Hundreds more homes burn as winds pick up
Associated Press
A firefighter attempts to save a home near Santa Clarita, Calif. A firefighter died and three others were injured yesterday.
By Andrew Bridges
Associated Press
LAKE ARROWHEAD, Calif. — Fierce winds fanned walls of flame that engulfed dying and drought-stricken trees as firefighters scrambled yesterday to save Southern California mountain towns sitting directly in the path of deadly and swift-moving wildfires.
Still hundreds more homes were lost.
In San Diego County, the state's largest fire claimed another victim when a firefighting engine crew from the Northern California town of Novato was overcome by flames as it tried to save a house near Julian, killing one and injuring three. It marked the first firefighter death since the series of blazes began last week and brought the total number of dead to 20.
"It just swept right over them. They probably didn't have time to get out of the way," San Diego County Sheriff's Sgt. Conrad Grayson said. "I was hoping we wouldn't have to do this with a firefighter or a deputy."
The resort towns of Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear east of Los Angeles, Southern California's most popular mountain playgrounds, were evacuated except for crews bracing against fires that were being pushed up canyons by stiff coastal breezes. By late afternoon, the fires swept over the mountain tops, forcing evacuations in parts of the high desert town of Hesperia.
"There's fire on so many fronts, it's not even manageable at this point," said Chris Cade, a fire prevention technician with the U.S. Forest Service, as he watched a pillar of smoke he estimated at 9,000 feet rise into a hazy sky thick with floating ash. "I am at a loss what you can do about it."
Hundreds of homes burned in smaller communities of the San Bernardino Mountains, including CedarPines Park west of Lake Arrowhead and Cedar Glen, just east of Lake Arrowhead.
"This is our worst nightmare," said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Pat Boss.
Boss said the fire was an hour away from another mountain town, Running Springs, adding, "an hour is nothing in this fire."
Earlier in the afternoon, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection crews set backfires along Highway 18 to protect the town.
"That effort failed," Boss said.
On Southern California's other major front, about 100 fire engines encircled the historic mining town of Julian in the mountains of eastern San Diego County. Saving the region of 3,500, a popular weekend getaway renowned for its vineyards and apple orchards, was the county's top priority.
But as winds picked up, floating embers sparked spot fires near town and forced some crews to retreat. Some two dozen engines and water tenders that were headed to Julian were forced to turn back when flames swept over Highway 78, just east of Santa Ysabel.
South of Julian, about 90 percent of the homes had been destroyed in Cuyamaca, a lakeside town of about 160 residents. Charred cows lay by the side of the road and stone entryways stood in front of houses that were reduced to rubble.
"Everything's kind of happening all at once," said Bill Bourbeau, safety officer for the Cleveland National Forest who was with a crew along Highway 78. "These fires are trying really hard to tie in with each other. It's tremendous."
San Diego County fire officials have worried for days that the 251,000-acre Cedar Fire and the 49,800-acre Paradise fire would merge into a huge, single blaze that would make it nearly impossible to keep it from reaching Julian.
"There are ranches and little communities, which make it really difficult to fight a fire like this. ... It's almost overwhelming," Bourbeau said. "It is so big, we're still trying to get a handle on the organization part of it. It just seems like it never ends."
The fires that began last week burned in a broken arc across Southern California, from Ventura County east to the San Bernardino Mountains and south to eastern San Diego County. In all, seven fires were burning in four counties.
As fire officials concentrated on the blazes in the San Bernardino and San Diego County mountains, a blaze in the Santa Clarita area about 35 miles north of Los Angeles was racing toward a line of firefighters who were trying to prevent it from jumping over Interstate 5.
The toll for all Southern California fires stood at more than 660,000 acres burned and more than 2,600 homes destroyed. More than 12,000 firefighters and support crew were fighting what Gov. Gray Davis said may be the costliest disaster California has ever faced. He estimated the cost at $2 billion.
Firefighters were battling westerly winds sweeping inland from the Pacific. The cool, moist breezes replaced the hotter and drier Santa Ana winds that had whipped fires into raging infernos over the weekend but also confounded firefighters by directing flames toward mountain communities.
Winds that gusted to 60 mph early yesterday pushed flames up from the mountain slopes into the dense forest between Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear Lake.
"They turned around with the wind and the fuel and basically overran us," San Bernardino County Fire Division Chief Mike Conrad said. "It came over the top (of the ridge) and is now basically making its way to the desert."
Heavy winds kept aircraft grounded in the area, hindering firefighting efforts.
The narrow roads and sheer number of dead trees, ravaged by drought and a bark beetle infestation, made it nearly impossible to protect some of the smaller communities in the area, Conrad said.
"It would be suicide to put anyone in there," he said.
Mark Peterson, a firefighter with the Big Bear Lake Fire Department, said the fire was moving toward Big Bear rapidly and called those who refused to leave "crazy."
