Wind Eases in Southern California Firefighters Face Some New Perils

Oct 25, 03:23 PM

Current Headlines: By Jennifer Steinhauer and John Holusha

The fierce Santa Ana winds that have driven wildfires across Southern California began to diminish Wednesday, with the National Weather Service saying it would lift its wind advisory for the Los Angeles area, although wind and fire danger warnings would remain in effect longer to the south.

Reduced winds would spread the fires more slowly but would be considered a mixed blessing, because a shift from Santa Ana winds to breezes off the ocean would make the wind less predictable. That would increase danger to firefighters, officials said Wednesday at a briefing for those fighting the Harris fire in southeastern San Diego County.

Firefighters to the north had greater success in containing the blazes than their counterparts in the south. The Associated Press reported that the two major fires in Los Angeles County were at least 85 percent contained, while none of the five major fires in San Diego County was more than 15 percent contained.

The National Weather Service's red-flag warnings of the likelihood of unpredictable fires followed a similar pattern, with those in the north expected to be lifted at 4 p.m. local time, while those in the south would extend until 6 p.m.

President George W. Bush, who plans to visit the region Thursday, declared the seven-county area a major disaster area, making grants and low-cost loans available to people and businesses that have sustained losses from the fires.

The first accounting of those losses came Wednesday when the director of San Diego County's Office of Emergency Services estimated that the damage to housing alone there would be "over $1 billion." He said that 686 houses, 170 mobile homes and 393 automobiles had been destroyed in the blazes.

A survey of seven counties showed that 1,248 structures and 170 mobile homes had been destroyed; 720 square miles, or 1,900 square kilometers, burned; and 505,600 people evacuated.

The effects of the fires continued to spread in some areas Wednesday. DeLuz, an unincorporated community north of Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base, was under a mandatory evacuation order because of a fire on the base.

Officials of San Diego County said Wednesday that residents of some evacuated neighborhoods, including Scripps Ranch, Chula Vista, Del Mar, Solana Beach and parts of Poway, would be allowed to return to their homes to check for damage. They said conditions in another northern suburb of the county, Rancho Bernardo, were still too hot to allow immediate returns. Smoldering structures would have to be treated by firefighters before residents could return, they said.

County officials and executives of San Diego Gas Electric pleaded with residents to conserve power. The company said that one of its major transmission lines was out of service because it ran through a section of Camp Pendleton that was on fire. Another line had been affected by the Harris fire and was also out of service.

Originally published by The New York Times Media Group.

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