed at the correct level of care and that we respond very, very quickly," said Kathleen Billingsley, deputy director for the Center for Healthcare Quality at the California Department of Public Health.
"There are a significant number of people, of patients, of elderly that have been impacted by this series of fires throughout southern California. Basically these people have been displaced."
A spokeswoman at the California Assn. of Health Facilities said that if the fires headed toward Fallbrook, another eight to 10 homes may have to evacuate.
--Charlie Ornstein
Qualcomm Stadium:
Saturday was his day off and Tim Bright of Ramona decided to take his family on a day trip to Yuma to visit relatives.
The family of four, Amanda, 33, Ivy, 3, and Matthew, 2, took only a change of clothes.
The Santa Ana winds were beginning to stir but Bright, 42, didn't give it a second thought.
Sunday morning, as they drove home, the news reports about the Malibu fire began. High winds forced them to turn around at El Centro.
"Late Sunday we heard a report about a San Diego fire but most Ramona stations were preoccupied with the Malibu fire," said Bright, a tow-truck driver.
The family learned about the fire in Ramona in El Centro on their way to San Diego. It was a tense five-hour drive from there, made worse when Bright heard that law enforcement officials had closed access to Ramona.
The family pulled into Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego at 4 p.m. Monday.
"We don't know if we own anything other than what we have with us and in our van," said Amanda Bright. "We keep asking people if our apartment is still standing. But nobody knows."
The fire is a painful reminder of a 1974 wildfire that destroyed his family's home in Harbison Canyon, east of downtown San Diego, said Tim Bright.
"This is the third devastating fire that has affected my life, " he said. "I hope to God it's the last."
On Tuesday, Bright got some more bad news. The tow truck company he works for in El Cajon threatened to fire him if he did not report for work, he said.
"I'm homeless for all practical purposes," he said. "They want me to leave my wife and kids in a tent in parking lot. We have nowhere to go and now I may not have a job."
-- H. G. Reza
Carlsbad:
When Mike and Sarah Smith and their two young children pulled into the parking lot at Carlsbad High School—one of several evacuation centers in the San Diego area-- they looked like a family that could use a good night’s sleep, a shower and some good news.
“We’ve been sleeping in the car the last two nights,” said Mike Smith. “I think we’re getting a little smelly.”
The Smiths were chased out of their 5-bedroom house overlooking Eagle Crest Golf Course in Escondido early Monday morning and have been on the run since. They considered heading to Escondido High, but it was too close to the fire lines. Qualcomm Stadium didn’t sound much better.
“After we saw the results of Hurricane Katrina, we decided the stadium was not a viable alternative,” Smith said. “So we headed for the coast. “
After searching for hotels from North San Diego County to Irvine, they gave up and settled for a beach parking lot in Oceanside Sunday night and a shopping center parking lot in Carlsbad Monday night. Their gray Suburban hasn’t been luxurious, but at least the kids — Ryan, 11, and Emma, 8 -- have their own row of seats.
“We’ve tried to treat this as a vacation,” he said. “On the bright side, the waves have been fantastic the last two days.”
Smith still doesn’t know the status of his house, but said he’d rather be in Southern California than his previous two residences, England and San Jose. “We left England because of the rain and we moved from San Jose for a little better lifestyle,” he said. “It’s still a great place to be, even if they’ve got fires.”
-- Dave McKibben
Encinitas:
On a typical Tuesday afternoon at 1 o'clock in late October, mortgage broker Tommy Smith would not be checking his e-mail inside an office at the Community and Senior Center in Encinitas, which was serving as an evacuated shelter.
But Smith and his family had been evacuated from his La Costa Oaks home a few miles away and he was trying hard to maintain a sense of normalcy.
"Just trying to get some work done," Smith said. "I figure this is the price you pay for living somewhere nice. It's pretty smoky. But would you rather be here or in New Orleans. At least here you can see it coming and you can leave."
Smith sold his house and his mortgage company last year and left Dallas so he could be "close to the ocean." He lives on the border of Carlsbad, San Marcos and Encinitas, but he's not satisfied.
"The idea is to try to get on the other side of Interstate 5 and if things really work out, we'll get on the other side of Coast Highway."
While Smith worked, his sons Hollis, 12, and Braden, 5, were adjusting well to life as fire refugees.
"Braden doesn't want to leave this place," Smith said. "He's playing basketball outside, watching cartoons and eating whatever and whenever he wants."
Inside the living quarters, Ron Bird was glued to a tiny black-and-white television checking for updates on the fate of his $3 million home in the upscale rural community of Olivenhain.
