CA Officials Say Sen Hairless Reid is a Fool, an Arsonist Set the Fires

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,304623,00.html

Officials: Major California Wildfire Declared Arson

Thursday, October 25, 2007

SAN DIEGO - A major wildfire that has scorched thousands of acres and

destroyed hundreds of homes in Southern California has been declared an

arson, according to Orange County law enforcement and FBI officials on

Wednesday.

Officials said that there is a $70,000 reward for information leading to an

arrest for those responsible for the Santiago fire in the rugged eastern

part of the county.

Additionally, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a $50,000 reward for

information leading toward the arrest and conviction of the person or

persons responsible for setting the Santiago Fire.

The Orange County Sheriff's Department said that no search warrants have

been served, and there are no suspects in custody. The FBI has become

involved in the investigation because part of the fire was on federal land

in National Forest.

A thick plume of smoke rising skyward out of a flaming canyon in Orange

County Wednesday signaled the first hope of containment for firefighters

battling Southern California's ravaging wildfires.

The vertical movement of the smoke showed that the fierce Santa Ana winds

that had whipped seemingly small brush fires into a 426,000 acre inferno

were starting to ease, FOX News' Claudia Cowan reported Wednesday.

"We've had a good day so far," San Miguel Fire Chief Augie Chio told FOX

News. "Morale is very high out there," he said.

Meanwhile, Orange County officials executed a search warrant Wednesday as

part of a probe into whether one or more of the fires in that county were

the result of arson. Earlier Wednesday, the California Highway Patrol

arrested a motorcyclist who was caught setting a brush fire in San Bernadino

County, near Lake Arrowhead.

Jodi Miller, a spokesperson for San Bernardino County, told FOX News that

the small brush fire set by John Hund, 48, of Hesperia, was an isolated

incident and immediately extinguished by witnesses. He is not suspected of

starting wildfires burning large swaths of the county.

"It is not related whatsoever to the fires going on in our mountains,"

Miller said.

Sixteen fires burning for four days across seven counties stretching from

Malibu, north of Los Angeles, to the Mexican border, have killed five

people, destroyed 1,500 homes, consumed 426,000 acres - or about 665 square

miles - and forced almost one million people from their homes - the largest

evacuation in the state's history. More than 70,000 homes remained

threatened.

New evacuations were ordered Wednesday in San Diego County, the hardest hit

area, where officials said five separate fires have caused more than $1

billion in property damage. The largest of the San Diego County fires has

consumed 196,420 acres - about 300 square miles - from Witch Creek to Rancho

Santa Fe, destroying 650 homes.

"Clearly, this is going to be a $1 billion or more disaster," Ron Lane, San

Diego County's director of emergency services, told reporters during a news

conference.

Cool ocean breezes forecast to arrive Wednesday afternoon brought relief to

some areas, but in Lyons Valley threatened to blow the fire in new

directions. Firefighters there told FOX News' Geraldo Rivera they feared the

westward-blowing ocean winds would cause the fire to U-turn and hit homes

missed by the fires' original path.

President Bush declared the area a major disaster on Wednesday and ordered

federal aid to supplement the state and local recovery efforts in the area.

"Americans all across this land care deeply about them," the president said

after a Cabinet meeting convened to coordinate federal relief efforts.

"We're concerned about their safety. We're concerned about their property."

Some of the evacuees, whose homes were located closer to the coast, were

being allowed back into their neighborhoods. Interstate 5, which had been

closed between Los Angeles and San Diego, was reopened to southbound

traffic.

An unmanned NASA aircraft outfitted with high-tech imaging equipment took

off Wednesday from Edwards Air Force Base on Wednesday for a 10-hour flight

to help firefighters locate hot spots. Pilots at NASA Dryden Flight Research

Center were remotely controlling the aircraft, outfitted with a

thermal-infrared imaging system capable of seeing through thick smoke.

Crews also were anticipating additional firefighters and equipment from

other states, mostly throughout the West. Frustration over the firefighting

effort began to emerge Tuesday when a fire official said not enough had been

done to protect homes.

Orange County Fire Chief Chip Prather told reporters that firefighters'

lives were threatened because too few crews were on the ground. He said a

quick deployment of aircraft could have corralled a massive blaze near

Irvine.

"It is an absolute fact: Had we had more air resources, we would have been

able to control this fire," he said.

Twenty-one firefighters and at least 24 others have been injured. One person

was killed by the flames, and the San Diego medical examiner's officer

listed five other deaths as connected to the blazes.

The state's top firefighter said Prather misstated the availability of

firefighters and equipment. Eight of the state's nine water-dumping

helicopters were in Southern California by Sunday, when the first fires

began, along with 13 air tankers, said Ruben Grijalva, director of the

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Grijalva said the fires would have overwhelmed most efforts to fight them.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dismissed the criticism when questioned by an ABC

News reporter, and praised the rapid deployment of fire crews and equipment

across a region from north of Los Angeles to the Mexican border.

"Anyone that is complaining about the planes just wants to complain because

there's a bunch of nonsense," he said. "The fact is that we could have all

the planes in the world here - we have 90 aircraft here and six that we got

especially from the federal government - and they can't fly because of the

wind situation."

The fires have engulfed Southern California's oceanfront wealth belt, laying

waste to multi-million dollar homes. But at Qualcomm Stadium, where

thousands of evacuees have taken refuge, the Schlotte family of Ramona,

Calif., spoke to FOX News of a different reality.

The family did not own property, but were renters with no insurance to cover

their losses. Ben Schlotte, a house painter, lost his work truck and

equipment in the fire, and said that with so many homes destroyed in the

area, his painting business was essentially finished.

"All of our memories are gone," his wife, Billy, said.

Thousands of people have packed emergency shelters, where many had an

agonizing wait to find out whether their homes had survived.

"I'm ready to go, but at the same time, I don't want to go up there and be

surprised," said Mary Busch, 41, who did not know whether her home in Ramona

was still standing. She has lived at the evacuation center at Qualcomm

Stadium since Monday, sleeping in her SUV with her 11 and 8-year-old sons.

Others were eager to return to houses they were confident had survived.

"I called my home and my answering machine still works, so that's how I know

we're OK," said Rancho Bernardo resident Fuli Du, who packed his belongings

Wednesday preparing to leave Qualcomm.

He spent his 41st birthday Tuesday at the stadium, where he has been living

with his wife and two young sons.

Wednesday's evacutions ordered residents of the San Diego County communities

of Fallbrook and Julian, an area devastated by a 2003 wildfire, out of their

homes. Officials also were evacuating De Luz, an unincorporated community

east of Camp Pendleton that was being threatened by a wildfire on the Marine

base.

However, residents were allowed to return to some areas of San Diego County

including Carlsbad, Chula Vista, Del Mar, Encinitas and Solana Beach.

"There are some hot spots and issues there, but we wouldn't be letting

people go back if it weren't safe," county spokeswoman Lesley Kirk said.

The city of San Diego was assessing whether to allow people to return to

their homes in Rancho Bernardo, one of the hardest-hit areas, Mayor Jerry

Sanders said.

So far, the fires have inflicted the worst damage in San Diego County, where

five blazes continued to burn. Other hard-hit areas included San Bernardino

County, where hundreds of homes burned in the mountain resort communities

near Lake Arrowhead.