SAN DIEGO — The football stadium where thousands of displaced residents sought refuge from wildfires is closing as an evacuation center.
Once sheltering more than 10,000 people, Qualcomm Stadium was home to just 350 on Friday morning. It was to close later in the day.
Across San Diego County, the region hardest hit by the wildfires that began last weekend, thousands of evacuees have been trickling back to charred neighborhoods.
Thousands of people lost their homes, and several fires continued burning out of control Friday.
One had crested Palomar Mountain and was threatening the landmark Palomar Observatory.
Fred Daskoski, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said crews were clearing brush from around the observatory and lighting back burns to halt the fire's advance. The observatory, operated by the California Institute of Technology, was home to the world's largest telescope when it opened in 1908.
To the southeast, the Witch Fire, which already has destroyed more than 1,000 homes, was churning its way toward Julian. The town of 3,000, nestled in the rolling hills of a popular apple-growing region, was under mandatory evacuation.
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
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