A few firefighters knocked on Bird's door Monday at noon and told him to seek shelter elsewhere. His house sits across a valley from Rancho Santa Fe and the exclusive "Bridges Golf Course," where celebrities such as Phil Mickelson are members.
Bird was worried about the fire jumping the valley that sits between his house and the course, but he felt confident his 5,200 square-foot home would remain intact.
"If it starts cooking, it'll roar up that canyon," said Bird, 63, a retired airline pilot for U.S. Air. "But I've cleared about 120 feet of brush, so hopefully it'll stop right at my gate. I figure I'm the first line of defense for the whole community."
If he's wrong, Bird doesn't want to consider the consequences. A chunk of his 5-acre property is taken up by a 250,000 square foot garage that contains eight classic cars--one of the them, a 1966 Corvette, is worth an estimated $60,000.
"We got most of the family pictures and important papers," he said. "I've got those and my wife, everything else you can replace. Even the cars."
Bird has declined offers to stay with friends in Carlsbad, because he doesn't want to impose. So he'll continue to sleep on parts of a wooden stage and a one-inch thick mat and hope his back can hold up.
"I didn't expect it this good," he said.
-- Dave McKibben
Fredalba:
The fire decimated this San Bernardino community, which by late afternoon was a eerie vision of white ash and burning stumps on a carpet of blackened pine needles. Severed power lines dangled along Fredalba Road and there was virtually nothing left of the homes surrounding Fredalba's historical marker -- noting that the town was the home of the Brookings Lumber Company between 1898 and 1911.
A charred sports car with with flames coming out of the place the headlights once were, a bent and twisted basketball hoop, an ghostly metal table with four chairs still in place around it and a charcoal grill next to what might have once been a patio completed the scene.
There simply were not enough fire trucks to chase down the fire that swept from Running Springs into the steep, winding roads of Fredalba Tuesday morning, said Brian Savage, a Division Supervisor with Culver City Fire who was among the first to begin battling back the flames.
By the time he arrived between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m., the flames had already raced through several homes and there were virtually no trucks available to save the rest, he said. Most of the eight engines that were still trying to put out spot fires in the Fredabla-Smiley Ranch communities at 4 p.m. did not arrive until after 1 p.m., Savage said.
The clutter left by homeowners in their wooded yards slowed efforts, Savage said.
"You tell people to do clearance and they think it's OK to leave the wood piles and the sheds," Savage said. "They just don't get it. We can't be at every house. … It's frustrating."
-- Maeve Reston
Lake Arrowhead:
Standing on a balcony across from Cedar Glen Canyon near Lake Arrowhead, where hundreds of home were burned in 2003, neighbors Shane McLelland and Jack Fuller surveyed a line of fire less than a mile away that headed in their direction.
Fuller lost his house in the earlier fire, but built a two-story, wood-framed hillside home to replace it.
With a panoramic view the neighbors can monitor the fires to the east and homes burning a mile away. To the west there are multi-million dollar homes in every nook and cranny of the mountains standing untouched.
McLelland and Fuller were among 50 homeowners who have chosen to stay to protect their homes, most of them built only in the last 4 years. McLelland lives a few miles away in the Grass Valley community of Lake Arrowhead, where many homes were lost last night and today. But, on Tuesday, he was laying out hoses and clearing brush from around the home of a long time friend in Cedar Glen.
McLelland and many other neighbors had repeatedly returned throughout the day to Fuller's balcony to keep tabs on the fires they believed would return to the canyon later tonight. Peering through binoculars, Fuller, a concrete construction worker, and McLelland, a custom car builder, shook their heads at the sight of homes going up in smoke on the western ridgeline of Green Valley Lake about a mile away from the fires.
Having lost his water pressure entirely earlier Tuesday, Fuller hired a local construction crew to bring a water tanker to his property and thoroughly hose down the house. "We're pretty sure what's going to happen next," McLelland said. "The fire is going to come through here, possibly take away all these new homes and then head into Lake Arrowhead. So, we've got our hoses laid out and ready. The water tanks up the street are full."
One of his neighbors installed a water pump near a creek just behind his house to fight the fire with the creek water.
"We just want to get this over with. Sitting around and waiting is nerve-racking. But we're not going to let our homes burn again if we can help it."
-- Louis Sahagun
Castaic:
A posse of four residents rode on horseback through Castaic's rugged canyons Tuesday afternoon. Their mission: to make sure everyone in this sparsely populated ranch-style community had survived the flames that had threatened their homes early that morning.
"I've been on horseback for three days," said Lisa Raymond, who led the pack. "This is my four-wheel drive," she added, pointing at her horse Peanuts.
The group first came upon Tony Brubaker and his wife, Sharon:their backyard was charred but their home survived.
