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Weather is on firefighters' side - for now
Cool, moist air is aiding the battle against the last of the Southern California wildfires, but Santa Ana winds are expected to return by this weekend. More
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Firefighter Josh Balboa monitors the Harris fire in southern San Diego County.
Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times
The Horno fire, which burned more than 21,000 acres on Camp Pendleton, is 100% contained, and training for Marines preparing to deploy to Iraq will resume Monday, Marine Corps officials said today.
Also, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials announced that the Tecate port of entry would reopen at 5 a.m. Monday for passenger vehicles and pedestrians. Trucks are still being diverted to the Otay Mesa or Calexico ports.
-- Tony Perry
The National Football League is donating $250,000 to the Chargers Fire Relief Fund, and the Spanos family, owners of the San Diego Chargers, is donating $1 million.
The Chargers are collecting donations from fans entering Qualcomm Stadium today for the Chargers-Houston Texans game. Donations go directly to the Salvation Army and families of injured firefighters.
Also, California National Guard sergeants major have established a fund to help Guardsmen and their families hurt by the fires: www.smaofcalifornia.org. Several Guardsmen have had their homes destroyed or damaged, officials said.
-- Tony Perry
The deadly Harris fire in San Diego County has burned 90,750 acres and is 65% contained, with full containment expected Wednesday and full control by Nov. 4. The blaze has destroyed 206 homes and damaged 250 homes and 247 outbuildings.
Five people have died as a result of the fire, and 32 firefighters and 21 civilians have been injured. Today, 2,544 firefighters will work the blaze, which has cost $9.7 million to fight. The cause remains under investigation.
-- Tami Abdollah
The Witch fire in San Diego County has burned 197,990 acres and was 90% contained this morning, with officials aiming for full containment Tuesday and full control by Nov. 3.
The blaze has destroyed 1,040 homes and 30 businesses, and damaged 70 homes and 10 businesses. There were two deaths; 36 firefighters and two civilians were injured.
Today, 2,807 firefighters are working the blaze, which has cost $11.3 million to fight. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
-- Tami Abdollah
The Poomacha fire, the only one still burning in San Diego County, threatens 500 homes. The blaze has burned through 49,150 acres and is 50% contained, fire authorities said. Full containment is expected by Wednesday.
So far it has destroyed 136 homes and 19 outbuildings and injured 18 firefighters. Today 2,123 firefighters worked the blaze, which has cost $5.2 million to fight.
The fire started in a home, officials said. The blaze is currently burning along the Santa Margarita drainage area. Hot spots remain in the Agua Tibia Wilderness and at the top of Mt. Palomar, where some evacuations continue in effect.
-- Tami Abdollah
The Rice fire, which has burned through 9,000 acres, was declared 100% contained this morning, with firefighters aiming for full control by Nov. 5, according to Audrey Hagen, a spokeswoman for Cal-Fire.
The blaze in San Diego County, caused by a spark from power lines, has destroyed 205 homes, two businesses and 40 outbuildings. It has injured five firefighters.
Today about 850 firefighters continued to work the blaze doing mop-up. "They'll be checking for hot spots, and they won't declare it fully out until the 5th, or sooner," Hagen said. The fire has cost nearly $5 million to fight.
-- Tami Abdollah
San Diego:
Fire investigators Saturday appealed to the public for information about a 44-year-old Los Angeles man arrested Wednesday for allegedly impersonating a firefighter at the Rice fire in Fallbrook.
William Reed Brock, on probation for a drug offense, was arrested while driving a Ford pickup with personalized firefighter license plates and a bed full of fire equipment and clothing.
Investigators said that "if you have seen Brock at any wildfires, or in fire camps or at fire stations," you should contact sheriff's detective Clayton Lisk at (760) 451-3110 or Cal-Fire investigator Gary Eidsmore, (800) 468-4408 or the Cal-Fire Arson Tip Line, (800) 468-4408.
Brock allegedly told deputies he was a member of the Morongo Fire Department, but that information proved false. He is not considered a suspect in any of the fires, Lisk said.
Brock is 6-foot, 160 pounds, balding with blond hair and a ponytail.
-- Tony Perry
Kora Minor, left, consoles neighbor Andrea Beckwith after she found a family memento in the debris of her burned-out home in the Del Dios area of Escondido in San Diego County.
(Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)
Two animals at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego County died as the Witch Creek fire imperiled the park in the San Pasqual Valley.
But six more were born: three gazelles, a fringe-eared oryx, a Ugandan kob (an antelope) and a dik-dik (an antelope native to eastern Africa).
-- Tony Perry
National Football League Players Assn. spokesman Carl Francis said today that union leadership was confident that Sunday's game between the San Diego Chargers and Houston Texans could be played at Qualcomm Stadium without endangering player health or safety.
"We've been in communication with the NFL, and we feel very confident with the information that the San Diego mayor and others have given to the league," Francis said. "We are confident that the game can be played in San Diego on Sunday. We're just following the health guidelines and safety plans in place. We're working closely with the NFL.”
Although the NFL will play its game Sunday, most of the county's organized outdoor athletic activity ground to a halt earlier in the week. The San Diego Unified School District canceled all athletic activity during the weekend. San Diego State University postponed several athletic events, including a Saturday football game against Brigham Young University at Qualcomm. That game has been rescheduled at the stadium for Dec. 1.
San Diego State also postponed men's and women's soccer matches, a cross-country meet and swimming, diving and volleyball competitions. The university plans to reschedule the events or move them to alternative locations.
-- Greg Johnson and Tony Perry
Six people have been arrested on suspicion of looting in the wake of the fires, said Lt. Phil Brust of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. There were 128 reports of looting in the last week, and the department took 34 crime reports, he said.
"Now we're back to working regular stuff here -- we're back to regular law enforcement services for the most part," Brust said. He said he did not have details on the arrests.
"We've repopulated most of the county," Brust said.
-- Tami Abdollah
By early afternoon 19,000 residents of San Diego County remained under evacuation orders, down from a peak of 640,000 at midweek, officials said.
-- Tony Perry
As of late morning, residents in Ramona were having their water turned on, "but they'll be on a do-not-drink and boil-water order for a while," said Michael Workman, a spokesman for the San Diego County Office of Emergency Services.
"The water has to test clean for 48 hours," he said.
With water cut off and the city on a boil-water order, lines of portable toilets speckled the town's parking lots as people searched out the few restaurants that were still open and tried to figure out how to get water to their dogs and horses.
"Multiple" small water districts in the county have also been on boil-water orders because of contamination issues from the fires' ash and debris, Workman said, though he could not specify these areas.
Read on »
San Diego:
Although the National Football League will hold its game Sunday at Qualcomm Stadium, most of the county's organized outdoor athletic activity ground to a halt Saturday.
The San Diego Unified School District canceled all athletic activity during the weekend. San Diego State University postponed several athletic events, including a Saturday football game against Brigham Young University at Qualcomm. That game is scheduled to be played Dec. 1 at Qualcomm.
San Diego State postponed men's and women's soccer matches, a cross-country meet and swimming, diving and volleyball competitions. The university plans to reschedule the events or move them to alternative locations.
-- Greg Johnson
San Diego:
Mayor Jerry Sanders said Saturday that he was confident that fans were going to be OK attending Sunday's National Football League game between the Chargers and the Houston Texans, despite reports about poor air quality.
People are taking precaution and aren't exerting themselves, he said. On Saturday, the temperatures were lower and the skies overcast. There was even some rain just south of the border.
"I think [the air] is getting better each day," Sanders said.
-- Tony Perry
San Diego County Dist. Atty. Bonnie Dumanis and San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders warned residents of possible scams and price gouging.
"There are people out there preying on San Diegans," Sanders said.
At his Saturday morning news conference at the San Diego Zoo, Sanders said an out-of-town company snapped up 50 apartments in the Rancho Bernardo area and tripled the rent. A woman who had evacuated called the mayor's office, and after receiving pressure from city officials, the company backed off and the apartments were offered at the pre-fire rent.
-- Tony Perry
San Diego political and tourist industry leaders encouraged visitors Saturday to continue coming to their city.
"We want the message to go out across the world: San Diego is open for business," Mayor Jerry Sanders said at a morning news conference at the San Diego Zoo.
As the mayor spoke, families, out-of-state visitors and couples streamed through the zoo's entrance.
