Cooler, moist air from the Pacific Ocean helped fire crews fight back against wildfires blazing across Southern California Wednesday, giving firefighters a chance to hold the line of flames from nearing more communities.

By nightfall, more than 15 fires were still burning mostly out of control, but cooler temperatures and weakened Santa Ana winds slowed the pace of many of the blazes.

Firefighter Richard Valenzuela from the Yuma fire department in Yuma, Ariz., rests on the front bumper of his fire truck in Running Springs, Calif., on Tuesday.
(Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press)

Since the fires broke out Sunday, desert winds reaching 160 km/h have hampered efforts by some 10,000 firefighters.

By Wednesday, wind speeds had dropped to below 80 km/h, allowing helicopters and water bombers to drop dozens of loads of water on two large fires that have devastated communities in the San Bernardino Mountains, near Lake Arrowhead.

"They're taking it down considerably," said Dennis Bouslaugh of the U.S. Forest Service.

Many of the fires north of San Diego were largely contained, while all five blazes in Los Angeles County were more than 50 per cent contained, officials said.

"Right now a few of the fires, some of the smaller fires, we're actually getting containment on them, and we're looking forward to the winds abating today," Mike Sicilia, a spokesperson for California's Office of Emergency Services, told CBC News in a phone interview Wednesday.

A water dropping aircraft drops fire retardant on a wildfire in Pauma Valley, Calif., on Wednesday
(AP Photo/Gus Ruelas)

However, none of the six large fires in San Diego County were more than 15 per cent contained.

Five deaths have been blamed on the fires, all in the hardest-hit area of San Diego County. One death was directly from the flames.

The wildfires, stretching from Santa Barbara south to the Mexican border, have prompted the state's largest evacuation in modern history, though the number of evacuees varied in news reports.

Up to 1 million displaced

The Los Angeles Times said 881,500 residents have been forced from their homes. Some news agencies put the estimate at 500,000, though other reports said the number was near one million.

Nearly 1,300 homes and businesses were destroyed and 542 damaged, with most of the destruction in San Diego County, Capt. Greg Gutierrez of the Office of Emergency Services told CBC News Wednesday.

While residents of some communities were allowed to go home, others gathered in groups at shelters as officials read off the addresses of houses that were destroyed.

On Wednesday, about two dozen people gathered at a police barricade in Rancho Bernardo, one of the hardest-hit areas, hoping to retrieve medications and belongings or simply to see if their homes were intact.

A burned car sits among the ruins of a house on Modjeska Canyon Road in Modjeska Canyon, Calif. on Tuesday.
(AP Photo/The Orange County Register, Leonard Ortiz)

What awaited many was an apocalyptic scene: Entire streets levelled, cars reduced to charred hulks of metal, homes with only chimneys left standing. House after house, 29 on one street alone, was reduced to piles of blackened concrete, twisted metal and white ash.

Qualcomm Stadium, home of the NFL's San Diego Chargers, is now home to 10,000 people forced from their homes.

People rested on cots that lined covered walkways circling the bleachers and quietly watched television as National Guard troops watched.

Relief could top $1B

U.S. President George W. Bush stepped up federal help for the region by signing a major disaster declaration, which allows federal funds to funnel to those whose property losses aren't covered by insurance.

"Americans all across this land care deeply about them," the president said after a cabinet meeting convened to co-ordinate federal efforts. "We're concerned about their safety. We're concerned about their property."

An early estimate suggested property losses could easily top $1 billion in San Diego alone.

Bush had already declared a federal emergency Tuesday for the seven fire-stricken counties. He plans to visit the region on Thursday.

So far, Washington's contribution to California includes 32 firefighting crews, dozens of fire engines from the Agriculture Department, 1,239 federal firefighters, 25,000 cots and 280,000 bottles of water, said White House press secretary Dana Perino said.

'Maybe we can turn the tide'

Crews expected extra firefighters and equipment from other states Wednesday. As well, the world's largest water bomber, the Canadian-owned Martin Mars — was dispatched from Port Alberni, B.C., to help fight the fire.

A San Bernardino city firefighter sets a back fire in the northern part of San Bernardino, Calif., on Tuesday.
(LaFonzo Carter/San Bernadino Sun/Associated Press)

On Tuesday, some fire officials said a lack of resources was hampering the firefighting efforts.

Firefighters' lives were threatened by too few crews on the ground, Orange County Fire Chief Chip Prather told the Associated Press, adding a quick deployment of aircraft could have corralled one of the massive blazes.

"It is an absolute fact. Had we had more air resources, we would have been able to control [the fire near Irvine]," he said.

Twenty-one firefighters and at least 24 others have been injured

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dismissed the criticism, calling it a "bunch of nonsense."

Shows can't go on

The fires have forced the popular TV series 24 to cancel a shoot at a marine corps air station as smoke overwhelmed the area. Sets for another TV series, Cold Case, were blown over by the strong winds.

As a precaution, tourist attractions, including San Diego's SeaWorld and the zoo's wild animal park, were shut down, as were several plants employing thousands of workers owned by technology companies such as Sony and Hewlett-Packard.

The region's agriculture industry is also expected to suffer, as it produces $1.4-billion worth of produce and flowers every year.

Minor earthquake

Already dealing with what one official dubbed a "perfect firestorm," Southern California also experienced a minor earthquake early Wednesday.

At 5:22 a.m. local time, a 4.3-magnitude quake shook the area, centred about 165 kilometres northeast of Bakersfield and several hundred kilometres north of the fires.

No injuries have been reported.

 

With files from the Associated Press