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The top Marine Corps general got an earful of criticism and some thanks from Marine spouses Friday while touring Camp Pendleton, where fire disrupted training and forced evacuation of some 800 family members.
"We were evacuated at 2:30 a.m. and it was pretty much hysteria," one woman told Commandant Gen. James Conway during a question-and-answer session following his brief remarks. "Is there a standard emergency evacuation plan for the military?"
Another wife said she was given "way too much conflicting information" in the hours that preceded Wednesday morning's evacuation.
Conway deflected the questions to Col. James Seaton, commanding officer of the sprawling base.
"It wasn't perfect," Seaton said. "I apologize for having to wake you up at 2:30 a.m., but the winds were unpredictable."
Another military wife thanked the Marines for "an outstanding effort that went beyond the call of duty and I want to let you know my family is very appreciative of your efforts."
The Horno fire, which disrupted training for Marines set to deploy to Iraq, has burned 20,000 acres but was expected to be 100% contained by Friday night, a Cal Fire spokesman said.
-- David McKibben
San Bernardino County officials said late Friday that they're not ready to release a list of homes damaged and destroyed in the Slide and Grass Valley fires. Earlier, they said they hoped to release the list today on the county assessor's site. No word on when the list might be posted, according to a written statement from a county spokesperson.
Scott Lewis is executive editor at voiceofsandiego.org. He is among members of the community we have asked to post thoughts, news and follow-ups to the wildfire story.
Yesterday I wrote a column about a San Diego resident named Cheryl Hamano and the challenge of measuring a disaster.
I had met Hamano and her family four years ago after they lost their home in the Cedar Fire. It was by sheer luck that the family had been able to evacuate during that firestorm. Their daughter had gotten up early on a Sunday morning to go to the bathroom. She had smelled smoke and looked outside. Another teenager was running in the street and told her to get out.
The family left just before flames consumed their house. Cheryl had no time to grab her purse. She was left with no official proof of who she was.
Quite a story.
Since then, the family rebuilt. But the marriage dissolved -- the stress of reconstruction didn't help. Cheryl had to move into a rented house in the same neighborhood.
And, this week, she found herself being evacuated again. The flames stayed away from her home but she said the experience of fleeing the fire was much more orderly this time around. She had plenty of warning and plenty of time to collect the most valuable of possessions.
She said dealing with the insurance company was more difficult than she had hoped. She said that unlike her neighbors, the family's new house was not much bigger than the one they lost. After the divorce, she had to sell and move out dropping the price over and over again in a slumping real estate market.
She said that the stress the fire caused has never really gone away.
"People think once you rebuild from the fire that it's all back to normal," she said. "But it's not -- not always."
-- Scott Lewis
San Bernardino Mountains:
Firefighters reported 20% containment on the Slide fire, which had bored through 13,700 acres by this evening. Officials said they lost 201 residences and 3 outbuildings. There was only one home lost today, in Running Springs. With resources freed up from other fires, the total number of personnel jumped from 1,359 this morning to 1,964 by this evening.
The Grass Valley fire was 75% contained at 1,140 acres. Twenty homes were damaged and 162 destroyed, according to the new estimates.
-- Maeve Reston
San Diego County:
Evacuation orders for the rural communities of Julian, Wynola, Cuyamaca and Pine Hills, all once threatened by the eastward march of the Witch fire, were lifted Friday night.
-- Tony Perry
Running Springs:
In the first quiet day in Running Springs, the fire chief who watched his town nearly go up in smoke finally found some quiet moments to sift through paperwork. Chief Bill Smith was up for the first 50 hours of the San Bernardino Mountain firestorm -- among the first to respond to the Grass Valley Fire and then racing back to the Slide when it flared up in his community a short time later.
Firefighters lost the last structure in Running Springs this morning. In the early evening, the fatigue was finally settling in.
"When you have homes burning you have enough adrenaline that it kind of keeps you going," said Smith, who spent 30 years fighting fires with the U.S. Forest Service before retiring as the Mountaintop Division Chief. "Once in a while you get to the point where you're exhausted but you just move on."
"The hardest thing for any fire chief is to lose any structures... but especially the impact of losing so many homes is just heartwrenching,"
Smith has been the Running Springs chief for nine years.
"Most of us fight fires a lot of years and go to other people's jurisdiction fighting fires, but it's a totally different feeling when it's your own community."
Not only would he have to contend with residents coming back to homes that have vanished into ash, but fire continues to burn in the steep, inaccessible canyons to the west.