"It came right in our back pocket," Brubaker said.
When the flames had made their way up every surrounding canyon, Brubaker decided to evacuate his $1.4 million home. The couple took their two dogs, a horse and a bird, but left 8 chickens.
Raymond next came upon Marv Metcalf, who stayed behind as flames approached his 18-acre property early Tuesday.
"Glad to see you're okay," Raymond said.
Metcalf ignored orders to evacuate so he could protect his two horses. At about 4 a.m., as the flames came down the hillside, Metcalf stood with a hose spraying nearby trees.
Firefighters from the U.S. Forest Service arrived soon after to fight the fire. Metcalf's home survived undamaged.
Raymond kept on riding.
"This is one of those communities where everyone needs to help each other," Raymond said.
-- Jean-Paul Renaud
Del Mar:
At the four-star L’Auberge Del Mar Resort and Spa, housewife Doren McClure, 50, rode out the fires in style. Dogs frolicked on the cream-colored marble floors of the lobby. Soot floated in the oceanside swimming pool and koi pond, but calming music played in the lobby, as McClure and other guests gathered in overstuffed couches in the lobby to share news.
McClure had dialed the hotel shortly after 7 a.m. on Monday morning, after deciding to evacuate her home at the Rancho Santa Fe Golf Course. She snapped up one of two rooms left to share with her husband, a retired golf company executive, and her two daughters. She packed her favorite pieces of jewelry, passports and video tapes. She left the paintings—for fear she might harm them more by moving them than by leaving them behind. Her youngest daughter, 15, packed four suitcases, but was told she could only bring one.
McClure said the Witch Creek fire in Northern San Diego County had hit larger swaths of affluent neighborhoods than previous fires.
Like others at the hotel, McClure praised government efforts to alert people about the dangers of the fires. Her daughter’s school called at 7:15am to tell her classes were cancelled. Later, a reverse 911 call came, alerting the family to evacuate. Her only complaint: perhaps federal water-dropping planes could have arrived sooner.
-- Sonia Nazario
Temecula:
Those fleeing fires in Riverside and northern San Diego counties are being directed to Temecula Valley High School at 31555 Rancho Vista Road (cross street Margarita). The old shelter at the Temecula Community Center is full
Piru:
Tim Cohen, 41, ran toward the red-orange flames swirling toward his 6,000-acre ranch in Piru Tuesday afternoon. Although firefighters had old him to leave, the rancher insisted on staying to try to save his workers' homes.
He also had 85 thoroughbred horses to protect, -- including High Demand, a black stallion pacing in his corral -- 500 acres of avocados, lemons and other crops.
"I'm here to make sure everybody's safe. And if they're not safe, that they get out of here," Cohen said around noon. He wore a baseball cap, T-shirt and white surgeon's mask as he helped workers spray the blaze with water from tanker trucks.
Nearby, five fire trucks and 80 fire fighters sprayed the flames with water.
"We have the resources here to handle it as long as the wind doesn't change," Cohen said.
For three days, flames from the Ranch fire in Castaic had tried to bull-rush into the canyons surrounding Cohen's Temecula Ranch. On Tuesday, they finally made it down the canyon.
Strike teams were determined to stop the fire north of Piru Canyon Road, before it reached the ranch. But about 1 p.m., the wind picked up and fanned the flames. Cohen moved High Demand into the stables. He had seen other fires in his 7 years on the ranch. But never this close.
Singed rabbits sprinted from the bushes. Cohen said he still felt safe. Certainly safer than those evacuated down in San Diego.
"Nobody's hurt. That's what really matters," he said as flames drew within 20 yards of some of the ranch houses.
One of the ranch workers, Richard Ramos, asked Cohen if he should wet down the roofs. Cohen said it was a good idea.
The fire drew closer. All around, the hills stood charred and blackened. The ranch seemed just the latest morsel for the fire to consume.
"It's like being in a hurricane," Cohen said as flecks of water and ash sprayed his face. "And you can't stop a hurricane. You can't stop it with this wind."
The smoke grew darker, like a fog. Then, just like that, the winds died down. The smoke thinned. Cohen walked toward the stables.
"Too close, too close," the rancher muttered.
He walked past a hay bale, and as if on cue, an ember landed and caught fire. Cohen trudged out of view, workers ran to the hay and doused the fire with water.
-- Molly Hennessy-Fiske
Mount Palomar, San Onofre:
Fire officials at the command center in Riverside said the Mt. Palomar fire has exploded to 20,000 acres and could threaten the famed observatory at the top, which houses one of the world's largest telescopes. They also said two fires have broken out in Camp Pendleton, the Wilcox Fire at 1,200 acres and the Ammo Fire at 350 acres. The Ammo fire has raised concerns because it is at the base of San Onofre Peak and climbing up toward an array of telecommunications equipment. The San Onofre nuclear power plant is on the other side. Chief of Operations Chief Bob Green said the governor asked him to send in air tankers to lay down water between the fire and the communications equipment.
