Progress reported in Calif. fire battles

LOS ANGELES - While residents streamed home from evacuation centers by the thousands in much of Southern California yesterday, firefighters concentrated on the nine blazes still burning the region, including an Orange County arson fire creeping toward a canyon filled with houses.

"This has been an extraordinary week, of course, for people of California," Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said at a news conference. "The people of California have experienced some of the most devastating and difficult fires in the history of California.

"And it's not over yet," Schwarzenegger said.

But in many places it definitely felt as if things were winding down. So few evacuees were left in San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium that Mayor Jerry Sanders informed the National Football League that the 70,000-seat venue would be available for the Chargers game against the Houston Texans tomorrow.

About 10,000 people were sheltered there at midweek, pushed from their homes by the firestorm that forced the Chargers to Arizona for practice.

The moist, cool ocean breezes that assisted firefighters also cleared the air in downtown San Diego, which no longer smelled of smoke. Business remained closed, however, in the north of the county, where 2,800 firefighters worked the Witch fire that had destroyed more than 1,000 homes and 120,000 acres. Officials reported it 45 percent contained.

In neighborhoods evacuated and, in some cases, burned, neighbors gathered in the streets trading news of who fared how. Signs reading "Thank You Firefighters" hung in the windows of many businesses, and residents stopped by firehouses to express their gratitude in person.

In hard-hit Rancho Bernardo, some firefighters returned to see which houses had survived the inferno they battled in the predawn hours Monday.

Krista Garrett dabbed at tears as her four small children thanked the crew for saving their corner house, which stood unscathed, even though the house next door was reduced to ash.

"Make sure you tell your husband I'm sorry I yelled at him," Captain Jeff Mitchell said. The Garretts had just pulled out in their green minivan that morning, flames surrounding the house, when Jim Garrett ran back in to rescue their two cats.

"Get your family out! We'll save your house!" he remembers Mitchell shouting over the roar of wind and fire.

Now Garrett strode across his scorched lawn, hand extended to Mitchell. "You did it," he said. "When we drove out, next door was a wall of flames, our oleander bush was burning, our fence was burning. We were sure our house was toast. Thank you so much."

Along the border with Mexico, the Harris fire was 20 percent contained and moving toward the emptied town of Julian. Border patrol officials said the four bodies found in a canyon near Tecate were thought to be Mexicans overtaken by flames while crossing the border illegally. The most acute situation, however, was in Orange County, between San Diego and Los Angeles. There a fire set by an arsonist was racing toward houses in Silverado Canyon.

As residents of about 750 threatened houses watched from a safe distance, fire crews scrambled to rip out vegetation in a line between Cleveland National Forest and their houses in the hope the firebreak would check its progress.

"Dig up all the brush and any shrubs to get it down to dirt so fire has nothing to burn, so it breaks it up," said Lynnette Round, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Fire Authority.

At the same time, four tanker airplanes and 13 helicopters took turns bombarding the flames with water and fire retardant - air assets Orange County Fire Chief Chip Prather had contended were lacking in the crucial first hours of the fire.

"Our resources are getting better," Round said. "We have about 1,600 firefighters on the line, 216 engines and trucks, 13 helicopters, 4 air tankers, 24 hand crews, 11 dozers, and 12 water 'tenders,' " or water trucks.

The search continued for the arsonist authorities said was responsible for the blaze, which spread faster than usual for a brush fire. Agencies and private firms offered rewards of more than $250,000 for information leading to an arrest, and the tips were pouring in. The blaze has destroyed 14 dwellings.

Overall, about 1,800 homes have been destroyed, and damage has been put at more than $1 billion in San Diego County alone, officials said. Across Southern California, 60 firefighters and about 30 civilians have been injured.

One of five people who have been arrested on arson charges since the wildfires broke out pleaded not guilty yesterday. Police said witnesses spotted Catalino Pineda, 41, starting a fire Wednesday on a San Fernando Valley hillside. He is not linked to one of the major blazes.

Schwarzenegger announced a series of breaks for residents affected by the fire: suspending by executive order the five-day waiting period for unemployment benefits and erasing replacement fees for driver's licenses and other documents destroyed by flames.

He also announced that the US Labor Department had approved his request for $50 million to fund 3,000 temporary jobs for rebuilding and cleanup.

"Southern California's dynamic economy has certainly suffered a major body blow," Schwarzenegger said in the state capital, Sacramento, after spending most of the week in Southern California. "We have to get businesses up and running as quickly as possible."

Many Southern Californians whose houses are still standing will face hardships for weeks to come, including polluted air, no electricity, and no drinking water.

Power lines are down in many burned-over areas, and the smoke and ash could irritate people's lungs for as long as the blazes keep burning. Randy and Aimee Powers returned to this mountain community in San Diego County yesterday and found their home without electricity or water, after firetrucks drained the reservoir.

"It's better to be at home. We're going to stick it out and do whatever we have to do up here to survive. We'll make it through," said Randy Powers, who joined a half-mile-long car caravan on Ramona's Aqua Lane.

Residents of 10,000 Ramona homes who called the water department when they found their water turned off were greeted with a recorded message that said: "We are in extreme water crisis situation. No water use is allowed."

"We can't flush the toilets and we've opened up the floodgates and are letting everyone back. I'm not sure if that's a good thing," said Brad Fisher of the Ramona Community Emergency Response Team. "There's a real pioneer mentality."

Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.