The debris may include sharp edges, nails or other objects that can cause injuries. When going through fire debris, wear sturdy shoes, long pants and long-sleeved shirts. Leather work gloves and eye protection are also recommended.

Fire ash may be irritating to the eyes and skin. If the ash is breathed, it can be irritating to the nose and throat and may cause coughing.

Exposure to ash might trigger asthmatic attacks in people who have asthma. In order to avoid possible health problems the following precautions are recommended:

If you do get ash on your skin, wash it off as soon as possible.

Avoid getting ash into the air as much as possible. Do not use leaf blowers or  do anything else that will put ash into the air.

Wear eye protection, such as goggles.

A dust mask can significantly reduce (but not completely eliminate) the amount of particles inhaled. A mask rated N-95 or P-100 will be more effective than simpler dust or surgical masks in blocking particles from ash.

Persons with heart or lung disease should consult their physician before using a mask during post-fire cleanup.

Gentle sweeping of indoor and outdoor hard surfaces followed by mopping is the best procedure in most cases.

If you have a vegetable garden or fruit trees, wash the fruit or vegetables thoroughly before eating them.

For additional information on the safe cleanup of fire ash please visit the Orange County Health Care Agency's website at www.ochealthinfo.com.

The Santiago Incident Unified Command has established an assessment team to determine when residents of the Santiago Fire area may return to their homes.

This assessment begins today and will continue through at least the peak burning period and into the evening. The decision to allow residents to return to their homes will be contingent upon the anticipated fire threat and weather predictions for the affected areas.

Modjeska, Live Oak, Trabuco, and Silverado Canyons may be reopened at different times based upon conditions within each respective canyon. Only residents will be allowed to return to the evacuated areas; road blocks by local law enforcement will stay in place.

The returning residents will be asked to stay on their properties and not enter other affected areas including Cleveland National Forest land, which is still closed.

— Jeffrey L. Rabin

Mandatory evacuation orders were lifted for the majority of Lake Arrowhead and the communities of Twin Peaks, Rim Forest, Blue Jay, Agua Fria, Deer Lodge Park, Sky Forest and Cedar Glen. Reentry passes are not required.

A mandatory evacuation order remains in effect for areas of Lake Arrowhead, Running Springs, Arrowbear and Green Valley Lake that suffered extensive fire damage.

Highways 18 and 138 will reopen to traffic in areas where the mandatory evacuation orders have been lifted.

Staff from the San Bernardino County Environmental Health Department will be at mountain fire stations passing out gloves, masks and information for returning residents.

Power was off in many areas long enough to spoil food. Since the power was restored, items have had time to refreeze. County officials warn that these food items are a potential health hazard.

California 330 and roads to Running Springs remain closed.

-- Jeffrey L. Rabin

Also, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials announced that the Tecate port of entry would reopen at 5 a.m. Monday for passenger vehicles and pedestrians. Trucks are still being diverted to the Otay Mesa or Calexico ports.

-- Tony Perry

The Chargers are collecting donations from fans entering Qualcomm Stadium today for the Chargers-Houston Texans game. Donations go directly to the Salvation Army and families of injured firefighters.

Also, California National Guard sergeants major have established a fund to help Guardsmen and their families hurt by the fires: www.smaofcalifornia.org. Several Guardsmen have had their homes destroyed or damaged, officials said.

-- Tony Perry

The parishioners worshiped at the Malibu Performing Arts Center, just down the hill from where their 50-year-old church lay in ruins.

They hugged. Some cried over their loss. But the mood was redemptive.

Jesus, they recalled, would have called on them to march on.

They handed out fliers announcing that the church's ministries would continue, including seminars for parents, meetings for Pepperdine University students and a food drive for the homeless at the nearby Ralphs supermarket.

"It feels good to be back, but it's not the place we're used to," the Rev. Greg Hughes said as he prepared to lead the service.

Up at the old church before the service, Mike Rupp, 46, tiptoed through the charred remains, searching for some of the peace he had known so often in the sanctuary. Rupp was married in the church; his two children were baptized there. He tried to comprehend what had occurred.

