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Southern California Fires

Aired October 23, 2007 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. Tony Harris is off today. Stay informed all day in the CNN NEWSROOM. Here's what is on the rundown.
Unfolding this hour. Southern California in flames. Our live reports and your i-Reports have the latest look at major wildfires.

You can't go home again. Evacuees wonder if they're leaving for a while or possibly for good. We'll be hearing their stories.

And from the front lines in Iraq, to the fire lines in California, the Marine battalion my join the battle against the wildfires.

It's Tuesday, October 23rd and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Fires out of control. Residents out of time. More than 300,000 people have left their homes in southern California and now they are wondering if they'll have homes to return to ever again. Hundreds have already burned and earlier this morning President Bush issued an emergency declaration for seven California counties. That does clear the way for federal disaster relief but the more immediate concerns as close as the nearest fire line.

At least 14 wildfires are raging as we speak. The fires have scorched more than 400 square miles. CNN crews are fanned out all across the area. We want to begin with CNN's Dan Simon now north of San Diego.

Dan, good morning to you.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.

Well, we are dealing with insane numbers here. Five hundred homes destroyed at least here in San Diego County. Another 5,000 homes threatened. At this point they're not letting folks back into the various neighborhoods. We're in the Rancho Bernardo neighborhood. And most of the homes destroyed in San Diego are in this particular neighborhood. And because they're not letting folks back in here, whoever owns this house, for example, probably has no idea what has happened to them. We are dealing with an unprecedented event according to one firefighter and he says he feels so helpless.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RANDY BABBITT, HUNTINGTON BEACH FIRE DEPARTMENT: Every one of us out here feels like these homes are our own. You know, we know what it's like to see people's faces when they've lost everything and it's devastating see so much of this all at once.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIMON: And, Heidi, unfortunately, we're likely going to see the same today. The winds are expected to return. Relatively calm right now. But unless these winds die down, it's going to be very tough to contain this fire. All firefighters can really do is respond to the hot spots wherever they see them, try to put out the flames. But until we see the winds die down, we're going to see more of the same. One firefighter telling me that until the winds die down or until the fire reaches the ocean, this blaze is going to continue to roar out of control.

Heidi.

COLLINS: Boy, that is just incredible. The thought of it just raging all the way to the ocean, unbelievable.

All right, CNN's Dan Simon for us this morning.

Dan, thank you.

San Diego's QUALCOMM Stadium, this morning more than 10,000 evacuees are waking up there. CNN's Thelma Gutierrez is there as well.

Thelma, show us a little bit about what's going on where you are.

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, I can tell you that QUALCOMM is one of 18 different shelters that have been set up in the San Diego area to try to care for the more than 300,000 people who have had to be evacuated.

Now we understand that most of the hotels here in this area are completely booked. So there are thousands and thousands of people out here looking for shelter. Here at QUALCOMM, 6,500 people have registered at the intake tables. They are inside the stadium right now watching TV, resting, that kind of thing.

But there are thousands more outside. As we drove in the parking lot was jam packed. There were cars and trucks. People pitched tents. They were sleeping right beside their car. You could see the belongings on top of their car.

Now you can take a look right behind me. You can see that there is a line forming here of people waking up now, standing in line to grab some coffee and some breakfast. This food area is manned completely by volunteers who have given their time to come and help some of those folks.

Now, we were outside earlier. We ran into two Marines, also volunteers. They came early this morning. They brought a truck full of diapers and formula, blankets, that kind of thing. They said that they absolutely wanted to help out. They had done tours of duty in Iraq. They had helped the Iraqis and they said they wanted very much to help their fellow Americans. I also walked inside QUALCOMM Stadium a short time ago. Now the capacity in the stadium is about 70,000. But I noticed in the corridors, in the concession area, people were sleeping on cots. They were sleeping in tents. That kind of thing.

And many were gathered around the television. They said that they could not sleep. They were watching the television, glued to the set, wanting to know what was happening to their homes. And they were watching local television to try to find out. So very frustrating, very difficult time for thousands of people here in the San Diego area.

One of these people is Tammy McCall. She joins us now and she is here with her five-month-old baby, Nathan. So cute, sleeping here. Tell me, Tammy, how difficult was it for you? You said you didn't get an evacuation order. You just kind of turn around and there was the fire.

TAMMY MCCALL: Yes. We're from the Cosenaora (ph) area and the fire that we had, there was nothing on the news about it. We just kept, you know, peaking up -- out of our back window and seeing that it was just getting bigger and closer. And finally around 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning we decided it was too close and we had to get our kids out and wake up the neighbors as we left.

