Several blazes erupted overnight in parts of Southern California
where more than 10 wildfires have been raging, authorities said on
Tuesday.
The latest blazes included a house fire on the La Jolla Indian
Reservation that spread to surrounding San Diego countryside and
consumed 162 hectares of land. The fire was heading up the east
side of Palomar Mountain.
Another fire broke out in the nearby Newhall Pass area,
according to Inspector Ron Haralson of the Los Angeles County Fire
Department.
The fires were almost too numerous to count as hot spots erupted
and small fires merged into larger ones, firefighters said.
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.
The latest blazes were just sparks compared to conflagrations
that have plagued seven counties since the weekend.
Meanwhile, weary firefighters were facing rising temperatures
and fierce winds this morning that were expected to complicate
their efforts to tame an outbreak of Southern California
wildfires.
"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.
Responding to state pleas, President George W. Bush declared a
state of emergency on Tuesday, opening the way for federal aid.
Fed by the gale-force winds, the fires have killed one person,
injured dozens of others and forced about more than 500,000 people
to evacuate their homes. The blazes also reduced hundreds of homes
to ashes and consumed about 109,350 hectares of land across seven
counties.
In San Diego County alone, an estimated 1,000 homes had been
lost there, according to the county's Board of Supervisors Chairman
Ron Roberts.
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 ordered on Tuesday
another 3,800 households to evacuate.
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.
David Paulison, administrator of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA), said federal funds will be used to
reimburse the state "for certain costs incurred under FEMA's Fire
Management Assistance Grant Program (FMAG)."
FEMA so far has approved at least seven requests for such
grants.
Under those grants, the federal relief agency pays for 75
percent of the state's eligible fire-fighting costs. Some of those
expenses include the cost for equipment, supplies and traffic
control.
On Monday, FEMA opened a Joint Field Office in Pasadena, Los
Angeles to coordinate federal, state and local efforts to bring aid
to the region.
Bush said he was sending Paulison and US Homeland Security Chief
Michael Chertoff to California to determine what other federal aid
is needed to help battle the fires that have been burning in seven
counties since the weekend.
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.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who asked Bush on
Monday to make the emergency declaration, said the federal aid will
help.
"The people of California need all the help they can get at this
tragic time and this action will allow our citizens to get the
assistance they need," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency October 24, 2007)