"This building was my safe haven, my sanctuary, where I could always find God when I was troubled," said Rupp, an Agoura salesman, who brought his son and daughter to see the remains of the church. "This was a really cool place, and it will be again."

-- Duke Helfand

Cooler weather, which has greatly aided firefighters, is expected to continue today, with winds at 5 mph to 10 mph, scattered clouds, temperatures in the low 70s and humidity of as much as 30%.

-- Ashley Powers

Five people have died as a result of the fire, and 32 firefighters and 21 civilians have been injured. Today, 2,544 firefighters will work the blaze, which has cost $9.7 million to fight. The cause remains under investigation.

-- Tami Abdollah

The blaze has destroyed 1,040 homes and 30 businesses, and damaged 70 homes and 10 businesses. There were two deaths; 36 firefighters and two civilians were injured.

Today, 2,807 firefighters are working the blaze, which has cost $11.3 million to fight. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

-- Tami Abdollah

So far it has destroyed 136 homes and 19 outbuildings and injured 18 firefighters. Today 2,123 firefighters worked the blaze, which has cost $5.2 million to fight.

The fire started in a home, officials said. The blaze is currently burning along the Santa Margarita drainage area. Hot spots remain in the Agua Tibia Wilderness and at the top of Mt. Palomar, where some evacuations continue in effect.

-- Tami Abdollah

The blaze in San Diego County, caused by a spark from power lines, has destroyed 205 homes, two businesses and 40 outbuildings. It has injured five firefighters.

Today about 850 firefighters continued to work the blaze doing mop-up. "They'll be checking for hot spots, and they won't declare it fully out until the 5th, or sooner," Hagen said. The fire has cost nearly $5 million to fight.

-- Tami Abdollah

At this point, there is no indication that the fire will spread to Riverside County, he said. "We're making very good headway and we're cautiously optimistic."

-- Michael Muskal

Fire investigators Saturday appealed to the public for information about a 44-year-old Los Angeles man arrested Wednesday for allegedly impersonating a firefighter at the Rice fire in Fallbrook.

William Reed Brock, on probation for a drug offense, was arrested while driving a Ford pickup with personalized firefighter license plates and a bed full of fire equipment and clothing.

Investigators said that "if you have seen Brock at any wildfires, or in fire camps or at fire stations," you should contact sheriff's detective Clayton Lisk at (760) 451-3110 or Cal-Fire investigator Gary Eidsmore, (800) 468-4408 or the Cal-Fire Arson Tip Line, (800) 468-4408.

Brock allegedly told deputies he was a member of the Morongo Fire Department, but that information proved false. He is not considered a suspect in any of the fires, Lisk said.

Brock is 6-foot, 160 pounds, balding with blond hair and a ponytail.

-- Tony Perry

Firefighters made steady progress today battling the Santiago fire, but the 27,521-acre blaze is still threatening homes, and Orange County's rustic canyon communities remain under mandatory evacuation.

"The weather today has been outstanding," said Dennis Cross, a spokesman for the Orange County Fire Authority. "High humidity and very little wind is allowing aircraft to really target and hit a lot of hot spots. Structure protection is in place, and we're getting a lot of line constructed."

Nearly 2,000 firefighters are battling the fire, and they were supported in the air by four planes and 16 helicopters.

Assessment teams visiting remote burned areas discovered two more destroyed homes, bringing the fire's toll to at least 16.

A $285,000 reward is being offered to anyone offering information that leads to a conviction.

-- Seema Mehta

The governor seemed to be alluding to the hurt feelings of some Orange County fire officials who believe the county was overlooked in the early days of the Santiago Fire by Cal Fire officials who had deployed aircraft to San Diego County.

In concluding remarks made during a light drizzle, Schwarzenegger vowed to make sure that “Los Angeles doesn't get all the rain and no rain is allocated to Orange County.”