Tourism is the third-largest industry in San Diego, after manufacturing and the military. Tourism spending annually is about $8.2 billion, and there are about 120,000 jobs in the industry.
The mayor said it appeared that the blazes were not keeping people away. Only one convention canceled during the fires.
A popular golf tournament will take place at Barona Creek Golf Club next week, and a major neuroscience convention is coming soon to San Diego's waterfront convention center.
The zoo remained opened during the fires. The Wild Animal Park, in the city's San Pasqual Valley, has reopened after part of the grounds burned.
"From sparkling beaches to a thriving downtown, San Diego does not disappoint," said David Peckinpaugh, chief executive of the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau. "If you haven't visited recently, now is the time to visit San Diego."
-- Tony Perry
Cal-Fire officials are monitoring four blazes that firefighters continue to work in San Diego County on Saturday. These are the Witch, Poomacha, Harris and Rice fires, said Roxanne Provaznik, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
"The only hot spot is the Poomacha, and that's up on Palomar [Mountain]," she said. "Everything else is looking real good."
-- Tami Abdollah
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 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
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
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
The Rice fire, which began in Fallbrook, is considered "human caused," officials said today.
-- Tony Perry
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
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
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 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.
Read on »
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."
Read on »
Escondido:
The two persons found dead in the rubble of their Escondido home have been identified as Victoria Katherine Fox, 55, and her husband, John Christopher Bain, 58. Identification was made through dental records, officials said.
-- Tony Perry
U.S.-Mexico border: The four charred bodies of suspected illegal immigrants who are believed to have died in the Harris fire were discovered at the bottom of a canyon north of the border town of Tecate, Border Patrol officials said. The location was near an area where four illegal immigrants were rescued Sunday afternoon.
The Harris fire swept through the rugged area east of San Diego that is crisscrossed by hundreds of migrant trails.
Agents on routine patrols Thursday spotted one body 100 yards deep inside a canyon. The other bodies were located nearby. "It's very tragic," said Gloria Chavez, an assistant chief patrol agent based in San Diego.
Even in the best of weather conditions, the steep canyons and mountains make for treacherous treks. Since 2001, at least 30 immigrants have died trying to cross in the area.
About one dozen suspected illegal immigrants burned in the Harris fire are being treated at the UC San Diego Regional Burn Unit. Several remain in critical condition, said Alberto Lozano, a spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in San Diego.
Some of the immigrants, he said, come from the Mexican states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Michoacan and Jalisco.
-- Richard Marosi
San Diego:
Everyone in San Diego was allowed to return home today.
"Everything in the city has been reoccupied as of this afternoon," said Maurice Luque, a spokesman for San Diego Fire and Rescue. "Everything."
People are "back in their homes," Luque said. "The ones that have homes to go back into."
-- Tami Abdollah
Camp Pendleton:
Fire disrupted training at Camp Pendleton to an unprecedented degree, says the base commander, Col. James B. Seaton III.
Training for Marines preparing to deploy to Iraq was halted as Marines were forced to move away from the raging Horno fire. The School of Infantry remains shut down. Families in three housing areas had to be relocated, one at 2 a.m.
Marines had to escort civilians from Fallbrook as they traveled through the base to Interstate 5 to escape the Rice fire. The 72-hour gut check for recruits called the Crucible remains halted. Communications remain down at some portions of the base.
Seaton, who commanded an infantry battalion during the assault on Baghdad in 2003, is looking at the bright side.
"This had great training value," in testing Marines' ability to make quick decisions and handle "nonstandard" missions, he said. Part of the test changed directions quickly and seemingly in a quixotic fashion as the fires shifted.
"Marines know that the enemy has a vote and can change tactics," he said. "In this case, the enemy was wind and fire."
"We're an 'any clime, any place,' force. This was a different clime, but the place was our home."
-- Tony Perry
Spring Valley, southern San Diego County:
Howard Windsor, incident commander with the California Department of Fire, told evacuees at Steele Canyon High School today that "I really believe we're getting the upper hand" on the Harris fire.
Windsor said fire crews had stopped the wildfire, which has burned more than 80,000 acres, from spreading further west, and had beaten it back eastward overnight as it tried to advance through Jamul.
California Department of Fire Captain Scott McLean said the fire was trying to move northeast. But while it is only 10 percent contained, there were no new evacuations and the fire was not threatening any new residential areas.
