Day 3 and the fires are still Blazing

I was sitting here reading the news and my heart is aching for these poor people. So many people have lost homes and have no where to go and they are sharing it on the web. I thought I would share with you some of their stories and statistics.



'The fire is right on my house'

The ridges above Majesto Canyon are completely engulfed in 50-75 feet high flames and no fire fighters able to battle them. The canyon was too narrow and the heat and flames were too intense to try to save 330 homes in the canyon, it was not immediately clear how many were burned. Nearly all the residents evacuated in the early morning hours, and the few who were left fled at about quarter to 11 this morning.

Resident Mark Jackson, ran up to fire fighters and said, "The fire is right on my house, this is really scary. I lived through 8 fires out here and I've never seen anything like this. Why can't you do anything?!"

John Kinsman, who was fleeing the canyon with his 3 dogs and 1 cat said, "The fire was eating eating up my house right now!" There were no firefighters there to help put out the flames.

-Janet Wilson in Majesto Canyon

'I haven't slept in three days'

High above, water-dropping airplanes circled above as fires raced up Mt. Woodson near Poway. Down below, in the Mina de Oro community of hilltop homes, firefighters tried to beat back flames that flanked two-thirds of the neighborhood.
Dave Alfer, 47, had no real business here. On Sunday night, his 3,500 square home in Ramona had burned to the ground. He could have evacuated and started to reflect long and hard about rebuilding among other fire refugees.
Instead, he came to this fire-ringed community to help a friend in need, and whoever else he could. Looking tired and scruffy with a beard, blue jeans, work boots and a baseball cap, Alfer lugged around a cooler with Gatorade. The auto repair shop owner passed the sports drinks out to weary firefighters and residents. He used his Jeep Cherokee to help neighbors move belongings to safety.
"I haven't slept in three days," Alfer said Tuesday. "I'm driving around from house to house, trying to help out. That's just the way my daddy brought me up."
At around 11:20 a.m., as aircraft attacked the flames on the communication tower-crowned mountain, Alfer loaded his friend's goat into his Jeep, and rode off, taking it to safety-all the while, flashing a peace sign.

-Robert J. Lopez in Mina de Oro (near Poway)


'Firefighters warned of battle fatigue'

As firefighters began their third day on the line against the Santiago fire, Chip Prather, fire chief of the Orange County Fire Authority, warned commanders during a briefing this morning about the dangers of fatigue in the field.

"Don't get complacent. That's what's going to kill somebody," Prather said.

He added that watching a dozen firefighters Monday deploy their emergency fire-retardant tents as a blaze overtook them on a hillside in Santiago Canyon was "an emotional time. I don't want to see that" again.

Prather also told his staff that they shouldn't expect any more resources for the time being.

"What you see is what you're going to have," he said.

Fire crews will focus on saving lives and then property. And if the rest turns into a "moonscape, I apologize to the environmentalists, but that's the way it's going to be," he said.

-- Mike Anton



STATS

In an area as large as Southern California, officials remained focused on how to cope with their individual disasters, and there was little information for the region as a whole. But most officials agreed that all of the numbers grew overnight. There were more fires, more evacuations, more damage and more fatigue among firefighters.

* There was no official figure for the number of people forced to flee, but the disaster was being called the state's largest evacuation crisis. San Diego officials said they had ordered 346,000 homes evacuated. At more than two people per home and with evacuations elsewhere, that could mean more than 700,000 people have fled to shelters, hotels, relatives and friends.

* The extent of the damage was widespread, with more than 400,000 acres burned. More than 1,500 homes and other structures were destroyed, 1,300 in San Diego alone.

* Officials at the California Geographic Area Coordination Center, which coordinates resources, confirmed that a second person had died in the fires, but they had no details. The number of injuries also grew, to more than four dozen civilians and firefighters.

* Estimates of the monetary losses start in the tens of millions, and the cost of fighting the fires was expected to at least match that number. Help was on the way after the White House declared a state of emergency, clearing the way for additional federal aid.

* If there was one factor that officials agreed would solve the current crisis, it was a break in the weather. Santa Ana winds need to quiet their roar so rescuers can catch up. That could happen by Wednesday, but for the rest of today, officials were keeping their fingers crossed.