GUTIERREZ: How frightening is that?

MCCALL: It was very scary. You don't -- you never think that you're going to be in this kind of a position. But also, you know, it doesn't hit you until you're here with all these wonderful people that it actually happened.

GUTIERREZ: What was your experience like here at QUALCOMM? And where did you sleep? You have a baby and two other children.

MCCALL: Well, my children are actually in front of the TV. I was shaking my head like, yes, she's right. They're in front of the TV with grandma and we actually got here early this morning at 5:00. We didn't get here until 5:00 this morning, I think. And we haven't slept. I know my husband, he's been working three days. So he's sleeping but, other than that, you know, we're just -- you know it's really hitting us and we just can't sleep.

GUTIERREZ: Why did you come here to QUALCOMM as opposed to going to a relative's home or something like that?

MCCALL: My family's from the east coast and so we don't know anybody out here really. I mean we've been here for a long time but everyone else is in the fire, too. Everyone else is, you know, calling us saying, hey, we're going here. Are you going here? Everybody -- are you safe? And we just went -- we went to Lamasa (ph) first and we could still see the flames. So we just knew at any moment it was going to be right back on us again. So we just had to get out of there and we decided the further the better. So we came here.

GUTIERREZ: All right. And how is your home?

MCCALL: We actually have no word. And since they weren't even reporting on the fire, they don't even know that it was there. We don't know how our home is.

GUTIERREZ: So pins and needles right now.

MCCALL: Yes.

GUTIERREZ: All right, Tammy McCall, thank you so much for joining us.

MCCALL: Thank you for (INAUDIBLE).

GUTIERREZ: And that's pretty much the scene out here with all the people that we've talked to. In fact, we talked to police just a short time ago. There are about 25 here, San Diego Police, and they told us that there has not been one incident. That things very calm and they've been very happy to know that people are coming in. They're settling in. And police have not had much of a problem.

Heidi, back to you.

COLLINS: Well, that's excellent news. Certainly don't need that type of drama to say the least. CNN's Thelma Gutierrez for us, thanks so much, at QUALCOMM Stadium, one of the 18 shelters that has been set up for people in the midst of all of this.

That that you see on your screen, the fires in southern California, awaiting a press conference any moment now. In fact, I see someone at the microphones. Not quite sure if they're ready yet. But we are going to be hearing from the San Diego mayor in just a moment, Jerry Sanders. Should be coming to the microphone shortly.

Meanwhile, let me give you just a little bit more information about what we know at this point. I have so much in front of me. We are looking at overall about 700 homes that have already been destroyed. Speaking to San Diego County in particular, about 500 in the Witch Fire that we've been telling you about. A lot of different names been given to these fire, as well, being that we have about 13 or 14 fires that are burning simultaneously as we speak.

About 5,600 firefighters are battling these flames right now and people, obviously, very, very concerned about the situation. No question about that. In fact, let's take a moment to move north a bit up the coast. Vince Gonzales is standing by in northern Los Angeles County. Want to find out the latest that's happening there.

Good morning to you, Vince.

VINCE GONZALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.

I'm standing near the Magic Fire, which has just got a few flare- ups now. We've been watching this move down the hillside as the night has gone. It's gotten harder to see now that dawn has arrived, but there's definitely fire burning over there. This is about a mile or two away from Magic Mountain, which is an amusement park here in northern Los Angeles County. This fire is at about 1,200 acres. It scorched the hillsides around here. And it's one of three major fires burning here in northern Los Angeles County.

The Buckweed Fire, which is much bigger at 35,000 acres, has actually destroyed 25 homes and 5,000 people have had to be evacuated. The Ranch Fire, right nearby here, is at about 29,000 acres. Evacuations there, we're told, are also in place this morning. Voluntary evacuations. Fire officials going through the area telling people that if these winds pick up again, they could certainly be told it's time to get out.

And up in Malibu, that fire has grown as well. Up to about 3,800 acres. And they seem to have lost some containment on it. Yesterday we were told it was at 10 percent containment. Now we're told it's 8 percent.

And the thing we keep hearing over and over again from firefighters, whether it's San Diego or all the way up to Malibu is, this really depends on these Santa Ana winds. If they get a break, they can get some fire lines around these fires. But if the winds keep gusting, the real concern here in northern Los Angeles County is those three fires could merge and we could have one large fire. What they call a catastrophic wildfire that could become almost impossible to really get control of and put out. They'd have to take a step back, build fire lines around it and hopefully get some control later on.

Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, Vince Gonzales, thanks so much for that.