"That will pose a threat possibly until the snow flies," he said.
-- Maeve Reston
Scott Lewis is executive editor at voiceofsandiego.org. He is among members of the community we have asked to post thoughts, news and follow-ups to the current Southern California wildfire story.
Throughout the week of fire, there has been a series of headlines usually tucked in below all of the important news. The stream of updates had to do with what seemed like an overly agonizing decision about when and where to play the Chargers game. Government and team officials passed this decision around like the hottest of potatoes. And they just passed it off completely. The game had been scheduled for Sunday.
About Tuesday, as the fires were raging and causing evacuations all the way to the coast, the Chargers decided to move their practices to Arizona.
By Wednesday, they had decided to pass the decision on when the game would occur over to San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders: The Chargers are fully prepared to implement whatever decision the Mayor makes, including either playing the game at Qualcomm Stadium or relocating the game to another facility out of the San Diego area.
The mayor on Thursday sent the decision back to the Chargers: "Should they decide to play in San Diego, the stadium will be ready on Sunday," said Fred Sainz, the mayor's spokesman. "It's their decision to play in San Diego or not."
Neither side wanted to be saddled with responsibility for a potentially controversial choice. After all, the air in San Diego is still hazy. The fires are still burning in parts of the county. It doesn't take a genius
to figure out some choice criticism for the team or the city for callously putting resources into a game.
So no decision came.
Until Friday, when the NFL stepped in. Chargers President Dean Spanos explained that, after all that, it was the NFL's choice all along.
Continue reading "Guest post: Fire and football" »
Lake Arrowhead:
Deep in the pines of the San Bernardino National Forest, about four miles east of where the Slide fire began in Green Valley Lake, firefighters struggled with exhaustion as they beat down hot spots with shovels and axes.
The goal was to build a containment line around Crab Flats before a predicted wind shift Sunday that could direct the fire toward Lake Arrowhead and possibly parts of Running Springs again. But the adrenaline was gone.
"We're all at a kind of plodding pace, everyone has got blisters on top of blisters and we're losing our voices," said Mike Rigney, a Lake Arrowhead-based fire captain with the San Bernardino Fire Department.
Sleep? "We got four or five hours somewhere in the third day," Rigney said.
Continue reading "Firefighters working on fumes" »
Silverado Canyon:
Though Silverado Canyon, with its steep walls, narrow roads, mature trees and chaparral is a potential tinderbox, it has managed to escape major damage from wildfires in modern times. Silverado Canyon was untouched even by the 1967 Paseo Grande fire, which blackened nearly 49,000 acres and burned 51 homes, mostly in the canyons and foothills of east Orange County. The blaze was marching toward the canyon, but it changed directions at the last moment and burned Black Star Canyon.
-- William Lobdell
Sacramento:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his aides today struck a triumphant and self-congratulatory note as they attempted to show that they were moving into the recovery phase of the 2007 California fire disaster.
Schwarzenegger called cabinet members and agency heads to his Office of Emergency Services headquarters at the former Mather Air Force base for a 20-minute session in front of reporters to discuss recovery efforts. The governor, flanked by other state officials, then walked into a state operations center and thanked emergency services workers who helped coordinate the response.
"This is not over, I just want you to know," Schwarzenegger said. "I always say, this is the sprint. Now comes the marathon."
Continue reading "Governor strikes triumphant note" »
San Bernardino Mountains:
Nancy Duncan made so many new friends at the Orange Show Fairgrounds evacuation center that she wasn’t sure she wanted to leave today .
“They are having barbecue tonight -- are you sure you don’t want to stay one more night?” she asked her daughter-in-law, Nicole Duncan, 35. “It’s really been wonderful. I got Arnold’s [Schwarzenegger] autograph and played cards with the grandkids in the van. I’ve been on television three times. It’s been really, really wonderful.”
Nicole on the other hand couldn't wait to get home for a real shower. Her kids, however, also wanted to stay.
“I thought there would be more enthusiasm about leaving,” Nicole said.
Authorities today allowed residents of Crestline, Enchanted Valley and Cedar Pines Park to go home, thinning the evacuation center ranks, which numbered about 1,800 Thursday. New numbers were not available.
Chris Navarette, 45, was plenty excited about going home.
“It was nice for awhile but it’s time to go now,” he said. “I feel very fortunate because I have friends who have lost everything.”
Refugees from the Lake Arrowhead, Green Valley Lake, Grass Valley and Running Springs areas remain at the shelter.
