CARLSBAD, Calif. (AP) — Flames engulfed suburban homes and
shot up along canyon ridges in one of the worst of several blazes that
broke out Wednesday in Southern California during a second day of a
sweltering heat wave, taxing fire crews who fear the scattered fires
mark only the beginning of a long wildfire season.
Thick black
smoke darkened blue skies over the Pacific coast city of Carlsbad, about
30 miles north of San Diego, known for its Legoland California
amusement park. The park was closed Wednesday because of a power outage
caused by the fire.
At least two firefighters suffered minor injuries — one heat-related and one from smoke inhalation —
since Tuesday.
Thousands
were asked to evacuate their homes in Carlsbad after the blaze erupted
at about 10:34 a.m. Wednesday and spread through rapidly heavy brush
before jumping into residential areas.
Despite a state fire report
of 30 homes burned earlier in the day, Carlsbad Fire Chief Michael
Davis said he knows of just three homes destroyed and about a dozen
damaged, all of them in the same neighborhood.
The wind-driven
wildfire tossed embers onto roofs and trees, igniting them. Firefighters
found themselves evacuating people and battling the blaze at the same
time, Nick Schuler of Cal Fire said.
He said the fire’s forward
spread had been stopped, but hotspots remain. More than 50 engines are
coming in from around the state to help in San Diego County.
"There’s days of work to be done" before the fire is doused, Davis said, adding that "this
fire’s fingered in all locations."
A
steady stream of residents stopped at a roadblock on a four-lane
thoroughfare as they tried to return home to collect valuables.
Richard
Sanchez watched nervously as a plume of black smoke rose near his home.
He had left his house an hour earlier in sandals to run an errand.
"All I want to do is get there and evacuate," said Sanchez. "We have a plan, but I can’t
execute it."
As
authorities yelled "Please evacuate!" in Joe Post’s Carlsbad
neighborhood, he grabbed a garden hose and doused a palm tree in flames
between his home and his neighbor’s. He debated about leaving his home
but was worried what he might find upon returning.
"Work water work!" he shouted, spraying down charred landscaping near his home.
Three
elementary schools were evacuated and expected to remain closed for the
week. The students were among thousands in the area of north San Diego
County who were told to evacuate because of various wildfires.
Another
wildfire further north forced the evacuation of residents in military
housing at Camp Pendleton, and the closure of an elementary school on
the Marine Corps base. A third fire spread from a burning vehicle on
coastal Interstate 5 to roadside brush near the northwest corner of the
Marine base.
Authorities reported 50 percent containment of a
2.42-square-mile fire that broke out Tuesday and forced thousands of
people to flee the Rancho Bernardo area of San Diego. In Santa Barbara
County, a 600-acre blaze near Lompoc was 50 percent contained.
State
fire officials say triple digit temperatures and the drought were
setting conditions for an unusually busy firefighting season.
Evacuation
orders were lifted for all of the more than 20,000 residents in and
around San Diego on Tuesday night just a few hours after they were
called, and all but a handful of those in 1,200 homes and businesses
told to evacuate in Santa Barbara County had been allowed to return.
The
Santa Barbara County blaze, 250 miles to the northwest, was 50 percent
contained Wednesday. Firefighters also adjusted its size downward to 600
acres.
In the mountains of southwestern New Mexico, crews
battling a 9-square mile wildfire are preparing for high winds this
week. And in the Texas Panhandle, about 2,100 residents have started
returning to their homes after wildfire burned at least 156 structures.
The fire in the Fritch area was 85 percent contained Wednesday.