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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Most SoCal Wildfires|Contained or Out

SAN DIEGO (CN) - Most of the wildfires that ravaged San Diego County last week have been contained, after burning 27,000 acres and destroying 65 homes.

Cooler temperatures and the wind shifting to an offshore breeze helped tame the dozen or more fires that forced tens of thousands of people from their homes.

All the evacuation orders have been lifted and classes resume today in San Diego County school districts.

Fire officials consider the weeklong fire battles a sign of things to come this year, as California continues to suffer from a 3-year drought and hot Santa Ana winds are predicted to return as early as next week.

Three of the four fires still burning without containment are on Camp Pendleton, a massive Marine base in San Diego and Orange Counties.

One man's burned body was found in the 600-acre Poinsettia Fire in Carlsbad. He still has not been identified. Nor is it clear if he was killed by the fire. That fire destroyed an 18-unit apartment complex and damaged another one. It's believed to have caused more than $20 million in damages.

The other most-destructive fire, the 2,000-acre Cocos Fire, destroyed 39 homes in and around San Marcos.

In comparison, the October 2003 San Diego County wildfires burned 376,237 acres, destroyed more than 2,500 homes and killed 17 people.

Fires in October 2007 burned 368,430 acres, 1,600 homes and killed 10 people.

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