-- David Kelly
Running Springs:
Genoviva Bacio is feeling fragile, tearing up as she tries to explain the rain of fire, the Virgin Mary and exactly what happened as her world began to burn.
"I know it was a miracle," she said, wiping her eyes.
As pillars of fire licked the sky around her Running Springs home Monday, Bacio and her husband Carlos, 46, knew they were in trouble. Four-inch pieces of flaming wood pelted their rooftop. Even worse, theirs was the first house on the street and sitting directly in the San Bernardino National Forest. It would be the first to go.
"We packed everything, clothes, insurance policies, pictures," her husband recalled. "Our street was on fire and it was approaching our house."
But they hadn't packed everything.
Genoviva, 47, ran back inside and saw the large portrait of the Virgin Mary staring at her from the living room wall.
"I went in to grab it but something in her eyes said, `No, don't take me,' '' she recalled, sitting at the evacuation center in San Bernardino. "I felt something so strong speaking to me. I left her and asked her to please watch over our house."
Continue reading "Lone house on the street saved" »
Residents of Silverado, Modjeska and Williams canyons are being escprted to their homes by authorities for a 10-minute roundup of belongings to take back with them to "Camp Silverado."
-- Jennifer Delson
Del Mar Fairgrounds:
There were no blues bands, massage therapists or acupuncturists, but evacuee Roger Heater of Fallbrook was already feeling pretty good about his new home at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.
"I can't believe it, but it's even better here," said Heater, 64, who imoved to the evacuation center from Qualcomm Stadium and is receiving medical treatment at the shelter for a heart condition. "They don't make you feel like a nobody. They make you feel like a somebody. Just look what they're feeding us."
Heater's Fallbrook neighbor, Carmine Sperduto, passed by with a plate full of enchiladas, burritos, beans and coleslaw.
In the morning, the 115 evacuees were served eggs, sausage and hash browns. As much as Sperduto appreciated the hot meal and the hospitality, he admitted a week on the road was catching up to him.
"I don't like to live like this," he said. "I'd rather be home."
Sperduto, a retired truck driver, transferred to the fairgrounds Thursday night after three nights at
Qualcomm and showered for the first time since he was evacuated from his Fallbrook apartment Sunday.
"There were thousands of people in line to shower at Qualcomm, so you couldn't get in there," said Sperduto, 54, wearing a donated green sweater and blue jeans. "The hot water here felt great. It really bothered me to be that dirty."
-- Dave Mckibben
Big Bear Lake is smoky but open for business, a public relations spokesman said. Two routes are open into Big Bear, Highway 38 through Redlands and Highway 18 through Lucerne Valley, he said.
Silverado Canyon:
Silverado Canyon homeowner George Nagelin, a retired landcaper who bought his one-story home 41 years ago for $10,000, was among three stubborn residents who decided to stick it out as long as possible.
"When you get to be 80 years old, your house is all you got," he deadpanned. "All your friends are dead."
Nagelin and his two neighbors said it was the third straight day deputies ordered them out. As firefighting helicopters circled and columns of smoke rose above nearby canyons, the three men said they believed the evacuations were premature.
"All these firemen are up here doing their best," Nagelin said. "We'll be safe."
Nagelin was joined by Ken Mason, who lives next door, and Mike Boeck, whose home sits at the end of nearby Hillside Lane. From Boeck's property, the fire could be seen burning through a veil of smoke, high on a hillside about 1 1/2 miles to the south.
Boeck, a retired engineer, invited the other men to come over and check out the view.
Should the fire get too close, Boeck has filled 15 large rubber trash baskets with water and positioned them around his property; laid out several hoses; and has ladders and a chainsaw at the ready.
"If an ember gets up on the roof or on the house, I'll try to douse it out. Hopefully, I can keep up," he said.
"If a tree close to the house catches fire, I can cut it down."
For all three, bravery has its limits. If the winds change and it comes time to run, they are packed and ready to go.
"I'm outta here if the Santa Ana winds come back," Boeack said. "You can't stop them. This whole canyon will go up.... I don't want to die."
-- Christine Hanley
Rich Phelps, fire spokesman and U.S. Forest Service officer, said at 1 p.m. today the Santiago fire is in Silverado Canyon and will reach the canyon bottom within the hour. The Sheriff's Department is again trying to evacuate about 20 people who would not leave their homes. "It's an extremely active fire in Silverado Canyon right now, things are pretty rough, there's been no structural damage so far," Phelps said.
