SAN DIEGO — More than a quarter-million people fled their homes Monday as wildfires continued to rage across Southern California, burning scores of buildings, clogging highways and sending smoke and ash over a wide area.
At least one person was killed and dozens were injured. At least 655 homes burned -about 130 in one mountain area alone - and 168 businesses and other structures were destroyed. Thousands of other buildings were threatened by more than a dozen blazes covering at least 520 square miles.
"The sky was just red. Everywhere I looked was red, glowing. Law enforcement came barreling in with police cars with loudspeakers telling everyone to get out now," said Ronnie Leigh,55, who fled her home at a mobile home park as smoke darkened the sky over the nearby ridgeline.
Soon after nightfall, fire officials announced that 500 homes and 100 commercial properties had been destroyed by a fire in northern San Diego County that exploded to 145,000 acres, said Roxanne Provaznik, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry. The fire injured seven firefighters and one civilian, and was spreading unchecked.
At least 14 fires were burning in Southern California, said Patti Roberts, a spokesman for the Governor's Office of Emergency Services.
Firefighters lost valuable time trying to persuade homeowners to leave and were almost completely overwhelmed as gale-force winds gusting to 70 mph scattered embers on the dry brush. California officials pleaded for help from fire departments in other states.
A pair of fires consumed 133 homes in the mountain resort area of Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino National Forest east of Los Angeles.
More than 265,000 people from Malibu to San Diego were warned to leave their homes. More than 250,000 were told to flee in San Diego County alone, where hundreds of patients were moved by school bus and ambulance from a hospital and nursing homes.
"A lot of people are going to lose their homes today," San Diego Fire Capt. Lisa Blake said.
A 1,049-inmate jail in Orange County was evacuated because of heavy smoke. The prisoners were taken by bus to other lockups.
San Diego officials said they made more than 200,000 "reverse 911" calls to tell people to evacuate and said the damage could be worse than the destruction caused four years ago by similar fires, which cost $1.1 billion and damaged 4,847 structures.
At San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium, home to the NFL's Chargers, thousands of people huddled on the bleachers, staring at muted TV news reports of the wildfires. A lone concession stand served coffee and doughnuts. Many evacuees gathered in the parking lot with their pets, which were banned from the stadium.
The sprawling Del Mar Fairgrounds on the coast was also turned into an evacuation center, along with high schools and senior centers.
STUBBORN HOMEOWNERS
At least one of the fires, in Orange County, was believed to have been set. And a blaze threatening the homes of the rich and famous in Malibu might have been caused by downed power lines, authorities said.
Another blaze was started by a car fire.
Mel Gibson, Kelsey Grammer and Victoria Principal were among the celebrities forced to abandon their homes over the weekend, their publicists said.
Things got worse Monday, when several new fires appeared and other fires merged. Parts ofseven Southern California counties were ablaze.
By nightfall, embers had ignited spot fires in ultrawealthy suburb Rancho Santa Fe, north of San Diego. The fires burned in lemon orchards, their smoke choking the air around gated mansions.
All San Diego police officers and detectives were ordered to return to work to help move people to safety and handle other fire-related emergencies.
Firefighters complained that their efforts to stop the flames were delayed when they were confronted by people who refused to leave their homes.
"They didn't evacuate at all, or delayed until it was too late," said Chief Bill Metcalf, San Diego County area fire coordinator. "And those folks who are making those decisions are actually stripping fire resources."
As flames, thick smoke and choking ash filled the air around San Diego County's Lake Hodges, Stan Smith ignored orders to evacuate and stayed behind to help rescue his neighbor Ken Morris' horses.
"It's hard to leave all your belongings and take off, and the bad thing is you can't get back in once you leave," Smith said.
Black smoke blanketed much of northern San Diego and nearby suburbs as flames hopscotched around homes in Rancho Bernardo, a community with a large number of elderly people, destroying one of every 10 homes on one busy street.
Dozens of motorists gathered on an Interstate 15 overpass in San Diego to watch flames race up a hillside and engulf at least a half-dozen homes.
Witnesses said they watched flames jump west over the 10-lane freeway.
"The flames were like 100 feet high, and it moved up the hill in seconds. It was at the bottom, it was in the middle, and then it was at the top," said Steve Jarrett, who helped a friend evacuate his home in nearby Escondido.
Fire near the San Diego Wild Animal Park led authorities to move condors, a cheetah, snakes and other animals to the fire-resistant veterinary hospital on the grounds of the park.
The world-famous San Diego Zoo was not immediately threatened.
STATE OF EMERGENCY
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in the affected counties, opening the way for government aid.
He also made 1,500 California National Guardsmen available, and San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said the troops' main focus would be to prevent looting and help with evacuations.
"It's a tragic time for California," the governor said in Malibu, where a church, homes and a mansion resembling a medieval castle were destroyed over the weekend.
In Fallbrook, northeast of San Diego, a quick-moving fire forced thousands to flee. Marine officials at neighboring Camp Pendleton opened the base to residents.
In Malibu, all roads to the 8,300-student Pepperdine University were closed, and students had been asked not to leave the campus, according to the university's Web site.
Elizabeth Smith, assistant director of journalism at the university and a graduate of Harding University in Searcy, Ark., said students had calmed down since the wildfires on Sunday forced them to leave their dorm rooms and gather in the cafeteria and the basketball arena. Later that afternoon, the blaze shifted away from the campus.
Smith, who serves as an adviser to the student newspaper, Graphic, fielded several calls from panicky students Sunday as they tried to cover the fires. A day later, her students were "a lotmore confident that the university was going to be spared."
Smith also said the Malibu community is no stranger to natural disaster. After a dry summer, "we knew there was going to be a fire. We just didn't know it was going to be this bad."
One person died in one of the fires near San Diego. More than a dozen people were hospitalized with burns and smoke inhalation, including four firefighters, three of whom were listed in critical condition, officials said.
Among the evacuees were members of a National Guard unit that had to flee its barracks, officials said.
Flames forced the evacuation of the San Diego community of Ramona, which has a population of about 36,000.
Christine Baird, 42, was ordered to evacuate her apartment in the Rancho Bernardo area at 5:30 a.m. She moved to California from Canada earlier this year.
"Instead of snow we had ash all over the car," she said.
"This is all new for me. We've got no family in the area, so there's really nowhere else to go."
Information for this article was contributed by Allison Hoffman, Gillian Flaccus, Chelsea J. Carter, Jeremiah Marquez, Jacob Adelman, Elliot Spagat and Martha Mendoza of The Associated Press; by Tony Perry, Michael Muskal, Richard Marosi and David McKibben of the Los Angeles Times; by Nancy Kercheval and Peter J. Brennan of Bloomberg News; and by Yavonda Chase of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Front Section, Pages 1, 8 on 10/23/2007