-- David Kelly
San Bernardino schools will close Wednesday because of the fires, officials said.
Qualcomm Stadium:
Dr. Mark Horton, director of the California Department of Public Health, said there are four pods at Qualcomm Stadium providing medical care. The medical unit, akin to an urgent care clinic, had seen about 200 patients by Tuesday afternoon, including a woman in labor and patients needing eye care and medications. Some of the refugees have had to be transferred to acute-care hospitals.
The other three areas on the stadium's second floor are treating 350 to 500 patients from nursing homes, assisted living centers and independent living facilities, said Horton, who has been there since Monday night. The nursing homes brought along medical records, medications and employees to help in the patients' care.
"Things are basically under control and fairly well organized and fairly well resourced," Horton said.
Nursing home residents have also been taken to Del Mar racetrack and to San Diego High School.
Dr. Cesar Aristeiguieta, director of the California Emergency Medical Services Agency, said he found 216 nursing home patients at Del Mar on Monday night, many of whom "had a fairly significant degree of medical need." He and ambulance strike teams worked through the night to transfer the majority of them elsewhere. By Tuesday afternoon, only about 40 remained. "The idea was to get them to a higher level of medical care than could be provided there at Del Mar."
Aristeiguieta said 200 patients were being treated at San Diego High School on Tuesday afternoon, but only 19 needed nursing home care; the rest were higher functioning. "I think in general, we have within the state of California a lot of resources. Some of the patients from Del Mar were placed in areas outside of the San Diego County area as we found suitable beds for them."
Horton acknowledged that the elderly and infirm are at risk.
"Any unanticipated transfer like this with a patient certainly raises the risk," he said. "Most of the nursing homes have practice plans in place on how to accomplish these transfers as efficiently and safely as possible...I think the system is designed to try to mitigate as much as possible any risk there might be."
-- Charles Ornstein
Santiago Fire:
Standing near the entrance to Holy Jim Canyon, Michael Milligan took stock of the situation.
Up the rough road were renters living in 49 cabins on U.S. Forest Service land. As the volunteer fire chief for Holy Jim, it was his job to to get everyone out.
Knowing how fiercely independent canyon people tended to be, Milligan knew some would resist.
As he talked with a dozen sheriff's deputies, he provided a bit of detail on the characters who lived up the road. He also handed out maps showing the locations of all the Holy Jim cabins.
"There's an 86-year-old woman with one leg and terrible health," he said. "I got her out on a ruse, and they'll never let her back in."
"There's Shane. Old guy with a grey beard. You've probably seen him," Milligan went on. "He'll be alright."
Milligan brought the conversation around to another resident, a guy he identified as an old man with animals.
"I'd like to encourage him to leave," Milligan said
We can't physically make him leave, a deputy responded.
Milligan shook his head, knowingly.
"I can get him out."
-- Mike Anton
Southern California:
At 3 p.m., the National Weather Service's high wind warning expired, and gust began to taper off. It was still plenty windy, said weather specialist Bonnie Bartling, but the 60 to 100 mph gusts that had roared down the canyons in the last few days would largely disappear Tuesday night.
Winds in the Newhall pass, which on Sunday and Monday clocked in at more than 70 miles per hour, were down to a relatively tolerably 48 miles per hour on Tuesday, Bartling said.
"We're kicking into a weaker Santa Ana tomorrow around noon," she said late Tuesday.
"The high pressure system is going to move far enough to the east where it will turn off the Santa Ana spigot," said Bill Patzert, a climatologist for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada-Flintridge.
Patzert said that by Friday, and for sure by the weekend, "we should be back to our marine layer in the morning." Temperatures that reached 95 degrees in Pasadena shoudl be down to the mid- to low-70s by Saturday, he added.
On Tuesday, Pasadena reached 95 degrees, Patzert said. By Saturday, temperatures in that city should plummet to the mid to low 70s, he said. That's just a snapshot of what will happen in the region, Patzert said.
"It will be a lot cooler, a lot more humid, and that will really slow down these fires," Patzert said.
-- Hector Becerra
Ramona:
The San Diego County Sheriff's Department reported making several arrests for looting, including two in Ramona near the origin of the Witch Creek Fire. Dist. Attorney Bonnie Dumanis warned of vigorous prosecution.
Looters, she said, are "criminals without a conscience." Looting is second-degree burglary, a felony punishable by up to three years in state prison, she said.