Authorities said the fire was moving quickly. During the day, fire personnel cleared propane tanks and wood piles from around peoples' homes and cleaned out gutters. Thirteen helicopters and four tankers are providing air assistance.
-- Jennifer Delson
Ramona:
John Gould, 75, was happily back to his undamaged home today. But he was soon out again at the auto parts store, picking up a $500 generator.
Ramona residents have been advised to boil tap water, or avoid it altogether. Lines of portable toilets speckle the town's parking lots as people search out the few restaurants that are still open, trying to figure out how to get water to their dogs and horses.
"We were chased out Sunday night," Gould said. "Monday they turned off the electricity, and now my freezer and refrigerator smell like skunk."
"They said Nov. 7," Gould said, disdainfully repeating the date San Diego Gas and Electric told him he'd have electricity back. "And we have no water. I haven't even been able to talk to the telephone company."
Like many Ramona residents, Gould has a well, but needs electricity to power his pump.
"If I can turn on my well," Gould said. "I need 220 volts to turn on the well. And I have a swimming pool that looks like the black lagoon."
And thus, the need for a generator, he said, carrying it out of the store and plopping it in his trunk early this afternoon.
-- Tami Abdollah
Silverado Canyon:
Deep in Silverado Canyon, where small wooden homes line up side-by-side like matchboxes, and tree canopies turn the narrow roads into leafy tunnels, five strike teams braced for the worst at midday as fires burned on distant peaks.
Three of the teams were positioned at County Fire Station 14, at the foot of a steep ridge the locals have dubbed "Killer Ridge" because of its history. Six people working inside the fire station were killed in a mudslide in 1969, and a woman sitting at a desk inside her home was killed a couple of years ago when a falling boulder crashed through a back wall.
Modesto battallion chief Sean Slamon, with the three teams, said two additional strike teams were stationed about two miles further up Silverado Canyon, where the road ends and the fire is just "one peak away."
Slamon said there were further concerns that the fire might also crest the ridges right above the community.
"The winds are much better but the fire's still moving pretty good," he said. "It's jumped a couple of lines -- this morning, but last night it made some runs last night.
If there was any imminent danger, George Nagelin was the picture of calm.
Outside his home, while sheriff's deputies sped by in cruisers and went door-to-door in a last-minute sweep, the 80-year-old was hosing down his car in his dirt driveway, with no plans to leave.
-- Christine Hanley
José Luis Rosas Blanco, public safety coordinator in Tijuana, said all the fires in Baja California had been contained, except for the Anima fire near Ensenada. About 65 homes have been burned in the region: 30 in Tijuana, 30 in Ensenada and five in Tecate.
Jose Luis Delgado, a forestry official in Ensenada, said today that 80% of the Anima fire was under control. He estimated the fire would be under control in two or three days.
-- Maria Antonieta Uribe
Chay Peterson who lives on Wildcat Road off of Silverado Canyon Road, refused to evacuate during the earlier mandatory evacuation, but left today with her husband when the sherriff's officials came and asked those who hadn't already evacuated to leave.
"When [the firemen] look like they're moving on to plan B, and they have that look in their eyes, that makes me scared. That tells me I have to move further down the canyon. " She and her husband went to Calvary Chapel of the Canyons about two miles away and are planning to stay there until they hear it is safe to go home.
--My-Thuan Tran
The Rice fire, which began in Fallbrook, is considered "human caused," officials said today.
-- Tony Perry
As the fire closed in on the far reaches of Silverado Canyon this afternoon, about 50 Orange County sheriff's deputies spent an hour scouring up to 100 homes to evacuate lingering residents. An unknown number agreed to leave, but 10 residents refused, according to Sgt. Jim Greenwood.
-- My-Thuan Tran in Silverado Canyon
About 100 residents of canyon communities went to a shopping center to get fire information, but fire officials could not provide detailed information of the fire's path. That left many of them in tears and on edge.
Continue reading "Silverado Canyon residents worried" »
By 2 p.m. today, the San Bernardino County assessor hoped to release a list of the addresses and parcel numbers of some 200 homes destroyed or damaged in the Lake Arrowhead area, according to Adam Aleman, a spokesman for the assessor's office. The list -- at www.sbassessor.org -- will not include names of property owners, but will have information about whether the residences were damaged or completely destroyed. Residents of the burned areas with questions can call the office at (877) 885-7654.
Continue reading "San Bernardino losses list" »
Fire officials battling the Santiago fire urged residents to call a hotline before deciding to evacuate or return to their homes. The number is (714) 573-6200. The fire continues to threaten Silverado Canyon, and is moving quickly toward Riverside County.
