NYT : California Fires Out of Control as More Than 500,000 Flee

California Fires Out of Control as More Than 500,000 Flee

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER | October 24, 2007

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 23 — Punishing winds and unstable thermal conditions — married with strained firefighting resources — stymied efforts Tuesday to contain a slew of wildfires burning for a third day across Southern California.

While firefighters late Tuesday began to get the upper hand on some fires in Los Angeles county, officials in San Diego were left worried that the fires could march toward more populated areas along the Pacific Ocean.

“As long as the east wind continues to blow, that is the direction things are going,” said Roxanne Provaznik, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “There are a lot of homes on that coastal community, so there is so much potential injury.”

By Tuesday, more than 400 square miles in seven counties had been consumed by some 16 fires, flames fueled by high desert winds and hot temperatures that remained largely impervious to air attacks, garden hoses, fire retardant or prayers for relief.

The authorities said the blazes, raging from the Simi Valley northwest of Los Angeles to the Mexican border, were responsible for two deaths, and possibly five others. At least 25 firefighters and civilians were reported to have suffered burns.

By late Tuesday, the fires had consumed well over 1,000 homes and commercial structures, with the authorities reporting that 68,500 homes remained threatened. At least 500,000 people were estimated to have evacuated and thousands more had been ordered to move, making the evacuation effort roughly half the size of that from the New Orleans area after Hurricane Katrina. The authorities said firefighters were overwhelmed as new blazes sparked and existing ones thrashed in new directions, impeding efforts to focus energy and resources. By midday, a new fire began in San Diego County even as fires elsewhere became partially contained.

President Bush, responding to entreaties from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, declared a state of emergency in California, paving the way for federal disaster aid to arrive, and said he would survey the state on Thursday.

While Mr. Schwarzenegger said during a news conference Tuesday that he was “happy” with the number of firefighters working the blazes, officials said that they were stretched thin and that a lack of resources was as much a burden as the temperatures and winds.

“Our resources are low,” Ms. Provaznik said in a telephone interview from San Diego. “Our firefighters are stretched out because of the number of fires around the state.”

Mr. Bush, mindful of the embarrassment his administration suffered after the Gulf Coast disaster two years ago, dispatched officials from the Department of Homeland Security to assess the damage. Federal and local fire teams from Nevada, Oregon and Wyoming joined the fight, and the governor called up 1,500 National Guard members.

The governor expanded his request to Mr. Bush on Tuesday afternoon, asking him to raise his declaration to “major disaster,” which would affect how the state is reimbursed later. The governor estimated that $75 million in federal aid would be needed.

Tuesday evening, Gov. Schwarzenegger said he had ordered state prisons to deploy their fire fighting muscle — including six fire engines and 18 fire captains — to assist in fire fighting. The state’s corrections department also has more than 2,640 trained inmate firefighters actively battling the southern California wildfires today after being deployed by Mr. Schwarzenegger.

Swift emergency response efforts, most likely matched by memories of the devastating fires here in 2003, may have contributed to the relatively low death toll.

“These are big fires, tragic, and the impact of these things will last a long time,” said Jodi Traversaro, spokeswoman for the state’s Office of Emergency Services. “I think Katrina taught us a whole lot.”

Two fires in Los Angeles County were largely contained Tuesday night. “This is a good news story," Lee Baca, the Los Angeles County sheriff, said at a news conference. But the rest of the state was less lucky.

San Diego County remained the worst of the burning regions, with at least 1,250 homes and 102 buildings destroyed and half a million people, according to local officials, displaced. The estimates of the number of people displaced, however, varied wildly between state and local officials. Thousands of evacuees headed for Qualcomm, the 60,000-seat home of the San Diego Chargers as others stuffed into area hotels.

A shift in the prevailing winds in the area on Tuesday, from the fierce but predictable Santa Ana winds, to more volatile western ones, also plagued firefighters.

But the director of San Diego County’s Office of Emergency Services, Ron Lane, said at a news conference Tuesday evening that he thought the corner had been turned and that more favorable weather forecast would allow firefighters to make real headway. “The worst is behind us,” Mr. Lane said.

For all the dislocation and destruction, the five deaths in San Diego County that local officials attributed directly or indirectly to the fires as of Tuesday afternoon also underscored how difficult it is to classify and describe the real dimensions of a disaster that has, at least so far, mainly been measured in property loss, charred landscape and disrupted life.

Three of the people who died were in their 90s, including two who died in nursing homes in what county officials said were “natural causes.” The oldest fatality, June E. Brewer, was 95. She died in her hotel room, the county said in news release, after being evacuated.

Thomas James Varshock, 52, died on his property on Sunday, the county said, during the Harris Fire the only death directly linked to fire. Another victim, Suzanne Elizabeth Casey, 62, died in a fall in a restaurant, the county said, but had previously been evacuated from her home.

In many areas, firefighters were no match for speeding flames and sought refuge in aluminum fire shelters or retreated in the face of burning hillsides. Strong winds made attacks from the air difficult.

“We tried to get back in there at about 5 a.m. but we couldn’t get through,” John Miller, a United States Forest Service spokesman, said, referring to two fires in the town of Lake Arrowhead, in the San Bernardino National Forest, where at least 100 homes and 5,000 acres have been destroyed. “It was a wall of fire.”

California residents who were forced to leave home struggled to sift through the rumors. David Yurkovic, 43, was in a shelter in San Bernardino with his five children and his pregnant wife, Roberta. “She’s due in two months; she doesn’t feel so good,” he said. “I don’t know if my house is O.K. I have no idea. The worst part here is the rumors.”

The speed and ferocity of the fires were fueled by a lethal combination of heat, drought and the often hurricanelike Santa Ana winds that travel from the Mojave Desert into the coastal mountains, which become hotter as they hit parched valleys.

Throughout Southern California, the sky was illuminated with a pink, hazy glow, and smoke rose like a marine layer of fog. Angry red embers jumped from yards to roads. Ash fell onto parked cars miles from fires.

The typically bustling Lake Arrowhead resembled a ghost town, with abandoned shops and homes. A choking haze of smoke and ash covered the mountain, creating dusk at noon. At 6,000 feet, the smoke blacked out the sun above and the valley below.

The closer to the center of the blazes, the louder the roaring crackle of fire. The air filled with smoke, gas and fine particles, making it extremely difficult to breathe comfortably in some areas. Air-quality experts implored residents to curtail outdoor activities.

Not everyone obeyed orders to leave. Greg Curfman, 42, and his daughter Brittney, 18, were among a group of Silverado Canyon residents who refused to leave their homes. By 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Mr. Curfman was exhausted from helping transfer the animals on his ranch to safe places around Orange County. “I’m staying here unless it’s a last-ditch effort,” said Mr. Curfman, who has lived in the canyon for 15 years.

In Castaic, Calif., a suburban enclave in northern Los Angeles County, a fast-moving fire surprised local residents who had thought the troubles were confined to areas to their south.

Roughly 60 Mexican firefighters from the border cities of Tijuana and Tecate crossed into the United States on Sunday to help fight the fires, but they scrambled home Monday when fires broke out south of the border.

A survey conducted by the California Farm Bureau Federation found that avocado and citrus groves, nurseries, vineyards, rangeland, and other farm and ranch operations were possibly damaged, with thousands of horses evacuated to shelters and livestock also possibly caught in the fires’ paths.

Reporting was contributed by Ana Facio Contreras from Silverado Canyon, Kirk Johnson from San Diego, Marc Lacey from Mexico, Jesse McKinley from Santa Clarita and Regan Morris from Lake Arrowhead.