Governor visits fire-ravaged Lake Arrowhead
As twin blazes continued raging through the Lake Arrowhead region, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited one of its fire-ravaged neighborhoods today to view the damage.
About 11:30 a.m., the governor toured the 700 block of Brentwood Drive on the eastern edge of the Grass Valley Lake fire, which has burned 1,000 acres and destroyed 113 homes and businesses but which fire officials say is 30% contained.
Flanked by fire officials who apprised him of the situation, he peered at charred trees and walked quietly past homes that were obliterated, save for free-standing brick chimneys.
At a news conference soon after, Schwarzenegger said he had spoken to President Bush and alerted him to the possible need for federal aid in the damaged areas. He urged residents to evacuate neighborhoods that were threatened.
"It's really sad and heartbreaking," the governor said of the destruction around Lake Arrowhead. "People have worked hard and saved all of their money for years, and in one hour to the next, their homes are destroyed." To all Californians affected by the fires, he said, "you should know that you are not alone."
Meanwhile, about 10 miles east, firefighters have had no success containing the Slide fire, which continues to burn out of control for a second day in the Green Valley Lake area and has so far claimed 4,000 acres.
By early afternoon, it had destroyed at least 30 homes around Green Valley Lake and another 100 structures a few miles south in the Running Springs area, said Dan Wurl, deputy chief of the San Bernardino County Fire Department.
