Wildfires fanned by fierce desert winds forced the evacuations of nearly 250,000 people Monday in San Diego County, including hundreds who were being moved by school bus and ambulance from a hospital and nursing homes. More than a dozen wildfires had engulfed Southern California, killing at least one person, injuring dozens more and threatening scores of structures.
"We have more houses burning than we have people and engine companies to fight them," San Diego Fire Captain Lisa Blake said. "A lot of people are going to lose their homes today."
About a dozen blazes erupted over the weekend, feeding on drought- parched land from the high desert to the Pacific Ocean. One person was killed and several injured in a fire near the Mexican border, and dozens of structures have burned across the region.
Warm temperatures and strong winds created "dramatically worse" conditions overnight as flames shot 200 feet high, said Bill Metcalf, chief of the North County Fire Protection District. Some of the worst damage was in Malibu, where a church, homes and a historic castle were destroyed.
In Orange County, a 1,049-inmate jail was being evacuated because of heavy smoke, sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said. Inmates were being bused to another facility in Irvine.
All San Diego Police Department officers and off duty detectives were ordered to return to work to help with evacuations.
The fires have burned about 100,000 acres in San Diego County, said county Supervisor Ron Roberts. Across the region, 40,000 acres—or 62 square miles—had burned by Sunday.
Source : Breitbart.com / Assoicated Press
