Environment

Fires in Southern California Spread to San Diego

by josiemitchell | October 14, 2008 at 04:28 pm

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Fires in Southern California have almost doubled in size overnight, said firefighters Tuesday, three days after the fires commenced. So far the blazes have decimated 25 square miles of suburban land in Los Angeles and also Northern San Diego Counties. Thousands have been forced to evacuate. Calmer winds have aided firefighters in the San Fernando Valley, but regions further south in Northern San Diego County have caught alight.

In San Diego County, two wildfires that began at Camp Pendleton had merged. Authorities lifted an evacuation order for about 1,000 homes but said another 500 homes along the border of the Marine base remained vacated.

Marine Cpl. Priscilla Vitale said the fire had scorched more than 3,000 acres and was about 25 percent contained.

A new fire that ignited Tuesday at Camp Pendleton, forcing the closure of 20 miles of Interstate 5 for two hours, is now under control and the interstate has been reopened, Vitale said. It is the third fire to start on the base in two days.

Another fire burning in eastern San Diego County had burned 100 acres and forced the evacuation of 300 homes near the border community of Campo. That evacuation order was lifter later Tuesday morning, after the fire was about 70 percent contained.

The eastern communities of Southern California are not as densely populated as the western communities (though still significantly inhabited compared to most rural populations). Fire officials take great pains to keep the fire from moving Westerly to these more populated areas.

More than 2,000 firefighters and a fleet of water- and retardant-dropping aircraft battled the two fires that had chewed through more than 15 square miles.

"The fire wants to make its way to the coast, and we're going to do our level best to stop it," said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey.

Many boast that Southern California doesn't have seasons, it's nice all year round. But it does seem that this area have a very distinct fire season.

For more information on the fires north of Los Angeles follow this link to Amy Judd's reporting earlier today.

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Sanjay Jha

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 19:11 on October 14th, 2008

josiemitchell, I like this story. It's good stuff. This is unfolding story, Thanks and please keep us updated

ltl blonde

at 21:14 on October 14th, 2008

I work in a 163 unit retirement community near where the fires were. We were concerned about how close the fire might be since last year we were on standby to evacuate the community because of the fires in October also on Camp Pendleton. I found a location up on a nearby hill and watched the fire come up the ridge for about a half hour.

ltl blonde has contributed a photo to this story.