400,000 Acres and 1800 homes so far

Wildfires continued Wednesday to blacken the Southern California landscape, scorching more than 400,000 acres and leaving an estimated 1,800 homes in ruins. Firefighters again had to cope with strong gusty Santa Ana winds of 60 mph that pushed walls of flames across the region from Ventura County in the north to San Diego County in the south. Some 10,000 firefighters were battling the fires on the ground and from the air with water-dropping helicopters and tanker planes with flame retardant.

	265,000 flee as massive wildfires char Southern California	CNN	Mon Oct 22	0
	Calif. Fires May Be at Turning Point	Associated Press	Wed Oct 24	0
	Bush Signs Disaster Declaration and We Get To Bail Out the Uninsured	CNN	Wed Oct 24	10
	Winds drive Southland wildfires	The L.A. Times	Mon Oct 22	10
	Wildfires Rage in Southern Calif.	Associated Press	Sun Oct 21	1