-- Tony Perry
Oceanside:
Not the ideal vacation perhaps, but for at least 60 families in the harbor area of the Oceanside waterfront, camping at the beach seemed a good alternative to hotels.
State park rangers told R.V. and camper owners flooding into the area Monday night that the rules had been suspended for the duration of the fires:
They could camp in the parking lot meant for boat trailers for free, so long as they didn't let their dogs on the beach, lifeguards said.
Karen Perez, 39, of Fallbrook, her husband and their two retrievers, were among those who took advantage . They had parked their camper in one of the spots, flanked on each side by a line of R.V.'s, some double parked.
Most of the makeshift community were fellow Fallbrook evacuees, she said: "We've been comparing notes."
Perez said the couple was getting a little bored, but the mood at the parking lot was mellow and amiable. People sprawled on the beach nearby, swimming, or flopped on folding chairs around their campers trading stories.
Other non-campers had flocked to the Oceanside beach and pier to seek relief from the throat-choking air, strolling along the pier, surfing, or just sitting on the beach and taking breaths.
The sun, however, was a small sinister red disc over the ocean peering through the smoke. The sky--darker by the moment as the flames roiled in Pendleton--was a strange, heavy, liver-grey color and seemed hang just at the tops of the palm trees and the boat masts, a kind of dusk at 3 p.m.
"This is not what we had in mind when we got the camper," Perez admitted, eying the ash raining down on her two leashed retrievers, who kept tangling themselves among the folding chairs.
Just before 4 p.m., a cry of "water!" broke the sleepy mood. Joanne Chaffee, a nurse from a nearby Oceanside neighborhood, had rolled her dull black Toyota Camry into the parking lot and opened the trunk to hand out water .
She had come straight from her job as a home-health care worker, and was still wearing her medical smock and ID, and her face was covered by an industrial-type mask. It was not her first trip. The previous night, she had brought restaurant pasta, salad and cupcakes to the evacuees, spending in part her own money, and giving them away from a cart.
She got many takers, "Thank you! Thank you!" they said, as she passed the bottles out, and "I'm a home-care nurse too!"
A teenage girl in a blue tank-top, flip-flops, and legs covered with beach sand came up, asking if Chaffee knew where she could buy a mask. She and other evacuees seemed to treat Chaffee as their unofficial boss and concierge--maybe it was the nurses' uniform.
Chaffee seemed to accept the role. She told the girl which stores might still have a few, then recommended the best bet, and gave her the address.
"One of my patients said, 'You are being a mother again,'" she said shrugging. "It's that maternal instinct."
-- Jill Leovy
Orange View Fairgrounds evacuation center:
Ruben Gurrola, 53, the patriarch of his family, has lived in the Lake Arrowhead area for 27 years. He has been buying his $150,000 house near the rim of The World High School for 8 years. Monday morning he decided to pack up the family and voluntarily evacuate to the center in San Bernardino. He spent his first night in his truck because, "It was full of the most important documents of his life," those of his marriage, his citizenship papers, and his forthcoming homeowners papers (deed).
The family also went through the 2003 fire. They were at a soccer game in San Bernardino and didn't make it to their home in time to save their dog, Pug. But the home survived then and the Gurrolas are hopeful it will again.
It was better this time, as the family was home to gather together, but, "I hope it does not become a routine."
Gurrola's daughters, Margarita, 21, was worried about her one-month-old son, David. "You know there's just so many people around and I just worry about germs or an illness spreading and my son getting sick from it. But it's been safe so far. It's not your house but I guess it'll be home for the next few days."
-- Francisco Vara-Orta
Cooks Corner:
Firefighters are going to light a backfire in hopes of keeping the blaze from crossing Live Oak Canyon road. The fear is that if it's not stopped here, the fire could run unchecked all the way to Rancho Santa Margarita.
OC Fire Chief Mike Rohde, who is in charge of the firefighting effort in the Lake Forest area, said, "We're going to be in real trouble if it gets past us here."
A fire strike team was sent in along the road to make sure that the backfire itself doesn't jump the road.
-- Mike Anton
At 3 p.m., the National Weather Service's high wind warning expired, as winds began to taper off. Though it was still windy, weather specialist Bonnie Bartling said the 60 to 100 mph gusts that had roared down the canyons in the last few days would largely disappear Tuesday night, leading into Wednesday.
The Newhall pass, which Sunday and Monday had gusts that clocked in at more than 70 mph, had gusts of 48 mph Tuesday, Bartling said.
"We're done with the strongest winds. We're kicking into a weaker Santa Ana tomorrow around noon," she said late Tuesday. "The winds are diminishing."