We do want to take you directly now to the San Diego mayor, Jerry Sanders, at the podium. Let's listen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have at this point it appears we have well over 200,000 acres that have been burned and we may be approaching the 300,000 mark. We -- best estimates are putting the number of houses destroyed somewhere in the area of a thousand. But we just are unable to confirm any of these numbers. We do know that we have placed now over 270,000 calls and we evacuated over 300,000 people, which is a very significant number.

I want to begin, first of all, by acknowledging the firefighters, the law enforcement officers, the EMTs, the many volunteers at the shelters. As we have visited various sites around the entire county, it is just amazing that the job that these people are doing. We're faced with one of the huge problems, as you can imagine, just in moving people out of these areas. And it couldn't happen without the cooperation of so many different people.

And I think it's because of that, that if there's a statistic that so far stands out, it's the fact that we've had minimal loss of life. People are moving. People are getting the message and they're responding. Having said that, we -- the weather is -- continues to be unpredictable as we get the good news that maybe the winds are not moving offshore. We're getting a little bit of onshore. We find that that complicates life for us and you'll hear from our -- some of our firefighters and -- exactly what's going on and what our concerns are.

So, again, we want to thank you for covering this, getting the word out. And I think that with maybe a break in the weather here at some point we can get to the back side of this and start to see some relief. But there isn't anything in sight right now. And, if anything, just the weather is complicating the issue for us.

Let me begin this morning by acknowledging Council President Scott Peters (ph), who's here with us, as he has been throughout this. And I'm going to ask Mayor Jerry Sanders to give us a report on some of those things that are going on in the city of San Diego.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chairman, thank you very much.

You know, I want to acknowledge the cooperation, too, between the county, the city, the state, feds, everybody has done a tremendous job.

Just some things that affect the city of San Diego and affect all the cities around it right now. The Harris Fire flared up overnight and I know that Chief Powell (ph) will talk about that. But in south San Diego, along the border, we have a voluntary evacuation right now. For south of main street, west of Alta (ph), east of 805, and north of the border. That's a voluntary evacuation at this time and I know the fire fighting crews are working extremely hard to keep it out of the South Bay heavily populated areas.

As the supervisor said, 164,000 acres have burned in the Witch Fire. We still have mandatory evacuations in place for Rancho Bernardo, Scripps (ph) Ranch, areas in the north city, north of 56, up into the county areas of Rancho Santa Fe, all the way to the ocean from Interstate 15. Today we'll reassess some of the areas in San Diego for letting people back in. I just need to tell people it's going to be a process where we have to make absolutely sure that there is safety there so we don't have to remove people once we put them back in. We'll be very deliberate about that, but we'll also communicate who can go back to those homes.

Please stay at home today if you can. Stay off the freeways. Allow our emergency vehicles and people needing to evacuate to move around freely and please stay off your cell phones.

We need donations at QUALCOMM. We have about 8,000 to 10,000 people who spent the night there, very orderly. About 5,000 cars in the parking lot. If you can take donations of food, water, cots, pillows to A3, that's Alpha 3, we have set up kind of a store there for people to get whatever they need. When I say a store, it doesn't obviously cost anything, but it's just a more orderly way to allow people to fill their needs so that we just don't have things all over.

I want to thank all San Diegans (ph). They've done an absolutely tremendous job, city, county, everybody in pitching in and helping those who have been affected. I think probably at QUALCOMM Stadium we had as many volunteers as we had people affected. And I think that that was people working together, feel good about helping each other and feeling good about accepting that help.

And finally I'd like to thank the sheriff. We got some National Guard troops from the sheriff's office. They were able to be in QUALCOMM last night, just provided a sense of stability and people felt safe. They also felt cared for. And we're working through the sheriff's office to use those National Guard troops throughout our communities.

So I want to thank all San Diegans. I also want to thank our police and firefighters for the tremendous job that they're doing. And any help we can get at QUALCOMM Stadium, which will probably grow today in population because of some of the things going on in south county, then we could use that help.

Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, Mike mentioned those National Guard troops were also at the Delmar (ph) fairgrounds last night. And it certainly gave you a feeling of security. I think we got about a thousand people who are -- who spent the night out there last night and many of whom are very frail seniors that we have been trying to place in hospitals and other places. So, again, a lot of volunteers, as the mayor mentioned, that's making this whole thing work. OK. Next up I'm going to ask Chief Kim Raditz (ph), who's again our liaison, our fire coordinator, if he'll come and bring in not only share with us his thoughts, but bring in some of the other chiefs here to share the activities.

