SAN DIEGO — An easing of the winds fueling Southern California's wildfires finally gave firefighters a chance to fight back against some blazes Wednesday, and weary residents could take solace in only one confirmed death from the flames.
That contrasts to 22 dead from a fire of similar magnitude in 2003.
So far, this week's fires have destroyed about 1,500 homes and burned 682 square miles across five counties, from Ventura in the north all the way into Mexico. An earlier report stating that more than 1,800 houses were destroyed was incorrect.
The state Office of Emergency Services said 28,000 homes were still threatened.
Property damage has reached at least $1 billion in San Diego County, and President Bush signed a major disaster declaration for Califor-nia, making grants and low-cost loans available to people and businesses that have sustained losses. The president is to visit the region today.
The causes of many of the fires remained under investigation. A 30-square-mile Orange County fire that destroyed nine homes was believed to be arson because authorities found three different ignition points within a short distance.
In San Bernardino County, a motorcyclist who authorities say set a small fire in a rural foothill area of the San Bernardino Mountains has been booked for investigation of arson, but investigators said they didn't know whether he was connected to any of the larger fires.
In the city of San Bernardino, police said they shot and killed a man who fled Tuesday night when officers approached to see if he might be trying to set a fire. After a chase, the man, whose name was not released, backed his car into a police cruiser and an officer opened fire, police said.
On Wednesday, winds dropped to 21-36 mph, considerably less than the gusts of up to 100 mph that whipped fire zones earlier in the week.
The improving weather allowed for a greater aerial assault on the flames and helped firefighters beat back the most destructive blazes. Helicopters and air tankers dropped 30 to 35 loads of water on two fires that have burned hundreds of houses in the San Bernardino Mountains, near Lake Arrowhead.
"They're taking it down considerably," said Dennis Bouslaugh of the U.S. Forest Service.
Firefighters had fully contained the three major fires in Los Angeles County by nightfall.
Despite the progress, none of the six major blazes in San Diego County were more than 15 percent contained, and those fires threatened more than 8,500 houses. The top priority was a fire in San Bernardino County that threatened 6,000 houses and continued to rage out of control.
A new group of federal firefighters is expected to be deployed by the weekend.
Federal emergency officials said they were scrambling Wednesday to dispatch 125 teams of federal firefighters after state officials reversed course late Tuesday and said they could use the help, said officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Glenn Cannon, the agency's assistant administrator overseeing disaster operations, said that California officials had made clear as recently as 6 p.m. Tuesday that they did not need support personnel from the federal government, as they had firefighters from within the state and from other states.
The change in strategy meant that as many as 1,900 U.S. Forest Service firefighters would not all be in place until this weekend, Cannon said.
But Jay Alan, a spokesman for the governor's office, said, "There is no indication that we didn't want any help and then later did."
"When we determined we wanted and needed help, that is when the call went out," Alan said.
While the final death toll has yet to be tallied from this week's fires, officials were crediting an automated, reverse-911 calling system that prompted the orderly evacuation of more than half a million people - 10 times the number evacuated four years ago.
"They are more determined that people leave," said Steve Levstik, who got his call 15 minutes before flames swept through his Rancho Bernardo neighborhood.
"It was very intense. On the call, it was like, 'This area, go! This area, go!' In 2003 there was less guidance. It was like, 'Just pay attention to the news, and if it looks bad, leave."'
The death toll from the most recent blazes may rise as fires continue to burn and authorities return to neighborhoods where houses have been turned to piles of ash, but displaced homeowners and authorities were relieved that early reports were so low.
The San Diego County medical examiner officially listed six deaths connected to the blazes, but he included five who died during the evacuation who were not directly killed by the fire. In 2003, all but a handful of the 22 dead succumbed to the flames.
Terry Dooley, who was ordered out of his home with his wife and three sons Monday, said authorities learned important lessons from Hurricane Katrina and the 2003 Californiafires that wiped out 3,640 houses and blackened 750,000 acres during a two-week period.
"They learned how to get things done more quickly," Dooley said as he waited at a roadblock Wednesday to return home to San Diego's upscale, densely populated Rancho Bernardo area.
In addition to the reverse-911 system, authorities shut down schools, halted mail delivery and urged people to stay home and off the roads if they were not indanger.
Additionally, the hardest-hit areas in California were filled with upscale houses, with easy access to wide streets. Less wealthy areas - including rural enclaves and horse farms that stretch through the mountains east of San Diego - benefited from easy road access and small crowds.
On Wednesday, about two dozen people gathered at a police barricade in Rancho Bernardo, which was one of thehardest-hit areas, hoping to retrieve medications and belongings - or simply to see if their houses were intact.
What awaited many was an apocalyptic scene: entire neighborhoods leveled, cars reduced to charred hulks of metal, homes with only chimneys left standing. House after house, 29 on one street alone, were reduced to piles of blackened concrete, twisted metal and white ash.
At one point, police officers lifted a barricade into the neighborhood only to turn residents away several hundred yards down the road at a second barricade. Some of the homeowners cursed at the officers.
"You let us in just to send us back out," one man yelled from his car.
Dooley knew his house was OK because his home-answering machine still worked.
Six of San Diego County's 42 evacuation centers were full Wednesday, but there was plenty of space at Qualcomm Stadium, home to the NFL Chargers, where 10,000 people sought refuge. People rested on cots that lined covered walkways circling the bleachers and quietly watched television as National Guard troops stood nearby. There were no bathroom lines.
Some displaced homeowners complained that the evacuations went too far.
Ron Morris, 68, saw smoke but no flames when he was ordered to leave a motor home park in Ramona, northeast of San Diego, Sunday night. He drove his recreational vehicle to Qualcomm Stadium's parking lot.
"It's good that everyone got out, but they did it too early in my opinion," he said.
Authorities made no apologies.
"One happy consequence"of the 2003 fires is that people remember that fire can be very unpredictable, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said.
The only confirmed death from the flames was Thomas Varshock, 52, of Tecate, a town on the U.S. side of the border southeast of San Diego. He was ordered to evacuate, but he didn't leave and authorities left him as they went to take care of other evacuations.
Al Guerin, a San Diego County assistant sheriff, estimated that only 100 to 200 people ignored evacuation orders. That included 20 people in the rural community of Jamul, near the Mexican border. Firefighters returned to save them.
Homeowners who stayed behind knew that firefighters were overwhelmed and figured their lives were safe, Guerin said.
"They say, 'Yeah, OK,' and then they call you later and say, 'Help! Help! Help!'" he said.
Meanwhile, two wildfires have destroyed more than 60 houses in northern Mexico, across the border from the blazes in California, Mexican officials said Wednesday.
The blazes, no longer burning Wednesday, started independently of the San Diego County fires but were fueled by the same winds, said Commander Gabriel Gomez Ruiz, director of civil protection for the state of Baja California.
Information for this article was contributed by Elliot Spagat, Gillian Flaccus, Allison Hoffman, Scott Lindlaw, Martha Mendoza and Jeremiah Marquez of The Associated Press and Jennifer Steinhauer, John Holusha, Ana Facio Contreras, Kirk Johnson, Marc Lacey, Jesse McKinley, Regan Morris, Will Carless, Dan Frosch and Eric Lipton of The New York Times.
Front Section, Pages 1, 8 on 10/25/2007