--H.G. Reza

Photo: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

Kora Minor, left, consoles neighbor Andrea Beckwith after she found a family memento in the debris of her burned-out home in the Del Dios area of Escondido in San Diego County.

(Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

But six more were born: three gazelles, a fringe-eared oryx, a Ugandan kob (an antelope) and a dik-dik (an antelope native to eastern Africa).

-- Tony Perry

"We've been in communication with the NFL, and we feel very confident with the information that the San Diego mayor and others have given to the league," Francis said. "We are confident that the game can be played in San Diego on Sunday. We're just following the health guidelines and safety plans in place. We're working closely with the NFL.”

Although the NFL will play its game Sunday, most of the county's organized outdoor athletic activity ground to a halt earlier in the week. The San Diego Unified School District canceled all athletic activity during the weekend. San Diego State University postponed several athletic events, including a Saturday football game against Brigham Young University at Qualcomm. That game has been rescheduled at the stadium for Dec. 1.

San Diego State also postponed men's and women's soccer matches, a cross-country meet and swimming, diving and volleyball competitions. The university plans to reschedule the events or move them to alternative locations.

-- Greg Johnson and Tony Perry

"Now we're back to working regular stuff here -- we're back to regular law enforcement services for the most part," Brust said. He said he did not have details on the arrests.

"We've repopulated most of the county," Brust said.

-- Tami Abdollah

Orange County:

Evacuated from their rustic Orange County canyons for nearly a week, scores of residents are gathering in the parking lot of a nearby Albertsons market that they have dubbed "Camp Silverado."

Children are handing out homemade Halloween cupcakes; volunteers are tending pets, including roosters and iguanas, in a makeshift animal shelter; and fire authorities are providing regular updates about the blaze's direction as the evacuees wait to find out whether their homes are among the 14 destroyed.

"I'm feeling optimistic, but I'm dead tired and I'm pretty stressed out," said Sherry Meddick, a Silverado Canyon resident, as she tended the pets. "Keeping the animals keeps my mind off the situation, and people need the help.... It's pretty hard to take your iguana, 15 rabbits, 10 chickens and pot-bellied pig to Motel 6. They might not leave the lights on."

-- David Haldane

-- Tony Perry

(Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP)

In San Diego and Orange counties today winds are "light and variable, a little weak," at around 5 miles per hour, Atkin said.

The light winds will change direction Sunday, bringing slightly warmer, drier weather to Orange and San Diego counties, meteorologists said.

Those winds from the northeast could push against the fire and might allow crews to fight it from the front.

"Hopefully, this will give us a chance to do a little more of a direct attack," Berglund said late this morning. "With the winds coming from the opposite direction, that will slow the fire as it reaches the ridgetop" that divides the two counties. Those same winds could also create drier conditions before moister air returns Tuesday, when firefighters may wake up to a marine layer and higher humidity.

A few raindrops fell today in the Santiago Canyon area of Orange County. "Everyone was saying, 'Hey, we feel raindrops,' but we didn't see it on the ground," said fire information officer Tom Berglund.

Go to the National Weather Service website for updated forecasts for Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties.
--Deborah Schoch

"The water has to test clean for 48 hours," he said.

With water cut off and the city on a boil-water order, lines of portable toilets speckled the town's parking lots as people searched out the few restaurants that were still open and tried to figure out how to get water to their dogs and horses.

"Multiple" small water districts in the county have also been on boil-water orders because of contamination issues from the fires' ash and debris, Workman said, though he could not specify these areas.

But Ramona, whose water district serves about 36,000 residents, was a different issue to begin with, Workman said. He said that the fire burned the water district's pump station and that the generator went out; the district had no spare generator.

"So they couldn't keep their water flow up, so basically all their water ran dry," Workman said.

For Ramona resident John Gould, 75, the lack of water has been one of many frustrations. He has a water well on his property, but electricity is not expected to be restored until Nov. 7, he said.

That's why he ended up at the town's Kragen Auto Parts store, where he picked up a $500 generator on Friday.

"I need 220 volts to turn on the well," Gould said. "And I have a swimming pool that looks like the black lagoon."