CHIEF KIM RADITZ: Thank you.

Again, overnight, we had significant fire activity due to extreme weather conditions. So to simply explain a little easier, we're going to work from our fires out of the north and work south for you and we'll have for you different incident commanders and different individuals talking as they relate to those fires.

I'll start off with the Rice Fire, which is in the Fallbrook area. It's approximately 4,000 acres currently. The winds last night did tame down overnight. There were about six to 10 miles an hour gusts to about 15. That allowed them to make some progress on that fire overnight. That fire currently has put an overhead team in place. They're currently setting up in the Camp Pendleton area.

The fire did, last night, do some activity on the I-15 area. It's most active part of the fire currently is in the north end of the fire. It did make a run on the Red Mountain Reservoir area. Currently, the most active part of that fire is in the north side of the fire in the Santa Margarita area and that's where they're going to concentrate their actions today and their intent is to get aircraft in the air as fast as they can when the weather allows for it and they start flying to. The intent with fixed wing and helicopters to work that fire as need.

What I'll do right now is we'll go down to the Witch Creek Fire and we'll have Chief Neal (ph) speak from Cal Fire as their actions on the fire and then we'll have Chief Jarmon (ph) speak on the actions from the city of San Diego.

Chief Neal.

CHIEF NEAL: Good morning. Chief Hyle Calmyer (ph), San Diego.

We'll talk about the Harris Fire myself and Chief Jarmon will cover that. Currently the fire is at 70,000 acres. The fire last night spread -- continued spreading to the west towards it city of Chula Vista (ph), San Diego, and to the north northeast, or northwest toward Hamolt (ph). Had active fire in the Deer Horn Valley community last night. Fire consumed another about 20 structures.

One concern we do have, we have about 20 or 30 resident whose wanted to stay behind. And when they decided to leave, they were trapped in the area. We had to shelter them in place at our local fire station.

Some of the key areas today is, we're in a unified command with Cal Fire, with the (INAUDIBLE) command team, the city of Chula Vista (ph) and San Miguel fire protection district and San Diego City will probably join the unified command as the fire approaches their jurisdiction.

We have some concerns. We have a 500 KP line in a substation which provides power to greater San Diego. Major concern to us. We have resources in place trying to protect that infrastructure. We also have some concerns to Lions Valley to the north. As the winds subsides, we could see the fire also moving back to the north.

Currently, there's about 10 major fires in the state. And with that there's a huge demand for resources and the Harris Fire still is outstanding and resource orders for additional fire engines, hand crews, bulldozers and aircraft.

I'., CHIEF JARMON; Bet with the Harris ranch -- the Harris fire, it started to move towards the city of San Diego. Right now the evacuations down there are voluntary. We want to take precaution. The mayor touched on that. It's, obviously, north of the border, east of 805. South of Alta and go from there.

But you need to pay attention. Watch the evacuation as it goes across the bottom of the media just to insure that fit goes to a mandatory, that you get out of the area.

The winds are unpredictable right now. We do have a little bit of a westerly flow for the first time. It's kind of held it up in check. But at any time as the sun comes up, the easterly wind could start pushing it back into the city of San Diego. So we want to proceed cautiously.

At this point in time move on to the Witch Creek Fire and invite Chief Hutchison (ph) to come up. And I'll move over to the map, if I could.

CHIEF HUTCHISON: Thank you.

Good morning.

Overnight we saw a couple of different wind patterns establish themselves over the incident. From I-15 east we continued to see east winds at about 12 to 15 miles per hour with gusts in the 20 miles per hour range. West of I-15 we did begin to see an onshore push with some light onshore winds. With that, we had activity in all areas of the fire, in particular on the south of the end of the fire. It has now moved west from the El Capitan Reservoir area and is now moving into Wildcat Canyon.

Along the west side, where we are starting to see the onshore breezes is now starting to swing around towards it north and is encroaching upon Escondido from the west. In the east, we had continuous activity back burning into the wind throughout the night. And then in the north, we had a new fire start at about 3:30 a.m. this morning. As of 5:00 this morning, the fire was 800 plus acres, had already jumped Valley Center Road and is now threatening the communities of Rincon (ph) and Northern Valley Center Proper. We have allocated resources from the Witch incident to the new fire and we are bringing that fire into the incident for the management of that, along with the main fire itself.

