Firefighters all but concede defeat to raging California wildfires

SAN DIEGO -- Faced with unrelenting winds whipping wildfires into a frenzy across Southern California, firefighters conceded defeat on many fronts Tuesday to an unstoppable force that has chased more than 500,000 people away.

Unless the shrieking Santa Ana winds subside, and that's not expected for at least another day, fire crews say they can do little more than try to wait it out and react -- tamping out spot fires and chasing ribbons of airborne embers to keep new fires from flaring.

"If it's this big and blowing with as much wind as it's got, it'll go all the way to the ocean before it stops," said San Diego Fire Capt. Kirk Humphries. "We can save some stuff, but we can't stop it."

Tentacles of unpredictable, shifting flame have burned across nearly 600 square miles, killing one person, destroying more than 1,800 homes and prompting the biggest evacuation in California history, from north of Los Angeles through San Diego to the Mexican border.

A trip that usually takes three hours took six for Kathryn Puttroff when she evacuated San Diego Monday. Puttroff, a 1993 Central High School graduate, fled to Yucca Valley to stay with friends after smoke made it difficult to breathe and fires came dangerously close to the home she is leasing.

She and her husband loaded as much as possible into their truck and headed out of the city with their 2-year-old son, Cole, and two dogs.

"In order to get where they were going, they first had to go south, then east, then north.

They could not go straight because there was fire in the way," said Puttroff's father, Charles, of Cape Girardeau.

The Puttroffs found out Tuesday that their home is still intact, albeit smoke damaged. They plan on returning to San Diego today, according to Balsamo.

Balsamo said his daughter has lived in California for three years but this is the first time she has felt threatened enough by a fire to evacuate.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the flames were threatening 68,000 more homes.

"We have had an unfortunate situation that we've had three things come together: very dry areas, very hot weather and then a lot of wind," Schwarzenegger said. "And so this makes the perfect storm for a fire."

More than a dozen wildfires blowing across Southern California since Sunday have also injured more than 45 people, including 21 firefighters. The U.S. Forest Service earlier reported a fire death in Los Angeles County's Santa Clarita area, but officials said Tuesday that information was erroneous.

In San Diego County, authorities placed evacuation calls to 346,000 homes, said Luis Monteagudo, a spokesman for the county's emergency effort. The county estimates, based on census tracts, that about 560,000 people were ordered to leave.

"It's basically a mass migration here in San Diego County. The numbers we're seeing are staggering," Monteagudo said.

By Tuesday evening, some 50,000 people in San Diego were being allowed to return homes near the ocean as well as portions of the city of Poway, said Ron Roberts, chairman of the San Diego Board of Supervisors. No homes were lost in these neighborhoods.

The sweeping devastation was reminiscent of blazes that tore through Southern California four years ago, killing 22 and destroying 3,640 homes.

The ferocity of the Santa Ana winds in 2003 forced crews to discard their traditional strategy and focus on keeping up with the fire and putting out spot blazes that threatened homes.

The usual tactic is to surround a fire on two sides and try to choke it off. But with fires whipped by gusts that have surpassed 100 mph, that strategy doesn't work because embers can be swept miles ahead of the fire's front line. In those cases, crews must keep 10 to 30 feet back from the flames or risk their own lives, Los Angeles County firefighter Daryl Parish said.

Added Rocklin Fire Department Capt. Martin Holm: "We do what we can. A life's a lot more important than a house."

Staff writer Lindy Bavolek contributed to this report.