Californians endure 7 days of wildfires

All the chatter on the radio was about San Diego. But Zeulner and his crew had their own firefight to deal with — for 4 ½ hours Tuesday afternoon near Piru, after a blowing ember landed in steep vegetation.

They had spent much of their time doing structure protection: clearing away brush and moving wood piles stacked next to wood-sided homes, work homeowners themselves should have done in this drought-stricken state. The Ranch Fire, 1,000 acres when Zeulner first got the assignment, had grown to almost 40,000.

But he was proud that his crew had yet to lose a home.

In San Diego, Crane couldn’t say the same. Tuesday, watching the news with his son at a friend’s house where they’d taken refuge, he saw a reporter walking up and down Lancashire Way. Flames still burned from the remnants of some houses.

“Twenty-five homes, on this one block ... have burned to the ground,” the reporter was saying.

And, then, he started reading off house numbers.

For a moment, Crane and his son thought they didn’t hear 18626. Then: “635 ... 629 ... 626 ...” the reporter said.

Crane and his boy, whose own family lived a mile away but whose house survived, looked at each other.

“Now we know,” Crane said.

‘I hope God is good to you’
Over the next two days, such heartbreaking discoveries happened again and again across the region. At a blaze farther north in Santa Clarita, Don Benson found his house and prized 1957 Thunderbird in ruins. A neighbor drove by, sending a wish for better days: “I hope God is good to you.” “I believe in him,” Benson called back, “but sometimes it wears thin.”

Zeulner, whose team late Wednesday was dispatched to San Diego to pitch in, escorted an elderly couple to their lost home in Escondido the next day. “We’re sorry for your loss,” he told them. “We’re here to help.” What else could he say?

Even as President Bush arrived on Thursday, offering words of comfort, there was more devastating news: A 58-year-old mortgage broker and his 55-year-old wife, a teacher, were found in the rubble of an Escondido home. Another 52-year-old man died after refusing to leave his house during evacuations. The charred remains of four others, believed to be illegal immigrants, were found in the woods near the border. Authorities were investigating whether the deaths were due to the fires.

MORE FROM CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES

California Wildfires Section Front

Charges mulled for fire-starting boy Calif. fires added to warming emissions Newsweek: Inside the minds of fire starters Newsweek: Calif. insurance firms twice burned HD views from California wildfires California wildfires: Your stories Newsweek: Katrina comparison avoided California Wildfires Section Front   Add California Wildfires headlines to your news reader: