The Washington Post, SAN BERNARDINO, Calif., Oct. 26 — Massive wildfires swept across heavily populated areas of Southern California on Sunday, killing at least 13 people, engulfing hundreds of homes in flames and forcing tens of thousands of residents to flee their neighborhoods to safer ground.
The firestorm, spread across more than 260,000 acres in four counties, is the worst to strike the region in more than a decade. Six major blazes, all stoked by fierce desert winds, were burning out of control Sunday, the most destructive of them swirling around this city about 50 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. Authorities said that the wildfires had destroyed or badly burned about 700 homes and other structures by midday.
Thousands of firefighters struggled in nearly 100-degree heat and wind gusts topping 30 mph to contain fast-moving walls of flames ravaging or threatening hillside suburbs from San Diego to Simi Valley. Thick smoke from the wildfires smeared skies around the region, disrupting air traffic nationwide and closing several major local highways. Smoldering ash also fell on coastal areas many miles from the nearest blaze.
“We've had fires before, but nothing like this,” said Dorothy Boron, who evacuated her San Bernardino home late Saturday night. “It just keeps moving so fast.”
California Gov. Gray Davis (D) declared a state of emergency Sunday in San Bernardino, San Diego, Los Angeles and Ventura counties, and he asked the federal government to provide assistance to residents who have lost their homes. “We are taking every possible step to support the firefighting effort,” Davis said.
More than 50,000 residents have been urged or ordered to leave their homes. Thousands more have been told to pack and be ready to go at a moment's notice.
Some of the wildfires have been burning for days, fueled by unusually warm weather and the powerful Santa Ana winds that regularly blast through Southern California this time of year. But several new blazes exploded in bone-dry brush land and thickly forested canyons Sunday. They spread so quickly that many residents barely had time to leave their homes.
Fire dangers grew extreme around San Diego, as three roaring blazes spread untamed across thousands of acres, killing 11 people and burning more than 125 homes. San Diego County sheriff's spokeswoman Susan Knauss told reporters that one person was found dead in a motor home and three in vehicles. Three people were killed while trying to flee on foot, and two were dead on arrival at local hospitals. A forestry official reported the deaths of two others.
The fires prompted sudden mass evacuations. Some residents rushed with their belongings to Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, which was opened as a center for fire refugees. “This is a very serious situation,” San Diego Sheriff Bill Kolender told reporters. San Diego officials said the stadium could not be used for the “Monday Night Football” game between the Chargers and the Miami Dolphins, so NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue moved the game to Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.
One of the fires around San Diego began near the mountain town of Julian when a lost hunter set off a signal fire, authorities said. He was detained and may face charges.
Air traffic nationally was disrupted when a wildfire forced the evacuation of a Federal Aviation Administration control center near San Diego that coordinates many flights arriving and departing Southern California.
In communities along the San Bernardino Mountains, a wildfire that began Tuesday merged with another fire Saturday. It created a huge blaze that stretched for roughly 30 miles.
It has torched more than 350 homes and threatens thousands more. Two men collapsed and died amid the fire — one as he was evacuating his home and the other as he watched his house burn, authorities said. Ten firefighters have been injured. Investigators suspect that each fire was arson.
Meanwhile, on the northern edge of Los Angeles County, several brush fires burning near Simi Valley merged Sunday into a ferocious, 47,000-acre blaze threatening several thousand homes and closing four highways.
In a sweltering October across Southern California a decade ago, large wildfires burned for nearly a week and destroyed more than 1,000 homes from Malibu to Laguna Beach. Since then, the region has been afflicted only with small wildfires that were quickly contained and caused little property damage. But recent years of drought have made many wild lands perfect kindling for blazes — and left the growing residential communities near wilderness vulnerable. The wildfires that spread across Southern California on Sunday forced hospitals to evacuate patients and prisons to relocate inmates. They also cut off electrical power to tens of thousands of residents. In some places Sunday morning, as the Santa Ana winds subsided for several hours, firefighters gained ground on some blazes. They frantically dug containment lines and used air tankers to douse flame-smothered canyons.
“We're trying to make a stand as best we can,” said Mark Savage, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Entire neighborhoods in the foothills near San Bernardino were set afire late Saturday night. On Sunday morning, some residents who had fled the fires returned to their smoky streets and looked with horror at the widespread damage.
“A lot of people stayed until the smoke got so bad that they had to leave,” said Nick Johnson, whose home was spared. “They just had to grab things and go.”
Many residents rushed to a local airport hangar that has become the area's largest center for refugees from the wildfires. More than 1,000 waited anxiously there Sunday for news about their homes. Hundreds of cots lined the cavernous room. Some residents arrived dragging garbage bags stuffed with clothes. Some wept as they looked over a front-page headline in a local newspaper that said, “CITY BURNS.” Elderly residents in wheelchairs evacuated from nursing homes sat in silent dismay. Children carried goldfish bowls and rubbed their eyes.
“It's been pretty rough here,” said Ron Neish, a chaplain for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. “We have people who have lost everything.” Rich and Dolly Boron had been on the run since Saturday evening, when local officials called their home and ordered them to leave. They went to stay at a nearby friend's house — but had to evacuate there, too. Then they came to the airport hangar with their four dogs and everything they could pack into their truck. They had no idea if their home had burned.
“You never get everything you want to take,” Rich Boron said as thick plumes of gray smoke drifted across the skyline.
“We keep thinking of stuff we forgot,” Dolly Boron said.
In the parking lot outside the hangar, James Nettles was looking for his car-repair records. Escaping the wildfire, he said he had packed so much inside his van — six children, his wife and mother-in-law and an assortment of family possessions — that the brakes had been ruined by all the weight. “We've never had to deal with anything like this,” he said.
Nearby, Mike Smith flipped the radio dial inside his car, listening for any news on the fate of his neighborhood. He and his wife had left early Sunday after a sheriff's deputy rolled past their home, issuing warnings on a loudspeaker.
“All we can do is wait and hope,” he said. “But it doesn't look good.”