There will still be wind advisories in the mountains and parts of the Santa Clarita Valley, she said. But the strongest gusts should be a shadow of what they had been.
On Thursday, the high pressure system over the Great Basin above Utah will move east, toward Colorado. With that, the offshore breezes flowing into the Pacific in the general direction of the Santa Anas, should begin to switch to onshore breezes.
"The high pressure system is going to move far enough to the east where it will turn off the Santa Ana spigot," said Bill Patzert, a climatologist for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada-Flintridge. "At that point, we'll see our normal weather, which is an onshore flow."
-- Hector Becerra
San Diego:
All evacuation notices have been lifted for Del Mar, Solana Beach and Chula Vista.
-- Tony Perry
Arrowbear-Running Springs:
Two 21-man U.S. Forest Service crews -- the Feather River Hot Shots and the Breckenridge Hot Shots -- sipped boxed Starbucks coffee in the parking lot of Blondie's Bar and Grill as they waited for water-dropping planes and helicopters to clear a safe path for them. The crews planned to hike in when it was safe to build a containment line with their saws and pulaskis, an axe-like tool used to fight wildfires.
"We're just getting a feel of what the fire is doing ... it's a pretty steady line of fire moving down the southwest," said Hot Shot Capt. Ray Torres of the Feather River group. "We've got some folks scouting to see how we can get in there to actually start attacking this thing."
Jason Foreman, lead saw on the Breckenridge Hot Shot crew, said the clouds of smoke signified the peak burn period of the day.
"It's so erratic, we haven't been able to get out there. ... We might spread ourselves too thin," said Foreman, 29. Most recently, Foreman said his crew had worked the initial attack on the fire around Lake Isabella in California and the Gray's Creek Fire in Idaho in early September.
"They were nothing like this," he said, eyeing the smoke along the ridgeline.
-- Maeve Reston
Malibu:
Some 90% of Charter Communications cable, Internet and telephone customers in Malibu are without service, after fiber-optic lines burned in the Malibu fires, the company said in a statement. Service will return gradually, but should be completed by this evening, the company said.
Washington, D.C.:
Trying to avoid a repeat of the failures of Hurricane Katrina, the White House is taking pains to respond quickly to the escalating emergency posed by the Southern California wildfires. But a leading Democrat says the Bush administration has shortchanged funding for removing dead trees and dry shrubbery that provided the fuel for the fast-moving blazes. And a leading Republican member of the state's delegation called on Congress to quickly provide $1 billion in emergency funds to help pay the costs of firefighting and disaster relief.
President Bush plans to visit the Southland on Thursday. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and David Paulison, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, arrived in the state today. But as the White House scrambled to stay on top of the crisis, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the administration had not put a high enough priority on preventing catastrophic fires in the West. "We have fought for years during this Bush administration to have money for wildfire suppression," Reid said. "It takes effort to prepare the landscape so that these fires don't burn the way they have been."
After the fires of 2003, Congress authorized $760 million a year for "fuel reduction" -- clearing away dead trees. But less than half of that has been provided.
-- Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and James Gerstenzang
El Toro:
About 272 people, mostly from Fallbrook or Foothill Ranch, spent the night at El Toro High School's gym on hundreds of blue, green and red cots set up by the American Red Cross. During the day some took naps on the cots or crowded around a TV, in their socks or barefoot; some said they felt like they were in their living rooms.
Shirley Viramontes, 44, of Fallbrook was happy to spot a familiar face: Kenneth Samuels, 67, who lived in her Summer Ridge apartment complex. He had told her to evacuate Monday, but she could not bring herself to leave. Instead she and her 8-year-old daughter Gina spent the night in a Dodge van at the entrance to their complex, until the smoke became too thick about 4 a.m. Samuels told her he called home and heard his answering machine, "so that's good news." She replied, "I hope to see you at home."
About 30 people at the gym were seniors, evacuated from nursing homes or assisted living facilities, including Emerald Gardens and Fallbrook Terrace. "I didn't hear any complaints from [the seniors] even though we were stuck in a car for 2 hours," said Remylyn Massip, 36, who helped with the move. "They thought it was a field trip."
-- My-Thuan Tran
Modjeska Canyon, east Orange County:
Los Angeles Times reporter Janet Wilson, who has lived in a creekside stone house in Modjeska Canyon in Orange County for nearly nine years, returned from her wedding Monday evening to find her home threatened by the Santiago fire. Today, she gave this account to Times staff writer Tony Barboza:
"I got married on Saturday, and there's a good chance my home was destroyed this morning.
