SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) -- Something was terribly wrong in the foothills of the parched, brown San Bernardino Mountains. The white smoke blowing down into the city below made that obvious.
Hours earlier, a man -- an arsonist, authorities say -- had thrown something from the window of a van, touching off a wildfire in the dry brush.
Fierce, hot wind propelled the embers down the hills into Pati Wecker's Del Rosa neighborhood, igniting palm fronds that blew through the air, dropping burning debris onto houses.
``Get out! Get out!'' neighbors screamed at Wecker, 69, as her house started to burn.
A few blocks away, fire officials were scrambling to keep up with the fire, which was hopscotching with 70 mph wind gusts through the neighborhood and the foothills, creating a 20-mile fire front.
``It's just exploded pretty much,'' Fire Battalion Chief Jess Campos shouted over screeching winds that whipped up dirt and ash, rocked cars and buffeted buildings.
It was Saturday afternoon, Oct. 25, and another major fire had begun in Southern California, becoming part of what Gov. Gray Davis would later call the worst fire disaster in state history.
Within a week, with 13 fires burning, the toll was enormous: whole neighborhoods reduced to ash and rubble; tens of thousands forced to flee; dozens injured and at least 20 people dead.
The ingredients were perfect for a firestorm: gusting Santa Ana winds, hot temperatures, low humidity, dead trees and dry vegetation.All it took was a spark. That came Oct. 21 when someone -- authorities still aren't certain whether it was arson or accident -- started a fire on the outskirts of Fontana, a fast-growing inland city in western San Bernardino County.
On Oct. 24, winds pushed the Grand Prix Fire, named after the street near where it started, west to neighboring suburban Rancho Cucamonga, forcing the evacuation of thousands from newly built subdivisions.
A day later a few miles to the east, as firefighters battled to save the Rancho Cucamonga homes, an arsonist set what came to be called the Old Fire in the San Bernardino foothills. It burned through several neighborhoods in the city below and threatened the mountain communities above.
At the same time, winds drove a wildfire already burning in the Los Angeles County wilderness into populated Simi Valley, destroying 28 suburban homes and threatening the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
To the south in San Diego County, another disaster was unfolding after a lost hunter allegedly started a signal fire in the Cleveland National Forest between the mountain towns of Julian and Ramona, sparking the Cedar Fire -- one of three fires in the area.
Winds made the fires fast and unpredictable. In San Bernardino, the fire burned one house, jumped three and burned another. In the mountain communities above, winds created a ``three-headed monster'' with flanks burning in three directions _ Crestline, Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear.Within a day, its western flank joined with the neighboring Grand Prix Fire, creating a 40-mile undulating wall of flame that destroyed 50 homes when it spread west into the Los Angeles County community of Claremont.
In San Diego County, the Cedar Fire formed a 45-mile front stretching from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar to the historic gold mining mountain town of Julian, putting firefighters on the defensive as winds forced the fire to constantly shift directions. The nearby Paradise Fire was eating through rural communities at a furious pace. By midweek, the two fires were threatening to merge, which would have created another superfire.
``There's fire on so many fronts, it's not even manageable at this point,'' Chris Cade, a fire prevention technician with the U.S. Forest Service, said Wednesday. ``I am at a loss what you can do about it.''
Three days earlier, the Cedar Fire arrived without warning at Lisza Pontes' Lakeside home. Pontes, her husband and daughter awoke to the roar of flames before dawn Sunday. They knew they had to leave -- and fast.
Pontes, 43, grabbed wet towels to protect herself and her family from the flames outside as they ran for their car.
``It was blazing over our heads and burning everywhere,'' she said.
As they sped off, a neighbor's trailer home exploded.
While Pontes escaped, others did not. Some died trying to outrun the fires and others collapsed as they tried to evacuate or watched their homes burn.
Horse rancher Nancy Morphew, 51, was found dead in the road, her burned-out truck sitting at the bottom of a steep ditch in the northern San Diego County region of Valley Center.
``I think she got disoriented and the smoke was probably real bad,'' said neighbor Charlene Pierce. ``It looks like she just drove into the canyon.''