The strategy, McLean said, is to "try to get it wrapped and get a line behind it," and choke it off.
McLean said the humidity had risen from 9% to 17% since Wednesday, and he hoped it would continue to rise, helping the fight.
-- Ari Bloomekatz
Qualcomm Stadium:
The evacuation shelter at Qualcomm Stadium will close Friday at noon, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders announced today. No decision has been announced whether the stadium will be used for Sunday's scheduled football game between the San Diego Chargers and the Houston Texans.
-- Tony Perry
San Diego:
If disasters can be judged by nonstop television coverage, the fires that struck San Diego County may have lost emergency status at 2 p.m. Thursday.
That's when San Diego's four major stations, all of which had devoted nearly all their programming hours to fire coverage since Sunday night, returned to regularly scheduled programming.
-- Tony Perry
Southern San Diego County:
U.S. Border Patrol agents Thursday afternoon found the charred bodies of four suspected illegal immigrants who are believed to have died in the Harris fire, border patrol officials said.
The bodies were discovered at the bottom of a canyon just north of Tecate, where four illegal immigrants were rescued Sunday afternoon.
-- Richard Marosi
The San Diego County coroner's office reports that four more people have been found dead.
Oceanside:
The homeless dogs played their morning game of fetch on the tennis courts, evacuated horses and ponies stretched their legs on the dusty softball diamond, and cats napped in the greenhouse. For the fourth consecutive day, El Camino High in Oceanside served as a shelter for animals displaced by the San Diego wildfires.
The North County Humane Society in Oceanside ran out of room early Monday, so El Camino High's farm
has been getting the overflow. By today, some 150 animals and 125 people
were calling the high school home.
On a typical day, a few steer, pigs and horses would be occupying the farmland adjacent to the gym. But this week, they have quite a bit of company -- more than 100 dogs and cats, 12 horses, 20 goats, a handful of chickens, an iguana, a snake, a blind pig, a pregnant pot-bellied pig and a duck named Aflac.
The Humane Society is operating the temporary animal shelter, but El Camino students such as Brittany Rose are pitching in and working overtime. One night, Rose couldn't stand to leave the displaced critters, so she slept for stretches on the floor near the restless dogs and in a car next to the noisy chicken
coop.
"I love them," said Rose, 17, who plans to be a horse veterinarian in college. "There's nothing they can do about their situation. They need people to take care of them."
Erica Leal, 19, of Valley Center, said she was grateful her two horses had a place to stay but she could tell they were missing their three-acre ranch. "Right now, they'd be running and having fun all over my three acres," she said. "This is a little weird for them, but they're trying to get used to it."
Most of the dogs were behaving themselves, except for the five greyhound puppies who just arrived from Escondido. "Those guys are escape artists," Rose said. "You can't keep them in their cages."
Lindsay Hood, a Humane Society spokeswoman, said it is unclear how long the Oceanside school district will allow the animals to bunk at the high school.
"It's pretty much day by day," she said.
--Dave McKibben
Oceanside:
The Qualcomm Stadium evacuation site has been receiving rave reviews all week, but the facilities at El Camino High School in Oceanside don't seem to be too shabby either.
One elderly woman from Fallbrook apparently was having such a fine time at the Oceanside shelter that she sent her son back to Redondo Beach after he arrived to pick her up.
"She said she was being treated so well, she didn't want to leave," said Margery Pierce, a shelter organizer.
Rhonda Hall of South Carolina, who was evacuated from her brother's house in Fallbrook, said she thought the accommodations were as luxurious as those on "a cruise."
"The people running this place are the most amazing I've ever seen," she said. "I've lived through Hurricane Hugo and this is a much better situation. It seems like all we do here is eat and get entertained."
Evacuation center officials said they are hoping to shut down the Oceanside site by tomorrow night. Last night, the facility held about 125 refugees from Fallbrook, Valley Center, Escondido and Solana Beach.
"Most of these people are from Fallbrook and we'd like to get them closer to their home," said Joe Urban, a preparedness coordinator for the city of Oceanside. "The burden for sheltering these displaced people is going to shift back to schools and churches in the fire areas."
--Dave McKibben
Rancho Bernardo:
Adam Richardson, 40, lost his home in the 2003 Cedar fire. On Thursday, he was at the Rancho Bernardo service center counseling residents who shared the same fate.