I was married in a lakeside chapel in my mother's small town in New Hampshire. It was fantastic. Two weeks ago, 40 of my women friends held a wedding shower in Modjeska Canyon. We sat out on my friend's porch staring at the blue sky and beautiful chaparral-covered slopes that we all knew and loved so well. Today I saw that same area engulfed in 75-foot flames.
The good news is as far as I can tell nobody has been hurt. Three of my neighbors were among the 12 firefighters that were required to deploy their emergency fire-retardant tents as flames overtook them Monday, but they also escaped injury.
My mom told me the day after the wedding that there were seven fires in Southern Californa. At first it seemed like my house would be okay, but each time I changed planes I received increasingly disturbing messages on my cellphone about shifting winds and fire trajectories.
By the time I was on the tarmac in Denver, a neighbor told me that people were being evacuated. I called an editor, who told me that Modjeska Canyon was in danger, but the fire hadn't reached the homes.
As the plane took off, I started to cry. Both my husband, the man I love very much, and a kind elderly lady from Newport Beach, also got emotional trying to comfort me. But soon I straightened myself out. There was no point crying and collapsing now.
I am not the most religious person in the world, but I just glued my eyes shut and started praying for my neighbors. When the plane took off, I just tried to sleep.
As we flew into John Wayne Airport at around 6:35 p.m., we tried to make out Santiago Peak and Modjeska Peak from the plane window. But we couldn't see through the smoke and darkness.
Driving to Modjeska Canyon, we had to travel through thick smoke near Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills. But as we entered the canyon, the air was clear and even smelled sweet. I was relieved that my house was OK and my animals were out of there, thanks to my neighbors.
I started to pack some essentials -- insurance forms, one piece of my grandmother's china -- but I wasn't too worried. I didn't even grab any wedding presents -- or gift list for thank you notes. In the canyon, everything seemed fine.
But then sheriff's deputies arrived, calling fom voluntary evacautions from their car's loudspeakers. I looked out my sideyard and saw the dull red glow getting brighter and brighter. Having covered fires before, I became extremely anxious and wanted to go. My husband wanted to stay. I told him we're married now so we need to go together. In the end, I waited longer than I wanted. He stayed longer than he wanted.
Just before we left, I leaned against the wall at the top of my stairs and quieted my mind. It's a little ritual I do each time I go on a trip. Someone once told me this would allow me safe journey and protect my home.
This morning, I grabbed quotes from fleeing neighbors for the newspaper. I saw the head of the volunteer fire department standing by the side of the road, helpless.
It was an eerie experience as a reporter because you're trained to observe areas you don't know. But I knew every inch of what I saw today. I know the hills and the houses. It's an extraordinarily close-knit community. People who live outside the canyon joke that it's a cult.
We see it as our little bit of heaven away from all the rest of Southern California. And at the same time, we know that fires are the hazard of living here.
Now, I'm on Santiago Canyon Road, which I've driven thousands of times. The familiar view that has always made me feel safe and let me know that I'm home is now blotted out by a gray and black cloud.
Oceanside:
Oceanside hotels are full but not to bursting. By mid-afternoon, the Oceanside Day Inn on the freeway still had four rooms left, in stark contrast to the previous night when clerk Vanessa Canela said she turned away 50 people.
Tuesday, however, some guests left to go home or stay elsewhere and requests for rooms dwindled, Canela said. As of Tuesday afternoon, not one hotel had called her with a referral, she said, a sign that things had eased elsewhere as well.
A few other hotels did report full occupancy. One of them, the Oceanside Travelodge, booked its last remaining room about 2 p.m.
On Monday night owner Vinod Patel said he had turned many people away. "One was an old man with a cane. I didn't know what to do. I had no rooms, so I turned him away. I had no choice."
Like other hoteliers, Patel had loosened his strict anti-pet rule for the crisis. "I have ten dogs and three cats here now," he said.
On Monday, people had gone as far as Anaheim to find rooms, but by Tuesday, they were beginning to return.
One told Patel prices were too high in Orange County, so he came back. Travelodge rooms rent for about $77 a night.
Normally, hotels in Oceanside are at about 60% occupancy on weekdays at this time of year, Patel said.
Patel and his wife Sushila said they thought the reason the evacuation appeared to go so well was because most refugees were staying with friends. Sushila Patel's aunt had left an evacuation area to stay with the friend of a friend who was hosting as many as 30 people because of the fire.
Earline Dean, 52, and her 54-year-old husband evacuated from Fallbrook with their small dog in a cage. They had driven all over San Clemente looking for a hotel, got a reservation, and then were rejected because of the dog, Earline Dean said. Finally, a neighbor of a friend who lives in San Clemente -- a complete stranger -- took them in for the night, she said, adding: "So wonderful."