-- Tami Abdollah

The Santiago blaze is clambering toward Mine Tract, a small community of about 40 homes in Silverado Canyon. All residents have been evacuated, and hand crews are cutting a fire break. Firefighters are positioning themselves to defend the homes while water-dropping helicopters are trying to douse the flames, which are half a mile away.

"Right now, it's a very slow back-burning fire creeping down the ridge tops," said Orange County Fire Authority Battalion Chief Pat Antrim, who has lived in Silverado for 46 years.

These homes are the only ones immediately threatened in Silverado, which has been evacuated for days and has so far avoided major damages.

"The threat is diminishing day by day," Antrim said.

Firefighters say improving weather, including a sprinkle of rain Saturday morning, bodes well for their ability to control the 27,521-acre blaze. Earlier this week, the arson fire's growth was fueled by Santa Ana winds and bone-dry conditions, and it destroyed at least 14 homes, mostly in Modjeska Canyon.

"We're getting a little drizzle, which is better than hot wind," Antrim said.

Capt. Andrew Ruiz, a Los Angeles city firefighter who was protecting homes in Mine Tract, added, "The weather is in our favor, and we're taking advantage of it."

-- David Haldane

As wildfires continue to burn in the Southland, air quality will remain
unhealthful today and tomorrow in areas directly impacted by smoke."

Areas forecast to have unhealthful air quality today are the central San
Bernardino Mountains, including Lake Arrowhead, and the Saddleback Valley
area in Orange County.

In other areas not directly impacted by smoke in San Bernardino,
Riverside and Orange counties, air quality today and tomorrow is forecast to
be unhealthy for sensitive individuals. Air quality in coastal and valley areas
of Los Angeles County is predicted to be in the moderate range.

In areas where unhealthful air quality is forecast, as well as anywhere
that smoke is seen or smelled or ash is falling:
* everyone should avoid all vigorous exertion, indoors or out;
* residents with heart disease, respiratory diseases including asthma, as well
as the elderly and children should remain indoors;
* keep windows and doors closed unless it is extremely hot inside. In these
cases, seek alternate shelter; and
* turn on an air conditioner if you have one. Keep the fresh air intake closed
and the filter clean to minimize outdoor smoke entering the house.
Air quality officials especially urge schools, day care centers and sports
coaches to not allow children to exercise – whether outdoors or inside –
during unhealthful air quality conditions.
When air quality is forecast to be unhealthy for sensitive groups,
sensitive or susceptible individuals, such as those with heart or lung disease,
should minimize outdoor activity. When air quality is in the moderate range,
unusually sen In areas where unhealthful air quality is forecast, as well as anywhere
that smoke is seen or smelled or ash is falling:
* everyone should avoid all vigorous exertion, indoors or out;
* residents with heart disease, respiratory diseases including asthma, as well
as the elderly and children should remain indoors;
* keep windows and doors closed unless it is extremely hot inside. In these
cases, seek alternate shelter; and
* turn on an air conditioner if you have one. Keep the fresh air intake closed
and the filter clean to minimize outdoor smoke entering the house.
Air quality officials especially urge schools, day care centers and sports
coaches to not allow children to exercise – whether outdoors or inside –
during unhealthful air quality conditions.
When air quality is forecast to be unhealthy for sensitive groups,
sensitive or susceptible individuals, such as those with heart or lung disease,
should minimize outdoor activity. When air quality is in the moderate range,
unusually sensitive individuals should consider reducing vigorous outdoor
activity.
Wildfire smoke contains numerous pollutants including microscopic
particles known as PM10 and PM2.5. Go to the AQMD's website for a printable fact sheet containing
tips to avoid health impacts from the smoke.

Although the National Football League will hold its game Sunday at Qualcomm Stadium, most of the county's organized outdoor athletic activity ground to a halt Saturday.

The San Diego Unified School District canceled all athletic activity during the weekend. San Diego State University postponed several athletic events, including a Saturday football game against Brigham Young University at Qualcomm. That game is scheduled to be played Dec. 1 at Qualcomm.