"We were in a room that looked exactly like this gymnasium in Scripps four years ago, teary-eyed like everybody else here, with not really a clue on how to start," Richardson said.
Richardson said the experience had been cathartic, although he continued to have flashbacks of his own trauma.
"It was really creepy driving through here, because it looked like our community did four years ago," Richardson said.
Around the center, filled with government and private agency representatives offering aid, hordes of people milled under banners telling them where to go.
"This place is intimidating," Richardson said. "You walk through and there's 40 different tables. It's pretty overwhelming to someone who got out with the clothes on their back and not much else.
"We're trying to give people a road map from A to Z on how to get back home: what's important today, what can wait a year, what struggles and fights you're going to have with your insurance company."
At Richardson's "survivors" table, people could pair off with "mentors" who had gone through the Cedar fire, had the same insurance company and could counsel them through the rebuilding process. Copies of "The Disaster Recovery Handbook & Household Inventory Guide," compiled from the experiences of other disaster survivors, were also available.
We "let people know they're not alone," Richardson said.
-- Tami Abdollah
Poway:
Richard Ellis, 46, once had a home in Poway. This morning, he discovered he no longer did.
He had thought, after not seeing its status listed anywhere, that there was a 50-50 chance his home was still standing.
"It's like a roller coaster: You go up and down, you see some good news and you see some bad news, and you don't want to get too high up or too low down," Ellis said.
After four days of not knowing for sure, he couldn't take it anymore. This morning he went back to the barricades around his neighborhood. About 8:30 a.m., authorities let people in.
"You drive up, and a lot of houses are intact, there are a few that are not, but you think, 'Oh, it's going to be OK.' Then you come around the corner," Ellis said. "I was more upset thinking about it; when you see it, you're in a different mode."
"It could be worse," Ellis said. "All the cliches and everything, but it's true. We have insurance, we're both employed. It's just stuff -- we'll rebuild. We'll get a new house. We'll rebuild. You've got no choice."
-- Tami Abdollah
Rancho Bernardo:
Kimber Fowler, 20, was one of the first who spoke to President Bush at the Rancho Bernardo service center, tears streaming from her eyes. Fowler, a student at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, found out Monday that her home in the Trails neighborhood of Rancho Bernardo had burned down and jumped on a plane.
"I told [the president] I was from Baylor [near the president's home in Crawford] and he said he was praying for my family," Fowler said. "He said, so you're a fighting Baylor Bear," Fowler said, referring to the school's mascot.
"I was just going to shake his hand, and he gave me a hug, and I just fell apart because it made it real," Fowler said.
"He wasn't just hugging her, he had his arms around her," said Brenda Fowler, Kimber's mother, while pointing at a picture she captured on her camera. "It was like a father comforting a child."
Kimber Fowler said the service center had helped her family's spirits.
"I've been collecting Christmas bears since I was born in 1987, and a woman gave us two Christmas bears so we could start over," Fowler said, pointing to the male and female white bears dressed in blue.
"This brought me to tears," she said. "We're devastated and we cry and things, but it's the hospitality that makes us cry the most. My family can feel the prayers of 1,000 people around the U.S."
-- Tami Abdollah
Escondido:
Two bodies have been found in a house that burned down in Escondido. Authorities earlier mistakenly reported that the grisly discovery was in Poway. The two people, who have not been identified, are presumed to have died in the fire.
-- Scott Glover
Escondido:
Gov. Schwarzenegger and President Bush greeted firefighters at the Escondido fire command center. The governor and president shook hands as the pair walked to the microphones.
"It means a lot to me personally and it means a lot to the people of California," Schwarzenegger said of the presidential visit.
The governor described the tour he and the president took this morning as heart-breaking.
"Thank you to the president for everything he has done," the governor said. "We both understand this will be a long process."
Bush returned the compliment. Of Schwarzenegger, Bush said there is "no hill he is not willing to charge; no problem he is not willing to solve."
-- Michael Muskal
San Diego:
The San Diego County Sheriff's Department reported today that authorities had arrested two people on suspicion of arson in Vista. They also arrested someone for allegedly impersonating a firefighter in Fallbrook. Two people were placed into custody on looting charges near Tecate on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The two arrested in the arson case -- one juvenile, one adult -- allegedly set a fire that burned a small patch of grass before it was extinguished.