So again, with that, we're starting to see the winds ease a little bit. However, as these winds change, they are going to be very unpredictable and we are assessing now along the west end of the fire the probabilities of allowing some residents back into the area. However, because of the winds, we're going to be very caution because it is going to be a very dangerous time as these winds change around.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pay close attention today, if we do allow people back in, it will be in boxes. We'll frame it just like we did the evacuations. We're going to proceed very cautiously. We're probably in the most critical time of this fire. As the winds shift, it comes back around and we don't want to put people back in harm's way and just turn around and have to evacuate you.

So we'll do it just like we did the evacuations. We'll announce what time we'll let you back in. What areas will be allowed to go back in. But we've got to proceed cautiously at this point in time. So that's what we'll do today. So I'll turn it back over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, chief. I wanted to next call Sheriff Bill Colander (ph), but I also wanted to acknowledge that Chief Lanston (ph), from the city of San Diego, is also with us here this morning and as he has been for the last couple of days.

Sheriff Colander.

SHERIFF COLANDER: My partner over there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For sure.

COLANDER: Everybody is thanking people and we take all day if we thanked everybody, but I want to start by thanking you for helping us put the word out to the public. We are seeing much better cooperation in evacuations by the public. They are listening and they are taking action and that's a positive thing that's occurred.

We just told how many people were evacuated. It is between 250,000 and 300,000. When it comes to security and evacuations, I just wanted you to know that the sheriff's department still has a staffing level of three, which is personnel, everybody is on a 12- shift, no days off and all vacations were canceled. Our operations commands have configured their personnel into squads and platoons for natural disaster and these formations are readily available to deploy personnel that is requested by the counties EOS.

Numerous combined platoons have been formed to do the security and evaluations. We have about, oh, maybe 30 -- 30 platoons -- 30 people in each platoon and we have about 16 of those platoons. We have 400 people there and the San Diego Police and other agencies have also cooperated. I could take a moment to list them all, but it's just about every law enforcement agency in the county. So we probably have approximately 600 people involved in this particular issue.

The California National Guard is also joining us from 1,200 to 1,300 people.

COLLINS: All right. We have been listening into a press conference with a variety of local officials in the San Diego area talking all about what they are going through right now, which is a major crisis with these southern California fires in San Diego County alone. The biggest fire, you have probably heard the name of it, the Witch Fire, has already consumed 145,000 acres. Not very much containment there at all. In fact, a new fire started overnight. You may have heard the gentleman talking about that.

We also heard from the San Diego mayor, who basically said, we need everybody to stay at home today, stay off their cell phones, stay off the freeways and they need donations at QUALCOMM Stadium, which is where one of the shelters has been set up. Our Thelma Gutierrez has been bring us pictures from that.

They need fire crews, fire trucks. They need everything in southern California today. In fact, President Bush has actually made a few remarks about this situation. He's at the National Defense University's Distinguished Lecture Program. This is located in Washington, D.C. Let's go ahead and take a listen for just a moment about what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Another topic of concern is the devastation caused by the wildfires in southern California. All of us across this nation are concerned for the families who have lost their homes and the many families who have been evacuated from their homes. We send our prayers and thoughts with those who have been affected. And we send the help of the federal government, as well.

Last night I declared an emergency, which opened up the opportunity for us to send federal assets to help the governor and those who are fighting the fires. Today I have sent Secretary Chertoff and Director Paulson of FEMA to go out to California to listen, develop an inventory of supplies and help that we can provide.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Once again President Bush there speaking about the southern California fires from the National Defense University. We're going to continue to watch the story of course all morning long. You can watch the continuing coverage on CNN. When you're not in front of the television even you can check out our online network CNN.com live. Just log onto CNN.com/video for live feeds from the fire scenes.

National Guardsmen and Marines ready to join the fire fight in California this morning. Representative Duncan Hunter asked the defense secretary to send in the troops. We're going to be talking to the congressman live in San Diego in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: The California wildfires, a tragic story for so many people. Congressman Duncan Hunter knows what it's like. He and his son lost their California homes to fires four years ago. He is in fact in San Diego today, obviously the hardest hit area by these fires.

Representative Hunter thanks for being with us today. We see the scene right behind you there. Why don't you tell us a little bit about what you have been able to view for yourself and what you think?

REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R), CALIFORNIA: Heidi, I'm out here where we've had the big hit obviously out here in the northern piece of my district. But let me tell you, I Asked Secretary Of Defense Gates to bring in fire fighting units from other states, military units. And he General Steven Blum, head of the National Guard, have responded very effectively. Right now we've got of the six supertankers that we use for firefighting with the National Guard from Wyoming, from North Carolina and from Colorado coming to California. The first ones will touch down about 2:30. That will be the two major units coming out of Colorado, C-130 aircraft based. Each of them has the ability to lay down a quarter mile strip of fire retardant. They are very effective. They are going to be coming in at 2:30 and the Wyoming and North Carolina units will be coming in shortly behind them.

