More evacuations and new fires

A new day brought more evacuations and blazes as weary firefighters faced rising temperatures and fierce winds this morning that were expected to complicate their efforts to tame an outbreak of Southern California wildfires.

The latest blazes included a house fire on the La Jolla Indian Reservation that spread to surrounding San Diego countryside and consumed 400 acres. The fire was heading up the east side of Palomar Mountain.

Another fire broke out in the Newhall Pass area, according to Inspector Ron Haralson of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Perhaps a dozen acres were consumed, he said. Called the Meadow Ridge Fire, the blaze started about 4 a.m. near where Highway 14 meets Interstate 5. It was one of four fires in Los Angeles County, Inspector Sam Padilla said.

Both roads were backed up. The Sierra Highway heading east was closed.

The latest blazes were just sparks compared to conflagrations that have plagued seven counties since the weekend. Responding to state pleas, President Bush this morning declared a state of emergency, opening the way for federal aid.

The tally of destruction was a grim reminder of the danger brought every year when the Santa Ana winds begin to blow. This year is expected to be especially bad since record rainfall, followed by drought, has turned the ample brush into tinder.

Fed by the gale-force winds, fires have consumed about 270,000 acres, more than 420 square miles, across seven counties. Hundreds of thousands of people have sought refuge from the fires.

San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chairman Ron Roberts said this morning that an estimated 1,000 homes had been lost there.

The Santiago Fire forced Orange County to order an additional 3,000 residents to evacuate, said Christy Romero, a spokeswoman for Orange County Fire Department. About 870 homes are threatened in the canyon areas including Modjeska Canyon, Silverado Canyon, Williams Canyon, Santiago Canyon at Hangman’s Tree, and Joplin Boys Ranch, officials said this morning.

The fire has burned through about 15,800 acres and is 30% contained with more than 500 firefighters working the blaze, Romero said. She said two helicopters were dropping water this morning. No structures have been damaged.

Four firefighters suffered minor injuries, she said.

The largest evacuation has been in San Diego County, where officials ordered more than 250,000 households, an estimated half a million people, to evacuate. County officials this morning ordered another 3,800 households in Wildcat Canyon and Multh Valley to seek shelter from the Witch Fire. About 1,800 households in North Jamul and Indian Springs are being told to evacuate the Harris Fire, officials said.

At a morning news conference, San Diego officials praised the calm and helpful mood at relief centers that housed thousands overnight. They asked people to stay off the roads and avoid using cellphones so that firefighting efforts could continue.

The fires were almost too numerous to count as hot spots erupted and small fires merged into larger ones. More than a dozen fires were counted in San Diego County alone. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders sent out a plea for volunteer doctors and nurses to help evacuees, many of them elderly, at Qualcomm Stadium, where upward of 10,000 people stayed the night.

Fires grew overnight in Fallbrook, pushed closer to the heart of Rancho Santa Fe, one of the most exclusive communities in the nation, and began to march closer to Chula Vista and Bonita. Homes were burning in Poway, Rancho Bernardo and Escondido.

Flames crossed class lines as easily as the arid terrain. Homes burned from the beach enclave of Malibu to the vacation retreats around Lake Arrowhead, south through Orange and San Diego counties, with its pricey communities of Del Mar and Solana Beach, to Mexico.

The conflagrations were on the level of four years ago, when some 3,600 homes were destroyed and about 22 died. Remarkably this time, just one person has died; the injured included 17 firefighters and 40 other people.

The steep geography hampered efforts to fight fast-moving fires east of Los Angeles.

“Truth is, some of [the homes] are not defensible. Period. Or savable,” Battalion Chief Jim Curaralo told KTLA-TV. “There’s no point in risking life – firefighter or citizen – in a situation where you really don’t believe you can make a difference.”

As dawn broke, winds picked up speed.

“We are getting very strong northeast winds. They are very erratic, causing us to modify our procedures,” said Capt. Don Camp, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

In the Lake Arrowhead area, at least 160 homes were destroyed. In Green Valley Lake, fires appeared to have crossed Highway 18, according to televised images from the scene. The fire was heading toward Running Springs.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has already declared a state of emergency.

The Defense Department agreed to send six Air Force and Air National Guard water- or retardant-dropping planes. The federal declaration will also free up help for those who have fled their homes, and federal officials planned a news conference to discuss the details.

Staff writer Jean-Paul Renaud contributed to this report.