Fires in California Force Thousands From Homes
Fires in California Force Thousands From Homes
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/27/national/27FIRE.html?th
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: October 27, 2003
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif., Oct. 26 — Firestorms roared through parched forests and scrubland across Southern California on Sunday, jumping into residential areas and shrouding hundreds of square miles in pungent yellow-gray smoke.
Tens of thousands of residents were forced to flee 10 rapidly spreading blazes from Simi Valley in Ventura County in the north to San Bernardino in the east and almost to the Mexican border in the south. Thousands of federal, state and local firefighters sought to contain the fires, with little success. State fire officials estimated Sunday afternoon that the fires covered more than 300,000 acres, with the area growing hourly. The fires have claimed at least 13 lives, including two people in San Diego County who were burned in their car as they fled, the police said.
The fires contributed to a nationwide disruption of air traffic when a Federal Aviation Administration office in San Diego that handles air traffic for all of Southern California was shut down about 9 a.m.
As of late Sunday, more than 850 homes were confirmed destroyed, but officials said many more structures had probably been consumed in areas that firefighters had not yet reached. More than a dozen shelters had been set up across the region for those who lost their homes or were forced from them.
Ash and soot blew across roadways like a dusting of dirty snow. Closer to the fires, the ground was covered in more than a half-inch of ash. The sky was so dark with smoke in some areas that sensors turned on automatic outdoor lights. Smoke could be seen and smelled all the way to the coast.
Hundreds of miles of freeways and mountain roads were closed to all traffic except firefighters going in and evacuees coming out.
The flames were driven by brutal Santa Ana winds gusting to 60 miles an hour and made worse by extremely low humidity. The most destructive fire, in the San Bernardino National Forest north and east of here, was fed by more than a million mature pine trees killed over the past year by a bark beetle infestation and drought. The fire front in the national forest was nearly 40 miles long, United States Forest Service officials said.
"This is a fire not to be taken lightly," said Stanton Florea, a forest service spokesman in San Bernardino. "It is just exploding at the higher elevations and moving down." He could give no estimate when the fire would be brought under any level of control.
Officials and residents knew that the forest was a tinderbox. Arson is suspected in several of the blazes.
"Everyone knew it was just a matter of time," said Tom Baker as he stood outside the smoldering ruins of his home in the Del Rosa section of San Bernardino, which was devastated by the fire late on Saturday. "We were all collectively holding our breaths, but our luck didn't hold."
Mr. Baker, a retired arson investigator for the San Bernardino police, said that he and his wife, Lydia, watched the flames pour down the hillside above his neighborhood and leap into the crowns of palm trees along his street. They rushed to salvage valuable papers and photographs as the winds blew flaming palm fronds into his yard, finally igniting the garage as the couple fled in their car. Houses on either side of the Bakers' home were intact, but the fire leveled the house directly across the street.
"We're over the shock and crying for now," Ms. Baker said. "We got some things out, but there's a lot of stuff still in there. It's just a fiasco."
Gov. Gray Davis declared a state of emergency in San Bernardino and Ventura Counties late on Saturday. He added Los Angeles and San Diego Counties on Sunday and asked President Bush for federal assistance. Mr. Davis said the fires were the worst in California in at least a decade.
Steve Maviglio, the governor's press secretary, said that the state had mobilized units of the California National Guard and assigned six helicopters to firefighting duty. "We've put all the resources we have to work," Mr. Maviglio said, "but nature bats last."
The state is urging residents of Southern California to conserve energy, as many households are running their air-conditioning to contend with the smoke and heat. The fires threatened electrical transmission facilities providing power to 25 percent of the population of the region, a Southern California Edison spokesman said.