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VALLEY CENTER ---- Fear, confusion and acts of panicked heroism were everywhere Sunday as a fast-moving fire killed at least two people and ate up miles of homes in Valley Center and eastern Escondido.

As of Sunday night, firefighters were still battling to keep the inferno from tearing through downtown Escondido.

The fire forced thousands of people from their burning neighborhoods early Sunday morning as it rolled through eastern North County, trapping firefighters and residents for hours at a time.

Flames charred more than 7,000 acres in Valley Center and San Pasqual, rural areas northeast and east of Escondido, respectively. The fire flattened more than 160 buildings and pushed hard Sunday down East Valley Parkway, where schools, neighborhoods and business waited in its path at nightfall.

The fire, which officials are calling the Paradise Valley Fire, started at 2:30 a.m. on Paradise Mountain Road. It burned through Rincon along Valley Center Road to the north and from Paradise Mountain to Lake Wohlford to the east. As of Sunday night, it was still moving west toward the city of Escondido.

Families living on Paradise Mountain, in the Lake Wohlford area, on the San Pasqual Indian Reservation and all over Valley Center were forced from their homes Sunday morning. By Sunday night, neighborhoods in northern and eastern Escondido were being evacuated as the fire closed in on parts of Daley Ranch and Hidden Trails Road. Hidden Trails residents were allowed to return later that night.

Firefighters said the blaze started near the center of the community. By late afternoon, flames had moved with explosive speed into northern Escondido, cutting into neighborhoods faster than police and fire crews could respond.

"We've got families trapped everywhere," a deputy shouted at one point as he walked house to house warning residents to evacuate. Thousands were evacuated from Valley Center and eastern Escondido as evacuations continued through the evening.

Residents ran from their homes all morning.

"I've always heard of firestorms, but I could never conceive of this," said resident Pierson Bickle, who packed his children into the car when he saw the fire headed toward his house at about 8 a.m. Later, he picked through the smoldering wreckage of his home near the Valley View casino in eastern Valley Center.

"I was very fortunate to get the kids out," Bickle said. "It had to be moving 30 miles an hour up the valley. It was like a hurricane."

Others stayed behind, trapped in the flames or trying to rescue their homes and animals. At least two people died in the fire Sunday, one trying to escape the flames in a vehicle. Still others were burned, and at least one woman caught fire outside her home and was rushed to a hospital by Bickle.

Agony, confusion as residents flee

The day was riddled with horror, sadness and split-second decisions as residents left their homes, stayed behind or just tried to keep their loved ones safe.

In Valley Center, a mother let out a long, unearthly wail outside a mobile home park where she said her mother and three children were trapped. The woman, Rachel Hertenstein, was kept from the park by evacuation officials and screamed as flames crested a ridge and headed for the mobile home park.

"The police won't let me go get them," Hertenstein said, her body racked with sobs. "I'm sick; I just want to knock on that door."

After a moment of tearful indecision, she got into a vehicle and vanished. Officials said they had no information on the family Sunday night.

Elsewhere in Valley Center, the firestorm cut off Paradise Mountain Road, the only clear access to Paradise Mountain, a neighborhood of about 450 single-family homes, and Sky Ranch, a retirement community of 440 elderly residents.

Belated efforts to evacuate the area had met with mixed success. Police had closed the road several times, and hundreds of residents remained.

"We tried three times over two hours to leave and they (police) wouldn't let us," said Rachael Stracka.

Rescue workers directed traffic and fought the flames from dawn to the middle of the night, stretched thin by several other fires burning throughout San Diego County. Crews from as far away as San Jose drove unmarked back roads looking for hot spots without the benefit of maps.

Rescuers weren't the only ones who were confused. Dozens of people got in car accidents making U-turns.

Still, firefighters battled steadily, sometimes entering fire-ringed areas they knew they may not be able to escape.

Ashen parade of evacuees

Those lucky enough to get out watched the flames from roadsides with hundreds of other evacuees, cut off from their neighborhoods by fire and police crews. Through the smoke, they searched for loved ones and wondered if the ashes falling on their shoulders were pieces of their homes, yards or lives.

"It's a complete nightmare," said 16-year-old Yesenia Gonzales, a reservation resident who escaped her burning yard in her pajama pants.

Evacuees lined East Valley Parkway like they would a parade, peering through ash and tears into the slow line of cars rolling from Valley Center into Escondido, searching for signs that family members and loved ones had also escaped safely. Cars and trucks filled with drivers on cell phones, flush-faced children, huddled pets and livestock made their way out of Valley Center as flames raged in the mountains overhead.

"I just need to know my wife and my animals are OK," said Alan Antrim, whose home was in the fire's path. "Everything else you can rebuild. But you can't rebuild lives."

By late afternoon, the road on which they were standing would be covered in flames.

'We lost everything'

Dozens said their homes on the San Pasqual Indian Reservation and Paradise Mountain Road were nearly engulfed in flames when they escaped.

"I'm pretty sure everything is gone," said Lesley Henrie, who escaped from her home on the reservation with only her 7-year-old daughter and her car. "It was so fast and so big, I just don't think anything is left."

The reservation, heavily-wooded land where several large families lived, was decimated, said tribal chairman Alan Lawson.

"We lost everything," said Lawson, who confirmed that many of the tribe's members lost their homes.

Hundreds of guests and employees were evacuated from Valley View Casino, where flames reached the parking lot. Though dozens said they ran from flames near the parking lot, fire officials said the casino did not burn down. Also spared, according to school officials, were Valley Center Middle School and Valley Center High School, both of which were evacuated.

Animals everywhere

Several evacuees left pets and livestock, a few said they turned their horses loose because they couldn't bring them along. Animals that were evacuated were taken to shelters and animal hospitals throughout the county.

In Escondido, just a year after burning down and rebuilding, the Escondido Humane Society evacuated hundreds of animals Sunday afternoon as flames engulfed its East Valley Parkway neighborhood.

All 200-some animals at the humane society were safely evacuated to a makeshift shelter in Escondido, said board member and spokeswoman Leslie Mogul. The shelter building was built to withstand fire and as of 9 p.m. had not been threatened by the flames, according to animal services director Chuck Dotson.

"It hasn't been through yet, but the fire is still close," Dotson said.

Residents weren't so certain about their homes. As ash clouds darkened the sky for a premature nightfall, a few Lake Wohlford residents sat on a school lawn on Valley Parkway with a radio and their two dachshunds, watching the flames.

"We went to the store this morning and couldn't get back in," said Connie Taylor as she petted her dog, Trixie and held the hand of her husband, Tim. Their home, a mobile home near Lake Wohlford, would go up in a few minutes if the fire reached it, they said. The couple bought a radio and cooler from the store and camped out on the grass outside Orange Glen Elementary School, watching the flames come over a ridge.

"I don't know what else we could do," Tim Taylor said. "We just have to wait and see if we have a home."

Contact staff writer Erin Walsh at (760) 739-6644. Contact staff writer Dan McSwain at (760) 740-3514