So we do have reinforcements coming from those other three states. That will be the entire capability or fire fighting airplane based capability of the United States National Guard focusing on California and hitting these fires in San Diego and the L.A. and inland empire. So we're getting help.

COLLINS: Yes. Well, that is fantastic news. I'm very familiar with the work of those C-130s from the Colorado fires that I have covered and what they can do, what a difference they can make. Are you satisfied with that response, at least so far?

HUNTER: Yes. That's an excellent response. They are coming in fast. In fact, General Blum started these tankers before he got the final request. It has to go down through the bureaucracy. So naturally it has to go through three or four agencies but Governor Schwarzenegger triggered the request yesterday. That went to the incident center then it's got to go northern command. Finally, the National Guard but General Blum moved out, got these units ready to go and the first one is in the air right now and will be here at 2:30.

COLLINS: Talk to us about the people of your district, Representative Hunter. What exactly do San Diego residents need most right now?

HUNTER: Well you know, I think if you want to describe the people San Diego County, I think there's one word that describes them really well, character. They have a lot of character. You know we send off the U.S. marines and U.S. Navy through our big port here to go out and protect freedom around the world and protect our freedom and we're used to having to sacrifice, and you know our spirit is, we rebuild and I'm here with a lot of folks that have now lost their home here in the north part of my district. After I get finished here we're going to drive over. I'm going to check in with my wife. We just got the final permit to move into the house we rebuilt from the last fire. Our canyon was closed yesterday because a fire was approaching. We'll see what happens.

COLLINS: Yes. And just so people understand, it was the 2003 cedar fire that you lost your home in. You are the right man it seems to be going around and talking to people who are going through that same experience. What will you tell them?

HUNTER: Well listen, I'm going to tell them, you know look at your family, that's what is important in life. It's not the sticks and the mud and the brick, it's the family. And I would say that also to people who are thinking about evacuating right now and some of the canyon areas in San Diego County. Get out early. Get the family out. I had to send my marine son in to drag my wife away from getting the last possessions out last time. You've got to get out and you've got to get out before those flames get close. So use a wide margin of error. Get out early. Care about the family and don't try to get that last couple of pieces of possessions.

COLLINS: Yes. You are absolutely right. And I certainly hope that people will heed those warnings. There's been a little bit of trouble with that because it's so difficult for people to get out and let go of some of those possessions, understandably so.

Representative Duncan Hunter, thanks so much for your time this morning and certainly the best of luck to you and the people of San Diego County.

HUNTER: Thank you.

COLLINS: California wildfires, the greatest losses in San Diego County. Officials there updated the crisis just a few minutes ago and CNN's Kara Finnstrom is there now with the very latest.

Kara, there was an awful lot of information in that press conference. KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There was and a lot of hope for the families here who lost everything. Because one of the things that's going to come out of that are some personal checks to help these families move forward. We're coming to you from one of the neighborhoods that was hit very hard in northern San Diego. If you take a look behind me, this is what we're seeing house after house here. Everything completely destroyed. You can see the remains of a motorcycle. You can see an old ironing board back there. But this gives you an idea of the tremendous personal loss for these families. We're going to have to rebuild lives here. 500 homes here in the San Diego area completely destroyed. Another 5,000 remain threatened today as these wildfires continue to rage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JERRY SANDERS, SAN DIEGO: Leave our freeways and our highways clear for emergency vehicles and for those who have to evacuate. And certainly be ready to evacuate if you need to. Be ready to follow directions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FINNSTROM: Nearly 6,000 firefighters with help from the National Guard are now struggling to contain blazes all across southern California. Already, officials say 300,000 people in San Diego County alone have been forced out of their homes by vicious wildfires kept alive by Santa Ana winds.

SANDERS: We are seeing the community rally around the fire victims. We have seen at each of our shelters whether it's at a large shelter like Qualcomm or the Del Mar Fairgrounds, or the shelters at the high schools, we've seen literally hundreds and hundreds of volunteers bringing water, bringing food, bringing clothing, bringing blankets.

FINNSTROM: A reporter for a San Diego television station KFMB saw his own home burned to the ground while covering the fires. That's it right behind him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY HIMMEL, KFMB REPORTER: I saw a fire truck coming down my hill as I was coming up. He said do you really want to go up there? They were turning away because it was impossible to get near it and I said I do. I do want to get up there. I do want to see it. So I watched it burn. At least I know my fate.