San Diego State postponed men's and women's soccer matches, a cross-country meet and swimming, diving and volleyball competitions. The university plans to reschedule the events or move them to alternative locations.

-- Greg Johnson

A simple point about home values seems to be getting lost in the discussion these days. I've been meaning to write a post about this for a few days. On the local radio show Editor's Roundtable yesterday morning, I heard KPBS' Alan Ray advocate a rethinking of whether we should rebuild homes in the areas destroyed by the fire.

I think Ray was confused by a misperception of home values and insurance that I have heard over and over recently. A lot of people are thinking and talking and postulating that somehow you can look at a home's market value and determine how much money they'll get from insurance. That's just not true.

Most of the value of a house is contained in the value of the land. The land doesn't burn up when a house ignites. I suppose it may blacken and some of the infrastructure may be damaged, but the land retains most of its value unless it's somehow cut off from what made it a valuable location.

In other words, you may have a home that's worth $800,000. But that doesn't mean that insurance is going to pay you $800,000 if it's destroyed. Insurance will pay the cost of rebuilding the home. Take, for example, Cheryl Hamano, who I wrote about in this column yesterday.

After her family's Scripps Ranch home was destroyed in the 2003 Cedar fire, the family had to wrangle with its insurance company for a year.

They ended up receiving $155 per square foot to rebuild. I didn't ask how big her house was, but let's say it was 1,800 square feet. That is $279,000. The insurance company also paid for part of their living expenses and other costs while the family waited for workers to finish the home. But add all that up, and it's nothing close to the actual market value of an 1,800-square-foot home in Scripps Ranch.

"The cost of replacing lost possessions and the home itself is going to be far different from the market value of the home," said Tully Lehman, a spokesman for the Insurance Information Network of California.

If someone wanted to move to a new, less fire-prone neighborhood with the insurance money they receive, they'll also have to go through the hassle of selling a plot of land with nothing on top of it but the rubble of a burnt house.

And only someone who wanted to put a house there would want to buy that plot of land.

In other words, someone may want to move to a less flammable area after losing a home in this disaster, but their proceeds from insurance won't be one of the incentives.

Now, if the insurers decided not to provide coverage for a newly built home in a fire-prone area, that would provide a disincentive to build there. But I don't see that happening. Insurers need California.

"We stayed after the 1991 fire in Oakland. We stayed and provided coverage after the 2003 Cedar fire. And we'll stay around now. This is a good state to do business in," Lehman said.

-- Scott Lewis

Mayor Jerry Sanders said Saturday that he was confident that fans were going to be OK attending Sunday's National Football League game between the Chargers and the Houston Texans, despite reports about poor air quality.

People are taking precaution and aren't exerting themselves, he said. On Saturday, the temperatures were lower and the skies overcast. There was even some rain just south of the border.

"I think [the air] is getting better each day," Sanders said.

-- Tony Perry

"There are people out there preying on San Diegans," Sanders said.

At his Saturday morning news conference at the San Diego Zoo, Sanders said an out-of-town company snapped up 50 apartments in the Rancho Bernardo area and tripled the rent. A woman who had evacuated called the mayor's office, and after receiving pressure from city officials, the company backed off and the apartments were offered at the pre-fire rent.

-- Tony Perry

Specialized crews are guarding the communications towers atop Santiago Peak and Modjeska Peak, and fire retardant has been spread in a 2-1/2-mile radius around both towers in hopes of saving them, Tunforss said.

The towers are linchpins for communications in the area, he said. "You've got a lot of radio stations, television stations. You've got a lot of cell towers."

-- Deborah Schoch

"We want the message to go out across the world: San Diego is open for business," Mayor Jerry Sanders said at a morning news conference at the San Diego Zoo.

As the mayor spoke, families, out-of-state visitors and couples streamed through the zoo's entrance.

Tourism is the third-largest industry in San Diego, after manufacturing and the military. Tourism spending annually is about $8.2 billion, and there are about 120,000 jobs in the industry.

