Armies of refugees leave northern San Diego County

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In northern San Diego County, fire officials ordered a quarter of a million people to evacuate, fearing that three fires were merging into something that could rival the cataclysmic Cedar and Paradise fires, which destroyed 2,500 homes and killed 17 people.

Firefighters tried to make a big stand at Black Mountain, northwest of the intersection of California 56 and Interstate 15, near Rancho Bernardo, where dozens of homes have been lost. The fire has burned about 100,000 acres and blazed out of control, with wind gusts barreling at 50 mph.

Roads out of northern San Diego County were jammed with evacuees and others. Some places -- from strip malls to grocery stores -- looked like ghost towns under dark, sooty skies.

Tom and Shelly Donnelly heeded the evacuation order and fled their Carmel Valley home just east of Del Mar. They hopped into their car in the morning with their three children and two dogs, headed for a hotel room they had reserved in San Clemente. But when they got there, the hotel wouldn’t let them bring in their pets.

The family tried to go deeper into Orange County, but thought better of it at Carlsbad because of the large fire in Irvine.

‘I don’t know where we’re going to go,’ Tom, 49, said as he filled up the tank in San Clemente.

‘We’ve got to figure it out,’ added Shelly, 45.

Others were biding their time before committing to evacuate. In a new development in Carmel Valley, where some of the houses were still being built, John Sparks, 61, and wife Kathy, 56, had already spent the morning bringing family from a nearby gated community to their home.

Now, under clouds of soot and an order to leave, they were waiting. Soon, they said, they might have to caravan together in an RV they had in storage nearby.

‘Right now, it’s all still to the north of us,’ said John, a general contractor. ‘But with these conditions, it’s hard to tell what’s going to happen. We’re ready to go and we’re watching it, minute to minute.’

They moved into the Arabella development in March, having spent the six months before living in the RV.

‘So I don’t care to see [the RV] again,’ Kathy said.