"The ocean winds blow from the west and hit mountains and stop," said Rick Vogt, a spokesman for Cal Fire. "The concern is that if the fire crosses the hill at the county line, homes in Riverside County could be in jeopardy. Should people leave now? No. If that becomes an issue, residents will be warned."
-- Jennifer Delson
At 11 a.m., two strike teams from Los Angeles County Fire were awaiting deployment instructions from battalion chiefs scouting the burn area of the Santiago fire.
Capt. Eric Kuck, one of the leaders with the 10 engines lined up and ready to go at the entrance to O'Neill Regional Park, said they expected to be sent to Trabuco Canyon to protect homes. Kuck said some small fires were burning in some inaccessible areas but the winds had died dramatically from earlier in the week.
Continue reading "Strike teams to Orange County" »
Air quality will remain unhealthful in some areas of the Los Angeles basin on Saturday, particularly around Riverside and Orange County's Saddleback Valley. Because normal wind patterns have returned, smoke is remaining in interior areas, closer to fires, rather than spreading to the coast. Most of the valleys and coastal areas returned to moderate air quality today.
In areas where unhealthful air quality is forecast, as well as anywhere that smoke or ash is seen or smelled, health officials advise everyone to avoid exerting themselves, indoors or outdoors. People with heart disease, respiratory diseases including asthma, as well as the elderly and children should remain indoors.
-- Marla Cone
After a week of uncertainty caused by the wildfires, the San Diego Chargers announced today that they will play Sunday’s NFL game against the Houston Texans in San Diego as scheduled.
“Qualcomm Stadium will be ready for NFL football by this weekend,” San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said in a release distributed by the Chargers. “The city will be able to provide sufficient public safety personnel to manage a professional football game without impeding ongoing wildfire recovery efforts. I informed the Chargers late Thursday that should they decide to play their game at Qualcomm this weekend, the stadium will be ready."
-- Kevin Baxter
The last evacuee has left Qualcomm Stadium. A bus left at 10 a.m. empty, with no takers for a ride to the Del Mar Fairgrounds, the major relocation spot.
The work of cleaning up the stadium for use by the Chargers continues.
-- Dave McKibben
With the Grass Valley Fire in Lake Arrowhead virtually contained, pressure built for commanders to reopen mountain areas. But firefighters were still a long way off from getting control of the 12,000-acre Slide fire.
They had made great strides building a line around the threatened communities of Arrowbear and Running Springs. But the smoldering fires within Running Springs from the blaze's early runs still posed hidden dangers. Even with dozens of crews doing structure protection, fire ravaged a large portion of a home in western Running Springs early today, though firefighters were able to save a portion and many of the contents by launching an interior attack.
Continue reading "Mountain residents want to go home" »
Wild Animal Park bird handlers have re-evaluated fire damage and decided that the destruction of a condor facility will not keep the birds from breeding. The park has 23 California condors, part of a breeding program to save the endangered species.
-- Tony Perry
Sann Bernardino officials at the Rim of the World command center reported at 8 a.m. that the Slide fire has increased from 11,675 acres burned to 13,378.
"Fire perimeter containment efforts are slow due to rough terrain, heavy vegetation and high-density residential properties intermixed with bug-killed timber," fire officials said.
The Slide fire is only 15% contained, with 1,359 firefighters on scene and 10,000 homes threatened. More structures were reported destroyed, raising the number to more than 200. Officials are waiting to release a number and location on the structures, mainly homes, destroyed.
--Francisco Vara-Orta
Two busloads of evacuees left Qualcomm Stadium for the Del Mar Fairgrounds by 8 a.m. Friday, leaving fewer than 50 evacuees.
A certain weariness has set in among the evacuees, many of whom face the prospect of returning to a burned-out home.
"I feel like I've been run over by a Mack truck. I'm bothered by this whole situation," said one woman from Ramona who declined to give her name.
"It's amazing how quickly this place emptied out," said San Diego City Councilman Jim Madaffer, surveying the scene of sleeping bags, cots and blankets. "I think a lot of these people are just tired of sleeping outdoors."
Some evacuees complained Thursday night about the need for more blankets as temperatures dropped. Madaffer said the fairgrounds is better for indoor accommodations.
The acupuncture and massage stand that had accommodated evacuees was being transformed into a garlic-fries and beer stand in preparation for Sunday's expected Chargers vs. Houston Texans NFL game. City workers were painting the end zones and yard markers.