The looting arrests involved two people seen leaving a burned-out home with a large bag. The arrests were made by sheriff's deputies and Border Patrol agents.
In Fallbrook, William Brock, 44, on probation from Los Angeles on a drug conviction, was accused of impersonating a firefighter, officials said. They said Brock was wearing a blue shirt with the word "firefighter," and was dressed in fire gear and had attached a hose to a fire hydrant. He claimed to be from the Morongo Valley Fire Department, officials said.
-- Tony Perry
Rancho Bernardo:
Twenty-five minutes after he arrived at the Rancho Bernardo service center, the president was still talking to volunteers. A sweat stain was showing down the back of his shirt.
At the center, local residents could begin the process of receiving assistance from FEMA, the Red Cross and the Small Business Administration, among others.
The U.S. Postal Service, phone providers and cable companies also had tables set up.
-- James Gerstenzang
Rancho Bernardo:
The president spent about an hour at the Rancho Bernardo service center. He is now at a briefing by officials in a large white tent at Kit Carson Park in Escondido.
Bush will then come out and give a formal statement before going to lunch with first-responders.
-- James Gerstenzang
On his tour of Rancho Bernardo, President Bush said he would leave it to historians to compare Hurricane Katrina flooding in New Orleans to the fire disaster in California. "There's all kinds of time for historians to compare," he said, his arm draped over the shoulder of Rancho Bernardo resident Kendra Jeffcoat, who lost her home.
-- Presidential pool report
Ramona:
Four people were hospitalized with unknown injuries after the helicopter they were flying in crashed this morning in Ramona, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The privately-owned helicopter, leased by San Diego Gas and Electric, was checking transmission lines related to the fires when it went down about 10:40 a.m. at Sunrise Vista, said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. The Bell 206L hit the ground and rolled on to its left side. Four people on board, including the pilot, were able to get out, Gregor said. They were transported to Palomar Hospital with undisclosed injuries.
-- Andrew Blankstein
San Diego County:
The San Diego County medical examiner's office reported today that two more evacuees had died, bringing the total of evacuee deaths to seven.
Robert Sibbison, 86, was under hospice care at his home for end-stage lung cancer. He was evacuated by ambulance Wednesday morning and was on his way to the Veterans Hospital in San Diego. While en route, he experienced shortness of breath and was taken to Grossmont Hospital. Staff members attempted to resuscitate him, but he died a short time later.
Priscilla Frias, 20, suffered from multiple health problems and had difficulty breathing after the fires started. Her family took her to stay with family members in Tijuana. But when her breathing continued to worsen, her family brought her back to San Diego. During the early morning hours Wednesday, paramedics took her to Scripps Mercy Hospital in Chula Vista. She was seen in the emergency department, but attempts to resuscitate her were unsuccessful. Her cause of death is pending.
-- Charles Ornstein
Rancho Bernardo:
President Bush walked through a Rancho Bernardo neighborhood past charred Halloween decorations on the ground and through more rubble to take in the view from a hilltop. He was accompanied by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and others. Sen. Dianne Feinstein took the president’s arm as they walked from the property at the top of the hill.
-- James Gerstenzang
Sacramento:
The Witch fire in San Diego County is now the fourth-largest fire in California history, officials with the California Department of Forestry announced at a news conference this morning.
The fire has burned 197,000 acres and is 20% contained, said Daniel Berlant of the Department of Forestry.
-- Patrick McGreevy
Rancho Bernardo:
President Bush stopped at 18576 Lancashire in Rancho Bernardo, where little remained other than a spiral staircase draped with building material and a piece of wall bearing the tourquise-and-pink tile giving the address. It was the home of Jay and Kendra Jeffcoat. They gave Bush and the governor a tour through the rubble. Their cocker spaniel, Trevor, was tied to one of four palm trees still standing on the property and paid little attention. In the distance was a charred hillside, a tall white cross on its peak, bearing witness to the damage. To either side of the house, other homes had been burned to the ground, but across the street the two-story, tile-and-stucco homes appeared unscathed. One had a "For Sale" sign with the word "View." The president spent about 10 minutes at the address.
