Firefighters pounce on Poomacha fire; officials offer aid to victims

By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer | Saturday, October 27, 2007 12:37 PM PDT ∞

Aided by calmer, cooler weather, the 7,000 firefighters battling San Diego County's five major wildfires began to wrap weary arms Thursday around flames that have torched 350,000 acres and destroyed 1,424 homes.

"On all fronts, we're making a lot of progress in containing these fires," said Chief Rick Hutchinson of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire).

And as aircraft used to fight other Southern California fires became available, officials directed an all-out assault at the Poomacha fire threatening the famous observatory on Palomar Mountain. That 39,000-acre blaze had prompted new evacuations late Thursday in the Highway 76 corridor and triggered fresh anxiety among Temecula residents, who were choking in its smoke as its flames crept gradually closer.

"They are hitting Poomacha today superheavy with fixed-wings," said Steve Heil, CalFire's San Diego County deputy chief.

"They are painting the mountainside," Heil said of the bubble gum-colored retardant being dropped on hot spots. "They have a major air show going on up on Palomar Mountain."

Heil said the 1,482 firefighters battling the Poomacha fire were aided by 12 helicopters and half a dozen fixed-wing aircraft, or airplanes.

While residents may have seen a lot of smoke kicked up by the fire Friday, much of it was the result of aggressive back-fire operations employed in an effort to build a line around the Poomacha and suffocate it by turning it in on itself, he said.

CalFire spokesman Mike Carr said that, as of late Friday, the observatory had been spared, but the flames were still rustling nearby.

The blaze was moving into the Agua Tibia Wilderness Area straddling the San Diego-Riverside county line, and it had merged with the Witch Creek fire, which at 198,000 acres was the largest of about 20 fires to break out this week across Southern California.

Keeping an eye on exhausted firefighters
"The crews are working real hard to put out all the hot spots," Carr said.

Carr said officials were shooting to reopen Highway 76 by late Friday night.

Over in Fallbrook, where 1,703 firefighters were warring with the 9,000-acre Rice fire, there was also a rush to build a line and start surrounding flames.

"The weather has greatly cooperated," said CalFire Battalion Chief Dave Shew. "The temperatures have gone down, the humidity has come up and the winds have calmed down significantly."

Winds gusted up to 80 mph at the week's outset, as a strong Santa Ana condition gripped the region, blow-drying vegetation that was already drier than it had been in decades and fanning many little fires into raging infernos.

"We want to make sure that, if the winds do shift, the flames are not going to jump a line and burn something that they shouldn't," Shew said.

He said that the firefighters, aided by three helicopters, were aiming to reopen the burn areas in east Fallbrook and east of Interstate 15 so that displaced residents from those places could return home, too.

At the same time, after nearly a whole week of fighting fire, officials were paying extra attention to the condition of the warriors on the front lines.

"We've got firefighters who are exhausted," Shew said. "And we're just trying to make sure our people don't take any chances."

Meanwhile, Southwest Riverside County residents were becoming uneasy as the 28,000-acre Santiago fire in Orange County was edging toward the county line Friday night, moving in the direction of the Temescal Valley. If the fire was to continue moving along the track it was following, it could threaten Lake Elsinore or Corona.

Burn area comparable to Houston
In a week of terror, at least 54 firefighters and 21 other people have been injured in San Diego County, according to CalFire.

The fires have directly claimed the lives of seven people, including two in an unincorporated area near Poway. Another seven deaths occurred during evacuations or after residents had left home.

To date, the region has spent $17.2 million fighting the blazes, which have blackened 550 square miles, an area approximately the size of Houston. That compares to the 625 square miles blackened across the county during the firestorm of October 2003, when the largest fire in California history, the Cedar, carved a wide swath of destruction.

This latest siege of fires triggered the largest evacuation in state history, when more than 500,000 people across the county -- many of them in North County -- were told to flee approaching flames of the angry Witch Creek fire. Officials estimate that the fires have caused more than $1 billion in damage to homes and property in San Diego County.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-San Francisco, put in a request Friday for $1 billion in federal funding to aid firefighting and relief efforts to the fire-stricken, seven-county Southern California region.

