Pres. Bush begins tour of fire disaster

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Escondido:

President George W. Bush began an aerial tour of the fire damage at roughly 9:45 a.m., flying from Marine Air Station Miramar to a San Pasqual High School football field in Escondido. The route took him over Rancho Bernardo, according to a Marine Corps helicopter pilot. Some 500 houses were lost there. The tour covered a pastiche of Southern California: blackened hills, a tiled roof mansion spared at the top of one hill with blackened brush all around it. But not far away there were unscarred tennis courts and a J.C. Penney’s.

The aerial tour lasted nearly a half hour.

Bush is scheduled to do a walking tour of Escondido.

-- James Gertzenstang