The Deans were settling into the Travelodge for their second night away from home. Their auto club insurance would cover the bill, Earline Dean said.
-- Jill Leovy
Fire officials at their command center in Riverside said the Mt. Palomar fire has exploded to 20,000 acres and could threaten the famed observatory at the top, one of the world's largest telescopes.
They also said two fires have broken out in Camp Pendleton, the Wilcox Fire at 1,200 acres and the Ammo Fire at 350 acres. The Ammo fire has raised concerns because it is at the base of San Onofre Peak and was climbing toward an array of telecommunications equipment at the top. The San Onofre nuclear power plant is on the other side.
Chief of Operations Chief Bob Green said he was asked by the governor to send in air tankers to lay down water between the fire and the communications equipment on top.
-David Kelly at Calfire Command Center in Riverside
San Bernardino:
By Tuesday afternoon, the number of evacuees at the Orange View Fairgrounds in San Bernardino had grown to nearly 1,500 from about 900 Monday night. Most of the arrivals were coming from the burned areas near Lake Arrowhead.
Children were playing and people milled about in tank tops and shorts under a blazing sun. In the parking lot, dozens of tents were set up among RVs and rows of cars. One woman was sunbathing in the bed of a pickup truck.
An animal shelter, made up of dozens of cages in a large tent, held dogs, cats, rabbits and birds.
Two large warehouses have been converted into dorms, filled with cots and tables that offered fire information and services to evacuees. Inside people napped, read books and watched a large graphic projected on a wall showing the progress of the fires.
-Francisco Vara-Orta in San Bernardino
Los Angeles County Fire officials said a new fire was reported at 3:40 p.m. at 1216 West Avenue Y-8 near the Antelope Valley Freeway in the Acton area. The fire, which had burned several acres, was threatening homes in the Cedar Croft and Brian Glen areas. At least 240 have been dispatched to fight the fire, which is 5% contained.
-- Andrew Blankstein
At the Del Mar Fairgrounds and Race Track in north San Diego County, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger arrived late Monday to talk to elderly residents sleeping in one of the buildings after being evacuated from fire areas.
By 11 p.m., 1,000 military-style cots arrived from nearby Camp Pendleton, enough for anyone who wanted one. By Tuesday morning, 160 National Guardsmen were on hand to help the estimated 1,500 to 2,000 San Diego residents taking refuge in two buildings at the fairgrounds.
Indeed, there were so many people offering to volunteer and help evacuees that by this morning racetrack officials were begging the media to put out the word that no more volunteers were needed.
This afternoon, a line of cars a block long idled outside the grandstand building as their drivers waited to drop off donations that filled their vehicles. The racetrack's secretary, deluged by calls from people offering help, answered the phone all morning, "I'm sorry, we don't need any more volunteers."
And employees of the Villa Rancho Bernardo nursing home, who had brought more than 200 frail elderly residents to the facility Monday, were loading them into ambulances to take them to several convalescent facilities in Orange County that had space and were out of harm's way.
At the fairgrounds, people arrived from wealthy and poorer parts of northern San Diego. All said that hotels and motels were booked for 50 miles around.
In the grandstand building, designated for refugees with pets, one man sat next to a regal Irish wolfhound. A woman had a parrot perched on a chair. Others had brought a pet snake, a rat and a chinchilla.
Many said they received "reverse 911 calls" telling them it was mandatory to leave their homes. One 62-year-woman, who declined to be named, said she was unemployed as a minimum-wage horse groomer, and had no insurance on her home. She had arrived in dusty jeans in her 1983 Chevy pickup with her two barn cats, Itzi and Nuisance, her thoroughbred horse, her sister, who works at a thrift store, and her 92-year-old mother.
Stay-at-home mother C.J. Ellerby, 37, said it was a "little scary" to wake up and get a reverse 911 call telling her to evacuate from her $160,000 mobile home in Escondido. She had already received a recorded call at 5:30 a.m. Monday that her son's Escondido school was closed because of the fires. Ellerby could think of only one hotel in the area that allowed dogs, and it was booked. The nearest available hotel was in Orange County.
"You can't love a pet and leave it behind. That's not right," she said. It would be hard to afford a hotel room for more than a couple of nights on the salary of her husband, who makes industrial pumps. "It would have been a financial thing to go to a hotel," she said.
So she and her husband and two children, ages 5 and 3, and their two dogs, a golden retriever mix named Ranger and a pitbull great dane mix named Hazel, headed to the fairgrounds Monday morning. They took little more than three days of clothing, and the hard drive of their computer.
"Compared to Katrina, this is very well organized. Katrina was a joke," said Ellerby, a stout woman in pink flip flops. She said that with a hurricane, New Orleans knew days in | |
