Wildfires force nearly 250,000 from homes in southern California

Wildfires fanned by fierce desert winds consumed huge swaths of bone-dry Southern California on Monday, burning buildings and forcing evacuations of nearly 250,000 people in San Diego, including hundreds of patients who were moved from a hospital and nursing homes.

More than a dozen wildfires had engulfed the region, killing at least one person near the Mexican border, injuring dozens more and threatening scores of structures. Overwhelmed firefighters said they lacked the resources to save many houses.

"We have more houses burning than we have people and engine companies to fight them," San Diego Fire Captain Lisa Blake said. "A lot of people are going to lose their homes today."

The fires erupted over the weekend, feeding on drought-parched land from the high desert to the Pacific Ocean.

Guardsmen assigned to watch the Mexican border were forced to evacuate one of their barracks, and troops were aiding evacuations, said Col. David Baldwin, director of operations for the California National Guard.

"The border is still secure," Baldwin said.

Warm temperatures and strong winds created "dramatically worse" conditions overnight as flames shot 200 feet (60 meters) high, said Bill Metcalf, chief of the North County Fire Protection District.

In Orange County, a 1,049-inmate jail was being evacuated because of heavy smoke, sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said. Inmates were being bused to a nearby facility.

The hospital and neighboring nursing homes in Poway, a San Diego suburb, were evacuating patients in ambulances and school buses, sheriff's spokeswoman Susan Knauss said.

All San Diego Police Department officers and off-duty detectives were ordered to return to work to help with evacuations.

The fires have burned about 100,000 acres (40,469 hectares), or 156 square miles (404 sq. kilometers), in San Diego County, county Supervisor Ron Roberts said. Across the region, 40,000 acres (16188 hectares), or 62 square miles (160 sq. kilometers), had burned by Sunday.

In many cases, crews could not begin to fight the fires because they were too busy rescuing residents who refused to leave, fire officials said.

"They didn't evacuate at all, or delayed until it was too late," Metcalf said.

More than a dozen people were being treated at the UC San Diego Medical Center Regional Burn Center for burns and smoke inhalation, including four fighters — three in critical condition, officials said. Some of the injured were hikers, and others may be illegal immigrants.

One blaze devoured more than 5,000 acres (2,023 hectares) in northern San Diego County and forced the evacuation of the community of Ramona, which has a population of about 36,000. Several structures were burned on the edge of town and sheriff's deputies called residents to alert them the fire was approaching the city, San Diego sheriff's Lt. Phil Brust said.

The fire in Malibu had destroyed or damaged 16 structures, among them a church, homes and a historic castle, and was expected to burn for another two to three days, Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman said. "There will literally be thousands of homes that will be threatened" until the blaze is out, he said.

Qualcomm Stadium, home to the local National League Football team, was added to a growing list of evacuation centers.

The fires were being fueled by stronger than usual Santa Ana winds roaring out of the region's canyons, scientists said Monday. The powerful, dry winds typically blow between October and February and peak in December.

Typically, Santa Ana conditions last about a day, but the ones that flared up over the weekend were expected to last through Tuesday.

"For it to be this strong for so many days is unusual," said Stuart Seto, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard, California.

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Associated Press writers Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Chelsea J. Carter and Jeremiah Marquez in Los Angeles and AP Science Writer Alicia Chang in Los Angeles contributed to this report.