The mayor said it appeared that the blazes were not keeping people away. Only one convention canceled during the fires.

A popular golf tournament will take place at Barona Creek Golf Club next week, and a major neuroscience convention is coming soon to San Diego's waterfront convention center.

The zoo remained opened during the fires. The Wild Animal Park, in the city's San Pasqual Valley, has reopened after part of the grounds burned.

"From sparkling beaches to a thriving downtown, San Diego does not disappoint," said David Peckinpaugh, chief executive of the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau. "If you haven't visited recently, now is the time to visit San Diego."

-- Tony Perry

"The only hot spot is the Poomacha, and that's up on Palomar [Mountain]," she said. "Everything else is looking real good."

-- Tami Abdollah

"The main area of focus today is Silverado Canyon, where the fire is still threatening homes," said Fire Authority Battalion Chief Kris Concepcion. Firefighters are engaged in "structure protection, trying to establish a line between the fire and the homes."

After days of erratic winds and bone-dry humidity levels, the weather is finally cooperating with firefighters, he said. Temperatures are decreasing, humidity is increasing and moist ocean breezes are blowing inland.

-- Seema Mehta

In recent days, many of the engine crews had turned to snuffing out spot fires in Running Springs or were clearing land near Lake Arrowhead in case the wind kicked up and the fire dashed west.

They also surveyed the Slide fire's devastation -- homes hollowed out amid dead trees that turned streets into tinderboxes.

The last few nights, Joe Hatfield, a fire captain for the city of Ontario, has scoured parts of the San Bernardino National Forest for flaming tree trunks and loose embers. Sometimes, his thoughts slowed and his eyes drooped -- but only briefly.

"Sure, this work we're doing isn't glamorous. But if we miss something, someone's house could go up like that," he said.

He was reminded of that Friday morning, when he was on mop-up duty in Running Springs.

A strike team nearby found flames. The fire quickly raced from underneath a deck to a house and into the attic before firefighters put it out.

"Just when you think nothing's happening, something does," he said.

-- Ashley Powers

The arson blaze, which has destroyed at least 14 homes, is 35% contained.

Overnight, firefighters protected homes in the narrow seven-mile canyon and used bulldozers to build a five-mile fire break, aiming to stop the fire front marching toward the Riverside County line. Nearly 2,000 firefighters are fighting the blaze.

An update is scheduled for later this morning.

-- Seema Mehta

Firefighters were working today to shore up the blaze's northwest corner, which has crept into areas burned by the Old fire, through low grass and tree limbs that remain.

Overnight, hand crews cut a line in the unruly fire's southwest corner amid steep, rocky terrain and near the burned-over community of Fredalba. There is a contingency line to the west.

Hand crews also worked the fire's northern edge, near Crab Flats, said Tom Hatcher, the fire's operations section chief.

Temperatures hovering in the high 60s, light winds and humidity at 18% to 25% should help firefighting efforts, officials said. A dozen helicopters crossed red-tinged clouds, dousing flames with water. The blaze is 25% contained and is the state's No. 2 firefighting priority.

More than 1,900 fire personnel are battling the blaze, a significantly larger force than in previous days. The blaze has cost $4.5 million to fight.

To the west, the Grass Valley fire was 85% contained.

-- Ashley Powers

"We were evacuated at 2:30 a.m. and it was pretty much hysteria," one woman told Commandant Gen. James Conway during a question-and-answer session following his brief remarks. "Is there a standard emergency evacuation plan for the military?"

Another wife said she was given "way too much conflicting information" in the hours that preceded Wednesday morning's evacuation.

Conway deflected the questions to Col. James Seaton, commanding officer of the sprawling base.

"It wasn't perfect," Seaton said. "I apologize for having to wake you up at 2:30 a.m., but the winds were unpredictable."

Another military wife thanked the Marines for "an outstanding effort that went beyond the call of duty and I want to let you know my family is very appreciative of your efforts."

The Horno fire, which disrupted training for Marines set to deploy to Iraq, has burned 20,000 acres but was expected to be 100% contained by Friday night, a Cal Fire spokesman said.

-- David McKibben

Yesterday I wrote a column about a San Diego resident named Cheryl Hamano and the challenge of measuring a disaster.

I had met Hamano and her family four years ago after they lost their home in the Cedar Fire. It was by sheer luck that the family had been able to evacuate during that firestorm. Their daughter had gotten up early on a Sunday morning to go to the bathroom. She had smelled smoke and looked outside. Another teenager was running in the street and told her to get out.

The family left just before flames consumed their house. Cheryl had no time to grab her purse. She was left with no official proof of who she was.

Quite a story.

Since then, the family rebuilt. But the marriage dissolved -- the stress of reconstruction didn't help. Cheryl had to move into a rented house in the same neighborhood.

And, this week, she found herself being evacuated again. The flames stayed away from her home but she said the experience of fleeing the fire was much more orderly this time around. She had plenty of warning and plenty of time to collect the most valuable of possessions.

She said dealing with the insurance company was more difficult than she had hoped. She said that unlike her neighbors, the family's new house was not much bigger than the one they lost. After the divorce, she had to sell and move out dropping the price over and over again in a slumping real estate market.

She said that the stress the fire caused has never really gone away.

"People think once you rebuild from the fire that it's all back to normal," she said. "But it's not -- not always."

-- Scott Lewis

Firefighters reported 20% containment on the Slide fire, which had bored through 13,700 acres by this evening. Officials said they lost 201 residences and 3 outbuildings. There was only one home lost today, in Running Springs. With resources freed up from other fires, the total number of personnel jumped from 1,359 this morning to 1,964 by this evening.

The Grass Valley fire was 75% contained at 1,140 acres. Twenty homes were damaged and 162 destroyed, according to the new estimates.

-- Maeve Reston

San Diego County:

Evacuation orders for the rural communities of Julian, Wynola, Cuyamaca and Pine Hills, all once threatened by the eastward march of the Witch fire, were lifted Friday night.

-- Tony Perry

Running Springs:

In the first quiet day in Running Springs, the fire chief who watched his town nearly go up in smoke finally found some quiet moments to sift through paperwork. Chief Bill Smith was up for the first 50 hours of the San Bernardino Mountain firestorm -- among the first to respond to the Grass Valley Fire and then racing back to the Slide when it flared up in his community a short time later.

Firefighters lost the last structure in Running Springs this morning. In the early evening, the fatigue was finally settling in.

"When you have homes burning you have enough adrenaline that it kind of keeps you going," said Smith, who spent 30 years fighting fires with the U.S. Forest Service before retiring as the Mountaintop Division Chief. "Once in a while you get to the point where you're exhausted but you just move on."

"The hardest thing for any fire chief is to lose any structures... but especially the impact of losing so many homes is just heartwrenching,"

Smith has been the Running Springs chief for nine years.

"Most of us fight fires a lot of years and go to other people's jurisdiction fighting fires, but it's a totally different feeling when it's your own community."

Not only would he have to contend with residents coming back to homes that have vanished into ash, but fire continues to burn in the steep, inaccessible canyons to the west.

"That will pose a threat possibly until the snow flies," he said.

-- Maeve Reston

Throughout the week of fire, there has been a series of headlines usually tucked in below all of the important news. The stream of updates had to do with what seemed like an overly agonizing decision about when and where to play the Chargers game. Government and team officials passed this decision around like the hottest of potatoes. And they just passed it off completely. The game had been scheduled for Sunday.

About Tuesday, as the fires were raging and causing evacuations all the way to the coast, the Chargers decided to move their practices to Arizona.

By Wednesday, they had decided to pass the decision on when the game would occur over to San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders:

The Chargers are fully prepared to implement whatever decision the Mayor makes, including either playing the game at Qualcomm Stadium or relocating the game to another facility out of the San Diego area.

