Wildfires stoked by winds and high temperatures burned out of control in the San Bernardino mountains, triggering firestorms that destroyed dozens of homes and businesses in foothill suburbs and forced the evacuation of thousands of residents from San Bernardino to Rancho Cucamonga.
Stoked by Santa Ana winds that knocked firefighters off their feet and grounded water-dropping helicopters and airplanes, the fires spread over more than 20,000 acres and raised a ceiling of thick black smoke that stretched for miles.
Firefighters who have already been laboring for days in triple-digit temperatures fighting fires scattered from San Diego to Ventura counties faced their biggest challenge in the section of the San Bernardino Mountains just east of the 215 freeway.
Cyclones of embers tore through one of San Bernardino's historic neighbors, setting dozens of houses ablaze, and flames leaped from home to home in cul-de-sacs on the edge of the foothills, with trees exploding in flames because of the searing heat.
The blaze, 30 miles east of Los Angeles, spread rapidly along two fronts to California State University, San Bernardino, and the San Manuel Indian Reservation and threatened to burn north toward explosively dry forests devastated by drought and bark beetles. No major injuries were reported, but firefighters said they were too busy to search smoldering homes for residents who failed to escape.
Local officials called upon Gov. Gray Davis to declare an official state of emergency as fire authorities urged thousands of residents to evacuate and expressed great worry over their ability to gain control over the blaze.
Within hours, a makeshift evacuation center at the San Bernardino International Airport was overflowing with shell-shocked refugees of the blaze.
"Today we have bad news and worse news," San Bernardino County Deputy Fire Chief Dan Worl told a group of the evacuees. "We just don't have any place to contain this fire."