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FINNSTROM: Heidi, you can see and probably hear that the wind is beginning to whip up again out here. It's another red flag warning today so a big day for firefighters as they continue to try and get an upper hand on these blazes.

COLLINS: Yes. And as we heard from that reporter, it must have been absolutely heartbreaking for him to watch the house go down. But I imagine that has got to be part of the hardest portion of all of this, people just not knowing whether or not their homes have made it through. We are thinking about all of them obviously. Kara Finnstrom for us this morning in San Diego County. Thank you, Kara.

Planes are racing across southern California and fire crews are trying desperately to save some of those homes. For hundreds of families though that effort is just too late.

And the space shuttle "Discovery" ready to start a new mission this morning. We're watching the countdown. See the live pictures there. Bring it to you in just a moment.

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COLLINS: The space shuttle "Discovery" set to launch next hour, a new mission to the International Space Station. CNN's space correspondent Miles O'Brien is at the Kennedy Space Center now with a preview in high definition for the very first time ever.

Good morning to you, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. We're making a little bit of history today in the television world. First high definition launch carried on CNN. We covered all the launches so it's fitting we would be the first to bring you the high definition version on a national broadcast.

We're watching a couple of things. We're really on the edge of our seat on two issues here today at the Kennedy Space Center. The weather and the formation of some ice on an important pipe which connects the space shuttle "Discovery" orbiter to its external fuel tank.

Joining me now to talk a little bit about this ice and the possible ramifications, three-time shuttle astronaut Jim Reilly.

Jim, good to have you with us. Let's show people, first of all, what we're talking about. The ice is discovered by an inspection team which goes out there before every launch with binoculars, infrared gear and all kinds of things. They found some ice on a pipe down here. Describe what the problem is, Jim.

JIM REILLY, NASA ASTRONAUT: And what we've got is there's a hydrogen feed line that comes from the tank to the orbiter. And on that hydrogen feed line they've discovered some ice. It is about four inches wide, about two inches across and it's a clear ice, which for us is the critical step because it's denser than the normal frost that you would normally see. And so they are taking a hard look at what might happen with this during launch. It's not the critical areas up here that we're worried about the ice but down here at the base and the part we're worried about or they are concerned about is what happens if that were to come off and the bounce back possibilities.

O'BRIEN: Now, you take a look at the full screen. That comes to us courtesy of nasaspaceflight.com. It shows the actual ice. That imagery has been sent back to the launch control center which is just across the parking lot from where we sit now. And literally, they are figuring out how much it weighs, what it could possibly do, could it ricochet if it fell off right during launch, any number of scenarios which might cause some damage to the orbiter. That's the key. They don't want that to happen harking back of course to "Columbia" in February of 2003 when a piece of foam breached the heat shield, ultimately caused the loss of the vehicle and crew.

At this point, they have gone out for a second inspection. They are trying. They are running that all through the computer models. There's some indication that the ice actually might be diminishing. You might ask it's Florida, it's 90 degrees it's humid, why ice? Well, liquid hydrogen is the coldest substance on earth. And so anything that's in that pipe, if the condensation and humidity is right and the temperature is just right, you could have this ice form. That's one issue we're watching right now.

The other one is the weather. We've been listening very carefully to NASA astronaut, Steve Lindsey, who is flying in a plane that is rigged up to fly just like a space shuttle. He's been checking the weather in the area. What's the general consensus on that right now?

REILLY: Right now they are watching a couple of cumulous clouds or rain clouds that have formed just south of the pad and looking at how fast they are moving north. They are taking a very hard look right now at how tall they are, whether they are going to continue to grow or whether they're going to dissipate. Right now they are looking to see if they are detaching, how much of that might actually come over the pad which will effect the visibility.

O'BRIEN: So the two questions Heidi, will the ice shrink and will the clouds grow? Those are the two things we're watching right now. All of this has to be decided on a tight deadline. We're about 45, 50 minutes away from the launch of the space shuttle.

As you know, Heidi, they can only launch at a specific time each day, a five-minute window when the space station is overhead and that's the moment when everything has to come into confluence. If the ice is not right and the weather is not right then there will be no launch today and they'll try again tomorrow. At this juncture though, that seven-person crew is ready. They are strapped in. The shuttle is fuelled up. There's no other technical issues that we have. They are facing an incredibly complicated mission ahead once they get into orbit.

COLLINS: Well you know what, Miles? We're going to keep our fingers crossed certainly on a day like this when we are watching those fires and getting a lot of bad news out of California. We could really use some good news from your way. So we're keeping our fingers crossed and we will check in again with you for the launch. Miles O'Brien, thank you.

