California fires damage billion dollars

FE Team | Published: October 26, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

LOS ANGELES, Oct 25 (AFP): Fires raging across California have caused more than one billion dollars in property damage and left three people dead, officials said Wednesday, as a lull in winds allowed firefighters to make their first significant progress in combating the flames.
Around 1,700 buildings have been destroyed in the 18 fires that have erupted since Sunday, forcing an estimated 500,000 people to flee their homes and scorching 172,000 hectares (426,000 acres) of tinder-dry countryside stretching from celebrity-studded Malibu to beyond the Mexican border.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said three people had died and 40 people had been injured in the fires, the worst to hit California since devastating 2003 blazes which claimed 22 lives.
The fast-spreading infernos have been fueled by powerful desert winds gusting across the region, making conditions hazardous for thousands of exhausted firefighters who have tackled the flames relentlessly.
So far 1,664 structures, including 1,436 homes, have been destroyed while a further 25,000 buildings remained threatened, Schwarzenegger added.
A respite from the winds forecast to continue through the remainder of the week enabled firefighters on Wednesday to make great strides in containing three of the five biggest blazes.
"The wind stopped blowing and that made our lives a lot easier," said a Los Angeles County Fire Department official tackling the Buckweed fire, which charred 15,000 hectares before being 100 percent contained late Wednesday.
But the two biggest California fires, covering around 108,000 hectares of San Diego County, were both only 10 percent contained.
President George W. Bush formally declared the region a disaster zone, paving the way for federal funds to boost the relief effort.
"Today I've signed a major disaster declaration which will then enable federal funds to start heading towards the families who have been affected by these fires," said Bush, who is to tour California on Thursday.
Some 8,900 firefighters-including 2,600 prison inmates trained to tackle fires-are battling the flames supported by 90 firefighting aircraft, including a DC-10, 25 air tankers and 40 helicopters.
Schwarzenegger, who described the destruction as "terrible and tragic," paid tribute to the weary firefighters.
"They are really extraordinary, they are working 24 hours a day, around-the-clock. In fact many of them have been working 36 or 48 hours without stopping," Schwarzenegger said.