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Fire Crews Defeated By FlamesFire crews fighting the wildfires that have ravaged vast swathes of southern California have all but admitted defeat in their battle to bring the inferno under control.Another home goes up in flamesTwo people have been killed and an estimated one million people have been forced to flee from the flames, leaving their homes to the mercy of Mother Nature. It is the biggest evacuation in California's history. The high winds that have driven the fires, whipping the flames in different and unpredictable directions, are not expected to subside for at least another day. Firefighters say they can do little more than try to wait it out and react. They are stamping out spot fires and chasing ribbons of airborne embers to keep new fires from flaring. "If it's this big and blowing with as much wind as it's got, it'll go all the way to the ocean before it stops," said San Diego Fire Captain Kirk Humphries. "We can save some stuff but we can't stop it." Tentacles of the shifting flames have burned across nearly 600 square miles, destroying more than 1,600 homes. Residents all the way from north of Los Angeles, down through San Diego and as far as the Mexican border have left their homes. Governor Arnie surveys the flames"It's basically a mass migration here in San Diego County. The numbers we're seeing are staggering," said Luis Monteagudo, a spokesman for the area's emergency effort. President Bush has declared a federal emergency for seven counties and will visit the region tomorrow. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said the flames were threatening 68,000 more homes. He told reporters: "We have had an unfortunate situation that we've had three things come together: very dry areas, very hot weather and then a lot of wind." "And so this makes the perfect storm for a fire." The fires also affected some of California's celebrity residents, threatening the ocean-front town of Malibu where many stars like Mel Gibson, Cher, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Aniston, Mel Brooks, Ryan O'Neal and others have homes. http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1289748,00.html |