-- James Gerstenzang
Three of the four wildfires that broke out in recent days at Camp Pendleton -- including the Del Mar, San Luis Rey and Wilcox fires -- were fully contained, according to officials for the Marine Corps. As of this morning, the Horno fire had charred 17,000 acres and was half-surrounded.
-- Andrew Blankstein
Aboard Air Force One, en route to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar:
Pres. Bush boarded the plane in a steady rain. He was wearing a suit and tie.
Fran Townsend, the president’s homeland security advisor, said aboard Air Force One that the past few days had shown “disaster response exactly the way it should be.”
She said that although such disasters are primarily local events, the federal role is to support local and state governments, the federal government had been “leaning forward, proactive.”
She said that the federal government acted within an hour on the governor’s request for assistance on Monday night, and that FEMA launched its individual assistance program “before the sun came up on Wednesday.”
Reciting statistics that she said were likely outdated even as she spoke, She said that the fire had consumed 427,000 acres, 2,205 structures and produced one death—and possibly three-and 38 injuries. She said that the evacuation of 321,000 people was the largest in the state.
She said that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had deployed 2,500 firefighters, and had approved a disaster food stamp program in San Diego.
The FBI and ATF were assisting arson investigators, Townsend said.
She said that the Defense Department had provided 214 active duty personnel, 72 civilians, 2,492 National Guard troops, for firefighting and security duties. She said an additional 17,295 National Guard troops were available. In addition, 28 helicopters and 14 fixed-wing aircraft had been provided, and C-130s had made five sorties on firefighting drops.
She said that while weather conditions seemed to be turning, it was “too soon” to say that a corner had been turned. Until the weather changes, she said, an air assault on the fire was not effective, either because chemicals and water would evaporate, or couldn’t be directed onto the fires.
Bush brought with him Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and Reps. Elton Gallegly, Ken Calvert, Bob Filner and David Dreier. He was scheduled to be joined on the ground by the governor, and Reps. Brian Bilbray, Duncan Hunter and Darrell Issa.
Rep. David Drier (R-San Dimas) on the post-Katrina period: “It was not an easy time. There was no doubt about that—the finger-pointing and all that.”
Drier compared the support given evacuees in California with the needs demonstrated by the victims of Katrina. He said that school bands performed for evacuees, acupuncturists offered their services, and volunteers in general were being turned away, their numbers greater than the need.
“You wouldn’t believe the number of people being turned away, he said, adding: “It sends out a different message” than that of Katrina’s victims holding up signs toward passing aircraft pleading for help.
“The state is regularly ready to deal with crises,” he said, noting that the state had to be ready to handle mudslides, fires and earthquakes.
He also noted that Bush had called the governor before Schwarzenegger asked for help on Monday. For Bush, he said, “that was a very good, positive thing.”
As if portraying the governor in his Hollywood days, Drier said that in a phone call with Schwarzenegger on Wednesday evening, the former action hero said “action, action, action. I want more action.” He aped the Austrian-born governor’s famous accent.
-- James Gerstenzang
Escondido:
President George W. Bush began an aerial tour of the fire damage at roughly 9:45 a.m., flying from Marine Air Station Miramar to a San Pasqual High School football field in Escondido. The route took him over Rancho Bernardo, according to a Marine Corps helicopter pilot. Some 500 houses were lost there. The tour covered a pastiche of Southern California: blackened hills, a tiled roof mansion spared at the top of one hill with blackened brush all around it. But not far away there were unscarred tennis courts and a J.C. Penney's.
The aerial tour lasted nearly a half hour.
Bush is scheduled to do a walking tour of Escondido.
-- James Gertzenstang
Rancho Bernardo:
Debby Stout, 47, and her son Steve Stout Jr., 24, found out from a television broadcast Monday that their house on Cabela Drive in the Westwood section of Rancho Bernardo had been lost.
“Our address came up on the news on the little ticker at the bottom, like a sports story. It was like Bam!” Steve Stout said.
They were at the service center Wednesday seeking FEMA cash assistance.
Newlyweds Tim Anderson, 27, a Marine stationed at Miramar Air base, and Jessica, 25, a Palomar College student, arrived at the center not knowing the fate of their first home together, an apartment in a complex called La Terraza, also in Westwood.
