Firefighters start beating back California blazes

SAN DIEGO, California, Saturday (AFP) - Firefighters were making progress against California's rampant wildfires yesterday but around 22,000 homes remained threatened by the blazes which have killed seven people. Cooler temperatures and calmer winds allowed firefighters to staunch or contain most of the 23 fires that have erupted since Sunday, triggering the evacuation of more than 500,000 people, the biggest in California's history.

Some 1,800 properties have been gutted by the blazes and officials have tallied over one billion dollars in damage. Nine fires remained active Friday but officials said they were on course to break the back of the blazes, which have so far scorched more than 200,000 hectares (nearly 500,000 acres) of tinder-dry land.

California's Office of Emergency Services said firefighters were buoyed by the weather conditions but remained vigilant. Figures released by the office yesterday showed that some 22,000 properties were still in danger from the blazes.“The weather has enabled the fire personnel to make great progress but there is still a long way to go,” spokeswoman Rochelle Jenkins said.

“The weather is helping but we have to plan for the worst and hope for the best, and that is how we will be proceeding in the days ahead.”The National Weather Service has warned the weather could again pose problems for crews on Sunday, with less humidity and winds increasing to 25-40 kilometres (15-25 miles) per hour in canyons and passes.

The fires are the worst to hit the state since 2003, when 22 people were killed and more than 3,000 homes lost in a series of blazes. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday that the focus had shifted from crisis management to the rebuilding effort.

“This first week was like a sprint, but the next phase is like a marathon,”he said in Sacramento. “Follow-through is extremely important and the top priority must be to rebuild people's lives, and to get them back on their feet as quickly as possible. “Hundreds of thousands of Californians had their lives turned upside down ... It will not be easy. We have many, many tough tasks ahead of us.”With diminished winds, an aerial armada of helicopters and tanker planes was able to fly non-stop, dropping water and fire retardants on blazes across the region on Thursday, part of a wider effort involving 10,700 firefighters.

So far seven deaths have been directly related to the fire crisis, according to the Office of Emergency Services. Border Patrol agents discovered the charred bodies of three men and a woman in a rugged region near the Mexican border. Officials said late Thursday the four may have been illegal immigrants trying to cross the border.

Other victims include a couple who ignored requests from neighbors to evacuate their home in the San Diego suburb of Poway, one of the worst-hit areas across the state. San Diego County officials said the damage to property was more than a billion dollars although insurance industry analysts have said it may go as high as 1.6 billion.

San Diego has emerged as the ground zero of the crisis, where the bulk of hundreds of thousands of evacuations have taken place. With evacuees heading home, major relief centers, including San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium, began to close Friday. The causes of the different fires vary, from a fallen power line to suspected arson.

In Orange County, a 285,000-dollar reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of an arsonist responsible for starting a fire which has destroyed 14 homes and 11,000 hectares (27,000 acres). According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, five people have been arrested and linked with various fires across the state.