Winds dropped from 100 mph gusts that whipped fires in California to as low as 21 mph to allow firefighters to beat back the most destructive blazes and largely contain most of the fires north of San Diego, officials said.
Fires in Los Angeles were half contained or more, according to fire authorities.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger mobilized members of the National Guard as the inferno created a thick, gray cloud of smoke that could be seen from space – and rained ash several inches thick on a scorched area nearly twice the size of New York City.
President Bush, apparently in an effort to avoid another disaster like Hurricane Katrina, declared a state of emergency. He was planning to visit the fire-stricken area.
“All of us across this nation are concerned for the families who have lost their homes and the many families who have been evacuated from their homes,” said the president. “We send the help of the federal government.”
The threat to California continued but fire damage so far:
- Forced upwards of a half million people to flee their homes in an area stretching from Malibu to beyond the Mexican border.
- Burned through 650 square miles.
- Left casualties of at least three people dead with 40 injured.
- Were described as the worst to hit California since the blazes of 2003 which claimed 22 lives, according to wire service reports.
- Caused more than $1 billion in property damage.
- Upwards of 1700 homes were destroyed.
Though weather conditions have been blamed for the blazes, there is a federal investigation into whether some of the fires are the work of arsonists, according to several reports.
Disgraced former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown was quoted as praising fire control efforts. He said Gov. Schwarzenegger was doing a “heck of a job.”
“Until the President declared an emergency, it truly was a state and local government responsibility,” Brown told the Daily News. “Schwarzenegger knows what he’s doing and his firefighters know how to establish a unified command structure. … It’s an entirely different kind of disaster from Katrina.”
Report by David Wilkening
