Firefighters have upper hand on wildfires as residents return to homes -- or rubble
Chino Hills evacuation order is set to be lifted at 10 a.m. Officials are keeping tabs on the weather, but the Tea fire is 95% contained; Sayre fire, 70%; and Freeway Complex fire, 60%.
Winds remained calm today and the air started to clear, allowing firefighters to make more headway against wildfires that have burned through Southern California.
Residents who fled the flames steeled themselves for the worst as authorities prepared to escort more people back into the Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Sylmar -- the "Beverly Hills of mobile home parks" -- now a devastated neighborhood that looks more like a war zone than a country club.
The Orange County Fire Authority planned to lift final evacuation orders at 10 a.m. today for the Chino Hills area, where the Freeway Complex fire charred 28,889 acres in Corona, Chino, Yorba Linda, Brea and Anaheim.
"The firefight is over," said Marlene Heisey, an information officer with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Still, firefighters are keeping a watchful eye on wind and weather.
"We have a good handle on things," said Kris Concepcion of the Orange County Fire Authority. "We are now just making sure that everything in that fire area is cold."
Firefighters achieved 95% containment of the 1,940-acre Tea fire, which started in Montecito on Thursday evening and damaged or destroyed 219 residences. The 11,213-acre Sayre fire was 70% contained, and the Freeway Complex fire was 75% contained. In all, 842 homes have been destroyed in the last several days, and more than 100 more damaged. The cause of the fires remains unknown.
"This has been a terrible, trying time for the families," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. "We've all seen the images on TV, but no one knows that better than the people who have lost their homes. No words can describe the size of this devastation. The truth is, we haven't seen a fire of this magnitude in decades."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger requested a federal emergency declaration for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Santa Barbara counties to help offset the costs of the fires.
The flames and wind did not discriminate. Unhealthful air, ash and a smoky haze hung over parts of Southern California that the flames did not directly touch.
In Yorba Linda, several of the homes lost were sprawling and expensive. In Sylmar, the mobile homes belonged to retired bus drivers, schoolteachers and people of more modest means.
In some cases, residents knew they had tempted fate by living in the path of Southern California's dangerous Santa Ana winds.