Morphew, who died in the Paradise Fire that started the morning of Oct. 26, apparently was overcome by flames after climbing her way out of the ditch, according to the county Medical Examiner's Office. An empty horse trailer was spilled about 25 yards behind her truck. Neighbors believe she tried to escape before loading her horses.
Firefighters raced to stay ahead of the fires on the ground, laying hoses only to have to pick them up to stay ahead of wind-driven flames.The winds also hampered the air war.
Pilot Peter Ball was dropping fire retardant to stop the advance of the Old Fire when the winds caused a vortex, sucking dirt and garbage into the air.
Windshields on six tankers were cracked by debris, and cockpits filled with smoke. One pilot whose windshield didn't break saw a 4- by 8-foot sheet of plywood sail past at 1,500 feet.
In the Cedar Fire, flames sent hot air into the atmosphere, while cooler air alongside the flames pushed down, creating a wind shear.
``It's like driving a car over a plowed field,'' said California Department of Forestry Capt. Ron Serabia.
On the ground, the fires were generating their own winds, creating an erratic path in northern Los Angeles County.
Fire was burning in a circle, starting near Simi Valley, pushing south toward the San Fernando Valley and then burning back toward Santa Clarita's Stevenson Ranch, a 4,000-home master-planned community.
To the south, firefighters poured into the historic gold mining town of Julian, trying to save the mountain retreat northeast of San Diego known for its apple orchards.Days earlier, one front of the fire had destroyed more than 500 homes in the eastern part of the county. Now another front of the Cedar Fire was burning through the San Diego mountain communities, destroying 90 percent of Cuyamaca, a lakeside town of about 160 residents.
Firefighter Steve Rucker and three others were trying Wednesday to save a home near Wynola, outside of Julian, when the fire's wind turned the flames on them.
Rucker and three others, who had come from the Novato Fire Protection District north of San Francisco, were overrun so quickly that they didn't have time to reach their engine and flee.
They tried to take refuge in the house they were trying to protect, but Rucker, 38, was overcome on the porch. He was the fire's 20th victim.
To the northeast, in the San Bernardino Mountains, the wind was aiding fire fueled by millions of dead pine, cedar and dogwood trees that were weakened by drought and a bark beetle infestation.Towering flames blew toward the resort towns of Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead, destroying more than 300 homes in a single night.
``It's like trying to control chaos,'' fire Engineer Brian Janey of the Camp Pendleton Fire Department said as he battled the fire.
Although nearly 15,000 people evacuated the resort town of Big Bear Lake, a few refused to leave.
Authorities handed out yellow crime scene tape to put on their homes so that if flames came through, firefighters would know people were there.
``Everyone is telling us to leave, but we're waiting 'til we see the flames,'' Chrisann Maurer said as she watered down her yard and her house in heavy wind. ``I'm afraid, but I've got a lot of faith. I just think there is enough people praying that we might be safe.''
Mark Peterson, a firefighter with the Big Bear Lake Fire Department, said those who refused to leave were ``crazy.''
He said the fire was moving toward Big Bear Lake from three directions.
``It's incredible. They're rewriting history with this fire,'' Peterson said. ``Nobody knows where this thing is going to go.''
While fires raged in the mountains above, Wecker returned to her San Bernardino neighborhood to find only the archway of her home standing.Next door, a neighbor's house was untouched. Across the street, sat a park with green grass and trees.
Digging through the rubble, Wecker found a porcelain angel.
``We're taking that as a hopeful sign,'' said her daughter-in-law, Karen Wecker.
By the end of the week, cool, moist weather helped calm the rampaging fires, and up to six inches of snow were expected to fall in the San Bernardino Mountains by Saturday evening. But forecasters said the heat and dry desert winds that whipped the flames into infernos could return early next week.
``It's looking better, but it's a little soon to be talking about bringing people back up,'' said Pat Shreffler, a Kern County firefighter in charge of tracking the fire's movements.
Associated Press reporters Martha Mendoza, Pauline Arrillaga, Andrew Bridges, Seth Hettena, Elliot Spagat, Michelle Morgante, Brian Skoloff, Tim Molloy, Gillian Flaccus, Ken Ritter and Laura Wides contributed to this report.
