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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
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