And in fact, homes are up in flames right now. What homeowners need to know about their insurance coverage, important information. Our Gerri Willis is going to be live with more on that as we continue to look at those just devastating pictures coming in live from Newhall, California.

A quick break here. We'll be back in a moment.

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COLLINS: Hundreds of thousands of acres and evacuees amid the staggering numbers. It's easy to overlook the deeply personal stories, lives changing with that first renegade spark. One such story now comes to us from Rancho Bernardo and the emotion-choked words of a reporter discovering his own home in flames.

HIMMEL: On any given day I would say welcome to my home but this is what is left of my home just outside the forest ranch area. Fire crews have fought valiantly to save every house on this hill. At least took a shot at it and were nice enough to let us up here. That was our garage, the living room over there. There was a porch. Back there the bedrooms. No pets left behind. Family out, cars out. Safe but you can see my hose right here valiantly trying to do something but this is it. The southwestern style house I've been in it about 25 years. Out here when there was nothing. We did clear brush. We did what we could. This was a living hell coming over the hill. This is what I come home to today.

COLLINS: Boy, I just can't imagine how hard that was to do. It's just one story as several people who have lost their homes just like that.

If you would like to help victims of the wildfire ravaging southern California you can. Go through our impact your world initiative. All you have to do is go to CNN.com/impact and take action right now. Fires sweeping through California are wreaking havoc on that state and San Diego County is getting hit the hardest. We're going to Susan Lisovicz noe at the New York Stock Exchange to see what many businesses are actually trying to do to cope with all of this.

Hi there, Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Heidi. Well, this is an emerging story. I mean we have been reporting, of course, the thousands of people are being evacuated and many businesses now are shutting their doors for the same reason. Sony Electronics headquarters in San Diego, closed, as flames coming within just a few hundred yards of the 94 acre campus. The 2,000 employees told to stay home or find safe shelter. Offices at the Port of San Diego, also now closed. Meanwhile, Qualcomm Stadium, home to the San Diego Chargers, is being used as an evacuation center. People move into the stadium, so are many insurers, Farmer's Insurance is setting up information booth there, also giving out water and coffee. Allstate has also sent recovery vehicles to parts of southern California.

Heidi.

COLLINS: Susan, what about people traveling to and from California? What are they telling them? LISOVICZ: Well, this is interesting, too, Heidi. Airlines recognizing the magnitude of the situation, many airlines now allowing flyers to change their tickets without penalties. Southwest, Continental, American and United are doing this for people flying through some southern California airports. Many of those people changing their tickets are likely to be visitors and that's a story, too. Think about how huge San Diego's tourism industry matters to that area. San Diego Sea World and Wild Animal Park closed today because of the fires. The animal park has evacuated the animals that are on the endangered species list including the California condor.

A San Diego paper says tourist and business travelers are clearing out of hotels in droves but displaced residents are filling up the rooms just as quickly.

Turning to the markets. Well stocks are rallying so we had a nice turn around on Monday and a follow through on Tuesday. The NASDAQ leading the charge helped by nearly 7 percent jump in shares of Apple. The company reporting quarterly earnings that surged nearly 70 percent easily beating Wall Street estimates. Apple shipped a record number of MAC computers in the last three months. It was back to school shopping season. A lot of people bought MACs. The new iPhone already doing better than iPod did during its debut, more than one million iPhones sold since hitting the market at the end of June.

Right now check out the big board. The Dow up 40 points, 13,607. The NASDAQ with the help of Apple up 17 points. There are about two- thirds of a percent.

Heidi, back to you.

COLLINS: Again, like I have been saying, we'll take all the good news we can get on a day like this. All right. Susan Lisovicz, thanks so much. We'll check in with you a little bit later on.

Meanwhile the story this morning these flames racing across southern California. Fire crews try desperately to save homes. But for hundreds of families that effort is just too late.

And what the homeowners are doing. What they need to know about their insurance coverage. Our Gerri Willis is going to be live with important insurance information after a quick break here.

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COLLINS: You're with CNN. I'm Heidi Collins. Tony Harris is off today. Developments keep coming into the CNN NEWSROOM on this Tuesday, October 23rd. Here is what is on the rundown.

Catastrophe in California, more than a dozen wildfires burning with no relief in sight. We have reporters covering the fires from San Diego north to Los Angeles. Hundreds of homes destroyed in just one county and this hour what you can do before a fire hits to be sure the insurance company pays your claim.

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