Unstoppable -- Southern Calif. Wildfires a 'Perfect Storm,' Ferocious Beyond Memory Firefighters Fal

Oct 24, 05:34 PM

Current Headlines: By Martha Mendoza

RUNNING SPRINGS, Calif. - Serious drought, tree-killing bark beetles and truck-flipping winds. Southern Californians have known for years they were living with the ingredients for devastating wildfires, but this time they are mixing with such violence it shocks people who thought they had seen it all.

More than 350,000 homes had been evacuated by Tuesday, including nearly a third of those in the nation's sixth-most populous county, San Diego. There is so much fire, moving so fiercely, that firefighters often had to throw out their playbook and let the blazes burn.

In the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles, Running Springs firefighter Steve Dvorak rubbed smoke-sore eyes as he watched a crew spray water on a small wooden home they were not going to save. Around him dozens more were in flames or already reduced to smoldering foundations.

"We've been thinking about this for the last five years, but it's still unbelievable. I've never seen anything like it," he said.

More than a dozen wildfires with tentacles of unpredictable, shifting flame have burned across nearly 600 square miles, killing one person, destroying more than 1,600 homes and prompting evacuations on the scale of a major hurricane from north of Los Angeles, through San Diego to the Mexican border. Forty-five people have been injured, including at least 21 firefighters.

More than 200 homes were burned in Running Springs and Lake Arrowhead, where retired resident Kim Wurm refused to evacuate. She said she stayed to protect her home and those of her friends, but that she had never seen such devastation in 25 years in "fire country."

"It's like a bomb went off. It's like shock and awe. It is shock and awe," she said.

About 1,400 homes, businesses and other buildings burned in San Diego County, where one person died. Another 530 homes in San Diego County were reported damaged.

In Rancho Santa Fe, a suburb north of San Diego, houses burned just yards from where fire crews fought to contain flames engulfing other properties. Groves of eucalyptus trees exploded in the heat in one ritzy cul-de-sac, sending off a scattered popping that sounded like machine gun fire.

The evacuations could have affected about 900,000 residents in San Diego County, given the area's average household size of 2.6 people. Thousands more were evacuated in San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the flames were threatening 68,000 more homes.

"We have had an unfortunate situation that we've had three things come together: very dry areas, very hot weather and then a lot of wind," Schwarzenegger said. "And so this makes the perfect storm for a fire."

President Bush, who planned to visit the region Thursday, declared a federal emergency for seven counties, a move that will speed disaster-relief efforts.

The sweeping devastation was reminiscent of blazes that tore through Southern California four years ago, killing 22 and destroying 3,640 homes. The number of people evacuated then, however, was closer to 80,000 people.

As they did in 2003, the ferocious Santa Ana winds have forced crews to discard their traditional strategy and focus on keeping up with the fire and putting out spot blazes that threatened homes.

Fire crews were especially concerned about dense eucalyptus groves in Del Mar and Rancho Santa Fe, fearing the highly flammable trees could turn neighborhoods prized for their secluded serenity into potential tinderboxes.

The usual tactic is to surround a fire on two sides and try to choke it off. But with fires whipped by gusts that have surpassed 100 mph, that strategy doesn't work because embers can be swept miles ahead of the fire's front line. In those cases, crews must keep 10 to 30 feet back from the flames or risk their own lives, Los Angeles County firefighter Daryl Parish said.

Added Rocklin Fire Department Capt. Martin Holm: "We do what we can. A life's a lot more important than a house."

Any flame longer than 8 feet is considered unstoppable, and even water and fire retardant will evaporate before they reach the ground, said Gordon Schmidt, a retired U.S. Forest Service deputy director of fire management.

"Fire is something that is lived with and tolerated in this part of the country, but these conditions with the winds and the lack of rain and the dead trees are the worst we've ever seen," said San Bernardino National Forest ranger Kurt Winchester. "This is basically unprecedented."

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By the Numbers

1: Confirmed death due to Southern California wildfires.

600: Range of wildfires in square miles.

1,600: Homes destroyed.

68,000: Homes threatened.

350,000: Homes evacuated.

370,000: Acres burned since Sunday.

900,000: People potentially affected by evacuations, given average household of 2.6 people.

- Associated Press

Originally published by Martha Mendoza Associated Press .

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