Earlier in the week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and President Bush have declared the counties of San Diego, Riverside, Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura, San Bernardo and Santa Barbara to be state and federal disaster areas, opening the door for aid to flow into the region.

Aid for fire victims
On Friday, Schwarzenegger signed an executive order suspending the one-week waiting period for obtaining unemployment insurance and waiving fees for replacing vital documents.

The order asks the Franchise Tax Board and Board of Equalization to help people whose homes were damaged or lost to file tax extension applications.

State officials also issued a warning for fire victims to avoid becoming victims of fraud by being on the lookout for scam artists. The state Consumer Services Agency set up an information line at (800) 952-5210 for people to report scams or victim abuses. The hotline also has information on contractors, loan officers and other professionals who can help victims.

Following the opening of an assistance center in Rancho Bernardo the day before, two centers opened in North County on Friday morning.

County spokeswoman Lesley Kirk said the assistance centers, described as "one-stop shops" for residents seeking a variety of aid, opened in Fallbrook at the Fallbrook Community Center, 342 Heald Lane, and in Ramona center at Ramona Community School, 1710 Montecito Road.

Vince Wetzel, a spokesman for State Farm Insurance, said he had just left the Rancho Bernardo assistance center late in the afternoon and was on his way to Ramona.

Already, Wetzel said, the company had received a total of 2,000 claims from fire victims whose homes were lost or damaged all over Southern California. He said 550 of those were total losses. Others were homes that were damaged by smoke and water, or singed.

He said he did not have a breakdown for San Diego County victims.

The assistance center openings were timed with the reopening of many fire-ravaged neighborhoods. For the most part, that effort went smoothly.

Threatening to storm a roadblock
The road back home turned out to be a little bumpy, however, in Ramona. Authorities threw up their hands and reopened Highway 67 leading into town Thursday night, after hundreds of frustrated residents threatened to storm a roadblock.

An evacuation order was lifted for Ramona even though there was no water running in the town's public water system, which collapsed earlier in the week.

Officials said they hoped to begin restoring water service -- gradually -- today. The county planned to send portable toilets and water tankers to provide residents relief in the meantime.

The American Red Cross also is helping residents. The agency planned to provide bottled water at the Ramona Rodeo Grounds, 421 Aqua Lane, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday.

By Friday, just 7,000 of the 45,000 county residents who filled evacuation centers earlier in the week were still there, and the biggest of the centers -- Qualcomm Stadium, home of the San Diego Chargers football team -- was shut down.

Officials said more than 70 helicopters, 21 air tankers, six C-130 planes, one DC-10, and two DC-7 aircraft have been used to fight the San Diego County blazes.

But most of those helicopters and airplanes were grounded until Tuesday, in part because of state rules and in part because of the windy weather, prompting angry accusations from several members of Southern California's congressional delegation. The congressmen insisted the aircraft should have gone up as soon as the blazes began.

No stopping fires with 'Tonka toys'
State officials countered that they weren't asked to join the firefight until 4:33 p.m. Sunday, several hours after the first fire broke out. And they said they needed time to ready planes and track down "spotters" to fly ahead of firefighting pilots to steer them to correct spots to drop their flame-stifling cargo. By the time teams were in place Monday morning, officials said, hurricane-force winds grounded the aircraft.

In Washington on Friday, a top military commander said he would ask the Air Force to equip firefighting cargo planes with new tanks after some flights to fight the California wildfires were canceled.

Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, head of the U.S. Northern Command, said the efforts on behalf of the California National Guard's C-130 cargo planes must be accelerated so they can be ready by fall 2008 -- in time for the next Santa Ana season.

Richard Minnich, a UC Riverside professor who has extensively studied Southern California wildfires, said even the most timely flights this week would have made little headway in halting the blazes' advance against hurricane-force winds.

"The sheer, size, magnitude and energy of these fires is way beyond anything we can control," Minnich said. "How much longer is this society going to continue to believe that they can stop fires with their Tonka toys?"

Staff writers Scott Marshall and John Hall, and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 745-6611, Ext. 2623, or ddowney@nctimes.com.

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