Wildfire victims grapple with the devastation

Orange County officials today said 113 homes were burned in Yorba Linda by the Freeway Complex fire.

"You can look and see how it burned, there are four or five houses in a row that were destroyed and the house next to them is untouched," Calfire spokesman Justin Scribner said. "That's the problem with wind-driven fire, it's unpredictable."

On one street in Yorba Linda today, the ruins of five neighboring homes lined the street. The only thing left standing were the brick pillars of chimmneys -- like bookends for a pile of rubble.

Leo Caudill was helping his father sift through the rubble of the home he's lived in for 21 years. The home was sparred complete devastation -- the garage was still standing, but the rest of the home was a charred shell.

The roof of the home was gone, and a clear, blue sky lingered above the remains.

"We're just trying to dig out some pictures and a few other things," Caudill said.

The toll came after officials surveyed the fire zone and found far more homes had burned around Aviemore Street and Yorba Linda Boulevard than an initial tally had indicated.

As firefighters continued battling the Freeway Complex fire and two other devastating blazes in Southern California, displaced residents began visiting a Sylmar mobile home park to retrieve their belongings and survey the damage.

Calmer winds and cooler temperatures helped the wildfires this morning. Two of the blazes -- the Sayre fire near Sylmar and the Freeway Complex fire -- are now 40% contained, authorities said. The Tea fire that started in Montecito is 90% contained.

"We don't want to drop our guard. It's all dictated by the wind," said Battalion Chief Ronnie Villanueva of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Some residents of the Oakridge Mobile Home Park, which was nearly flattened by fire, were allowed to return to their homes temporarily this morning to gather belongings and to view the damage.

Officials took four vans carrying about eight to 10 residents each back into the devastated mobile home park. Each resident carried a red plastic bag to fill with possessions -- mostly clothes, documents, IDs and medications.

One man in his 20s was choked up as he emerged with a bag from his house on Coyote Street, having borrowed a police flashlight to search inside for his belongings because the power was off.

"It's amazing," he said of his house. "It's a miracle."