As evacuees loaded crates of water onto buses, volunteer packed blankets and supplies onto trucks to be taken to other shelters.
Kimmi Moto, an evacuee from Ramona, checked the update board to see if it was safe to go back home. She discovered that water service is still not available in that rural community.
"I guess we'll have to go to Del Mar," she said. "I'd rather not, but I still don't have a home yet."
--Dave McKibben
The outook for the Harris fire in San Diego County is both good and bad, said Fred Orsporn, a spokesman for Cal Fire.
Good, he said, because residents can return to some neighborhoods in the western part of the fire's area, near Jamul, an upscale community of about 6,000 in a hilly region about 20 miles east of the city of San Diego.
But bad because the eastern portion of the fire is still raging and moving further northeast. Today, firefighters will concentrate on the eastern part of the Harris fire, trying to, as Orsporn said, "close that back door." No additional homes are threatened, he said.
--Ari Bloomekatz
Highway 18 reopened this morning, allowing residents in Crestline, Valley of Enchantment and other surrounding communities near Lake Arrowhead to return home, said Deputy Richard Camacho of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.
-- David Kelly
All Ramona residents are urged to boil water or to avoid using tap water altogether. A flashing sign on the northbound 67 Freeway this morning warns residents.
"The Ramona Water District is on a boil order because of all the ash in the area," said Rochelle Jenkins, spokeswoman for the state office of Emergency Services. "It's a safety precaution."
The order has been in effect since Thursday afternoon. Residents in Lake Arrowhead and Running Springs are also urged to take precautions.
-- Tami Abdollah
Like a general assessing battle damage, the commandant of the Marine Corps is set this afternoon to tour Camp Pendleton to evaluate the fight against the Horno fire and the efforts to help military and civilian evacuees.
Gen. James Conway also wants to determine the extent of the disruption to the training of the 5th Marine Regiment, set to deploy soon to Iraq.
The 5th regiment found temporary housing for 800 evacuees and their pets. Among them: seven pregnant women who were provided medical care.
-- Tony Perry
The Orange County Fire Authority confirmed today that the reward offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the Santiago Canyon arson fire is now up to $250,000, up by $100,000 thanks to a donation from the radio station KFI-AM 640, an agency spokeswoman said.
Continue reading "$250,000 reward now offered" »
The Wild Animal Park, in fire-struck San Pasqual Valley, has reopened. Hundreds of birds and small mammals were evacuated during the height of the Witch Creek Fire, but are now back on exhibit. One bird and one member of the horse family died, possibly due to stress or smoke inhalation.
The fire may prove a setback to the program to save the endangered California condor.
While none of the birds was hurt, the fire destroyed a small facility used to encourage the birds to breed. A breeding season may be lost while it is rebuilt, park spokesman Andrew Circo said today.
-- Tony Perry
The Del Mar Fairgrounds this afternoon will become the American Red Cross' main evacuation center for San Diegans displaced by the wildfires. Today at noon, Qualcomm Stadium's center will close and evacuees will be directed to the fairgrounds, said Kina Paegert, a fairgrounds spokeswoman.
Continue reading "Just a stadium again" »
President Bush spoke in the White House Roosevelt Room this morning, starting with this comment on the fires:
"Good morning. I went out to California yesterday to meet with families affected by the wildfires, and to thank the state and local officials for their outstanding work in this difficult time. While I was there I saw the terrible destruction and heartbreaking loss. Yet I was also encouraged by the spirit I found –- the families determined to rebuild, the volunteers who stepped forward to help neighbors in need, and the first responders who have shown such courage in battling the flames and caring for those who were displaced."
-- John Hoeffel
The Horno fire at Camp Pendleton, which has disrupted training for Marines set to deploy soon to Iraq, has burned 20,000 acres and is 80% contained, officials said this morning. Power has been restored to one large housing unit, but several areas of the sprawling base are still without electricity.
Elsewhere in San Diego County, initial indications were that the Witch, Harris, Rice and Poomacha fires consumed little acreage and no additional housing overnight.
"Right now we're moving into the mop-up and cleanup stage," said Sarah Gibson of the Califormia Department of Forestry. "We're moving into a repopulation phase."
Continue reading "The Chargers game a go" »
The National Weather Service reported early this morning that a shallow marine layer was rolling into Southern California, with patchy dense fog expected throughout today, showing up stronger mainly in the evening hours.
-- Francisco Vara-Orta
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