Finally reaching the front of a long line, they were told their apartment unit was not on the list of burned homes. “It looks like some of your neighbors took it pretty hard,” the clerk said.
Tim smiled. “Our building is not on the list, but the building next to us burned down or has damage. It could be the one our garage is in,” he said. But he sounded like he didn't quite believe the report. The home survived “according to their list. According to their list,” he kept repeating.
-- Tami Abdollah
Rancho Bernardo:
LeAnn Sullivan, 46, who lost her home on Cabela Drive in Rancho Bernardo, was in line at 6:30 a.m. today at the Rancho Bernardo service center. She described herself as a homemaker, but said, "I'm out of work today. I have no home to make. It's gone."
She said she and her husband, Paul, 47, who is the chief financial officer for the YMCA of San Diego County, have been staying at the Sheraton in downtown San Diego to stay away from fires. At first when they fled the fire Sunday, they went to Del Mar to stay with friends, but then they had to evacuate for a second time from that house.
Sullivan said her dog Sydney, an Australian shepherd, saved their lives by barking after a neighbor banging on the door had failed to rouse them. She said they awoke to a firestorm about 4 a.m. Sunday and had only enough time to grab their cat and dog and a few items of clothing before dashing out. They saw their home burning as they left.
"We need to find out what to do next," Sullivan said as she stood in line about 7 a.m. "We have no insurance papers, no titles, nothing. When you're leaving, you get the weirdest things."
She said she had very few clothes with her.
"I love to shop and I try to shop for clothes and I just stand there and cry," she said. "You think, 'Oh, that shirt looks cute with that skirt.' And then you think, 'Oh, that's gone.' "
On Saturday, the Sullivans are supposed to go on a weeklong cruise to Mexico. They never thought to get insurance, Sulllivan said. "They're like, 'You use it or you lose it,' " she said of the cruise company. "And we're like, fine. We'll be on that boat naked."
The Sullivans and their dog, Sydney, walked out of the service center about 10 a.m., after spending a little more than an hour inside. They had also managed to talk their way into taking a peek at their house.
"We got to see our home," Sullivan said. "Our patio furniture's still there but our house is gone. Isn't that funny?"
The Sullivans moved into their two-story home five years ago. It featured four bedrooms, two and a half baths and a pool. They remodeled about a year ago. Now, she said, only two fireplaces were left standing -- at least that's all she could see because the rubble was so thick.
"My family-room wall had two crosses that were candleholders and they're still there hanging on the fireplace wall, but that's all that's left," she said.
She left the service center with a white plastic bag full of handbooks and handouts on how to rebuild. She'd been given various other things, including a notepad and animal crackers, which she planned to feed to Sydney, who she said was too nervous to eat anything but treats. They'd also been given information on such things as how to list the contents of their house, how to find a contractor, how to avoid being ripped off by contractors or fake insurance companies.
Sullivan expressed confidence about avoiding those pitfalls, saying they had good referrals, good contacts in the city and had had all their questions answered in the service center.
Inside the service center, the Sullivans spoke to people whose homes had burned in 2003. The advice they gave, Sullivan said, was "take it day by day, and in time it will get better, week by week."
They also ran into her next-door neighbors. "It was nice to be able to make sure they're OK. Even though we lost everything, we're lucky to have the clothes on our back. We're still OK," she said.
Sullivan said her husband was with the local Rotary Club on Saturday, building homes in Mexico. The Sullivans and three other families in the group lost their homes.
"We were helping the homeless Saturday and were homeless Monday," she said.
Wiping the running mascara from her eyes, she described the service center as "great, they were fabulous."
"We're going to make it. That's what I can tell you," she said.
She said they would rebuild their home on the same ground where it once stood, partly out of necessity: "We've got a mortgage there."
But the game plan for now is finding alternate housing. "We've got to find a place to live," she said. "That's our next priority."
Sullivan said she grew up in Kansas and had lived through horrible tornados, but had never lost a home.
"I never want to go through that again," she said of the fire. "You can't imagine a catastrophe. You can see it, watch it, like when your friends' parents die and you don't know what to say. Everything is gone.... We'll just live day to day. You're numb and in shock."
-- Tami Abdollah
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders has yet to announce if the San Diego Chargers can use Qualcomm Stadium for their scheduled game Sund | |
