President George W. Bush declared a state of emergency as a series of wildfires ravaged Southern California, destroying approximately 1,600 buildings and homes, causing six deaths and at least 100 injuries, and resulting in the evacuation of over 500,000 people, the largest evacuation in California history.

The number of fires, which peaked at 17 on Monday, changes with the shifting Santa Ana winds. More than 3,200 firefighters—some called in from Northern California and neighboring states like Nevada—are attempting to contain the blazes. As of Wednesday morning, the infernos had burned about 410,000 acres (640 square miles) and had caused at least $1 billion worth of damage in San Diego County alone, officials said.

President Bush’s Tuesday declaration of federal emergency was stepped up to a declaration of a major disaster in the state of California, making federal funding available to people in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

Bush, who is traveling to Southern California today to see the effects of the disaster and the effectiveness of government aid, said in a press conference Wednesday morning, “We’ll continue to make sure that our efforts are coordinated, that we are responsive to the needs and people.”

“And most importantly, I want the people in Southern California to know that Americans across this land care deeply about them, we’re concerned about their safety, we’re concerned about their property, and we offer our prayers and hopes that all will turn out fine in the end,” Bush said. “In the meantime, they can rest assured the Federal Government will do everything we can to help put out these fires.”

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff met with thousands of evacuees in Qualcomm Stadium on Tuesday with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) chief David Paulison.

Paulison admitted to the San Francisco Chronicle that “things didn’t run as smoothly” as they should have during the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005, but insists that “this is a new FEMA,” and that they will be more efficient in this disaster.

“There’s no question that there were a couple lessons from Katrina that we have put into effect here,” Chertoff told the San Diego Union-Tribune.

There are currently four major fires in or near the San Diego area. The Harris Fire, a 72,000 acre blaze near Potrero that has destroyed or damaged up to 500 homes and caused $1.3 million worth of damage since it started on Sunday, is the fire responsible for the only directly fire-related death of this disaster, that of Thomas James Varshock, 52, of Tecate who died in his residence on Sunday.

Despite the efforts of 1,210 firefighters, 2 helitankers and 65 fire engines, this conflagration was only 10 percent contained as of Wednesday morning.

Larger still is the Witch Creek Fire, a westbound blaze between Interstates 5 and 15 that was possibly caused by a downed power line on Sunday and covers 196, 420 acres, completely destroying at least 480 homes. Over 10,000 people were evacuated to local community centers and no fatalities have been reported. The blaze has the attention of nearly 1,500 firefighters, but was merely one percent contained as of Wednesday morning.

The Poomacha Fire, which originated in a structure on the La Jolla Indian Reservation on Tuesday and spread to vegitation, merged with the Witch Creek Fire on Wednesday. The Poomacha fire covers 20,000 acres, was zero percent contained as of Wednesday and resulted in the evacuation of the La Jolla reservation and all of Palomar Mountain. The final major fire, the Rice Canyon Fire, covers 7,500 acres and was 10 percent contained as of Wednesday.

Varshock’s was the only death caused by not evacuating a dangerous area. Three people over the age of 90 died of “natural causes” after being evacuated and Alla M. Robinson, 62, died from a fall in a restaurant after being evacuated from Rancho Bernardo, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

About 25 percent of the almost 30,000 current SF State students are from Southern California, 5.6 percent from San Diego area in particular.

Even those whose families have not been forcefully evacuated have heard from home about the lingering effects of the poor air quality and fear of a sudden change in wind direction.

Sara Draffin, a 21-year-old psychology major, said her family was seeing the effects of the infernos over 100 miles north in Newport Beach—with smoke and ashes in the air.
“The air is so bad, they don’t want them breathing it in while they’re working out,” she said.

Alex Williams, 21, is from University City in San Diego, south of the raging fires. Though his family did not receive a reverse 911 call for evacuation, they decided to go to his sister’s house by the beach in nearby Point Loma, fearing that a change in the winds could turn the fire in their direction.

“The fire was east of our house, so we’re good, but the winds were changing and we didn’t know, so [my] family just evacuated,” he said.

Williams said he is growing weary of the recurring fires in his homeland.

“They’re something normal now, like every four years a big fire comes along. It’s getting ridiculous. The Santa Ana winds really hampered the effort. I have a buddy who’s a firefighter and it’s just all about those Santa Ana winds, they couldn’t get any planes up.”

The winds, which have raised temperatures in the area about 10 degrees from normal, are expected to begin subsiding on Thursday, which will allow more emergency aircraft to move in and attempt to extinguish the fires before they cause more damage.

» E-mail Kyveli Diener @ kdiener@sfsu.edu