Firefighters, equipment stretched thin across California
ALLISON HOFFMAN

ALPINE, Calif. - Fire officials were seeking additional manpower to battle a 7,000-acre wildfire near the California-Mexico border as stifling heat continued to bake the state in triple-digit temperatures.

The Horse Fire had burned nearly 11 square miles of brush and chaparral in the Cleveland National Forest in southern San Diego County. About 500 firefighters on the scene had contained only about five percent of the fire late Monday in its third day burning in the largely unpopulated area.

Several lightning-sparked wildfires have scorched the state in recent weeks, straining firefighting resources. Firefighters trying to contain the Horse Fire were awaiting relief from firefighters and equipment tied up elsewhere.

"We're really strapped right now," said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Jake Rodriguez. "We're putting in orders for more men and more air support, and we're just waiting for them to be released."

Authorities said the blaze may have been started Saturday from an abandoned campfire set by illegal immigrants.

Forest Service spokeswoman Anabele Cornejo said investigators found food containers and bottles off a park trail, where the fire began.

"Based on collected evidence, we're making an educated guess that it was probably started by immigrants," Cornejo said. She said she did not immediately know whether anyone was detained in connection with the fire.

The blaze prompted sheriff's deputies to order 125 homes evacuated in the town of Alpine starting Sunday. Residents throughout parts of Pine Valley and Lake Morena, where there are about 1,350 homes combined, were told to remain on standby, said sheriff's spokeswoman Susan Plese.

More than 1,500 homes and 100 commercial properties could be threatened by the fire, but the threat was not immediate, officials said.

Fire crews have had to work through the 10th straight day of a heat wave that has sent temperatures soaring above 100 degrees through much of the state. At least five firefighters around the state have suffered heat-related illnesses in recent days, officials said.

"If you get behind on drinking water, you can't catch up," said firefighter Jon Sanchioli, 46, who was protecting structures from the forest fire. "We had one guy go down yesterday. We know you've got to be careful. If you keep on pushing, your body shuts down."

Temperatures near the Horse Fire were expected to reach 100 degrees Tuesday, said National Weather Service meteorologist Ted MacKechnie.

In Joshua Tree National Park - where another blaze had consumed about 1.5 square miles of dense, desert vegetation - temperatures reached 103 degrees Monday. Fire supervisors asked crews to remove their helmets every hour to make sure they were still sweating, fire spokesman Dennis Cross said.

No sweat, he said, could mean a firefighter had "dried up" - a sign of heat exhaustion.

"It probably feels like it's 150 up there," Cross said, adding that crews were drinking about the twice the amount of water and Gatorade they might otherwise consume.

"When you have this humidity and this heat, it really takes a toll on your body," he said.

The blaze, burning across 1.6 square miles near the Riverside-San Bernardino county line, destroyed a park-owned cabin. It was close to 70 percent contained Monday.

Farther north, more than 800 firefighters worked to cut lines around an 8,200-acre, or nearly 13-square-mile, fire on ranch land east of San Ardo in southeastern Monterey County.

A lightning strike late Saturday sparked the fire and erratic winds generated by thunderstorms caused it to spread, officials said.

Off the coast of Los Angeles County, a lightning-sparked fire on Santa Catalina Island was 75 percent contained at 1,094 acres, or 1.7 square miles late Monday, fire Inspector Edward Osorio said.

Osorio said firefighters were kept on the line in case the smolders flare up and burn out of control.

"We'd like to release some of the crews to San Diego to help them out, but if we let them go, it won't be easy to get them back to the island," Osorio said. He noted that it takes at least an hour to shuttle firefighters and fire engines to the island on boats and helicopters.

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Immigrants destroyed 11 squares miles (7,000 acres) of this.