The mayor on Thursday sent the decision back to the Chargers:

"Should they decide to play in San Diego, the stadium will be ready on Sunday," said Fred Sainz, the mayor's spokesman. "It's their decision to play in San Diego or not."

Neither side wanted to be saddled with responsibility for a potentially controversial choice. After all, the air in San Diego is still hazy. The fires are still burning in parts of the county. It doesn't take a genius
to figure out some choice criticism for the team or the city for callously putting resources into a game.

So no decision came.

Until Friday, when the NFL stepped in. Chargers President Dean Spanos explained that, after all that, it was the NFL's choice all along.

The NFL Commissioner in his sole discretion has the ultimate right to decide where and when a game will be played.  With that in mind, please understand it wasn't as easy logistically as a lot of people thought it might have been.

Wait, hadn't they said it was entirely up to the mayor? He went on:

We formally got the go-ahead late Thursday from the City that Qualcomm Stadium would be ready Sunday.  Unfortunately the Commissioner and most of the NFL officials who would be involved in the decision-making process were in London for the game between the Dolphins and the Giants.

This means, in case you can't tell by now, that the game will be held Sunday as originally scheduled.

The Chargers are accustomed to criticism from non-fans angry about how many resources and accommodations the team demands. The city is accustomed to being criticized for catering to the Chargers and blasted for not helping the team enough.

So when a tough choice came up, it was a perfect dilemma. As they tried to deal with it, we got the awkward dance of indecision that only San Diego can really pull off.

-- Scott Lewis

Deep in the pines of the San Bernardino National Forest, about four miles east of where the Slide fire began in Green Valley Lake, firefighters struggled with exhaustion as they beat down hot spots with shovels and axes.

The goal was to build a containment line around Crab Flats before a predicted wind shift Sunday that could direct the fire toward Lake Arrowhead and possibly parts of Running Springs again. But the adrenaline was gone.

"We're all at a kind of plodding pace, everyone has got blisters on top of blisters and we're losing our voices," said Mike Rigney, a Lake Arrowhead-based fire captain with the San Bernardino Fire Department.

Sleep? "We got four or five hours somewhere in the third day," Rigney said.

Rigney was among the first to fight the Grass Valley Fire in Lake Arrowhead. There wasn't enough equipment or people and certainly no time for sleep. The work pace ranged from losing entire blocks of homes to losing one house at a time.

"All of the Arrowhead crews pretty much worked a solid 48 to 50 hours," Rigney said. "A lot of the [firefighting] guys in the mountain community live up here. It's our town and we know people who are losing our homes. … So if you sit down and take too long of a break, someone else might lose a house."

"Everything that looks like the dark side of the moon [in Lake Arrowhead] – that's where we were," he continued. "It started in the very worst possible place under the very worst conditions it could start. That was the fire that we would do tabletop drills on -- the worst-case scenario. If it was the only fire in the state in the first six hours, it probably would have been the same event."

It was several days before he called his wife, who evacuated to her parents' home in Yucaipa. The fire made it to the deck of their house in Running Springs, but no further. He waited to call her until he could tell her their home was safe.

-- Maeve Reston

Though Silverado Canyon, with its steep walls, narrow roads, mature trees and chaparral is a potential tinderbox, it has managed to escape major damage from wildfires in modern times. Silverado Canyon was untouched even by the 1967 Paseo Grande fire, which blackened nearly 49,000 acres and burned 51 homes, mostly in the canyons and foothills of east Orange County. The blaze was marching toward the canyon, but it changed directions at the last moment and burned Black Star Canyon.

-- William Lobdell

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his aides today struck a triumphant and self-congratulatory note as they attempted to show that they were moving into the recovery phase of the 2007 California fire disaster.

Schwarzenegger called cabinet members and agency heads to his Office of Emergency Services headquarters at the former Mather Air Force base for a 20-minute session in front of reporters to discuss recovery efforts. The governor, flanked by other state officials, then walked into a state operations center and thanked emergency services workers who helped coordinate the response.

"This is not over, I just want you to know," Schwarzenegger said. "I always say, this is the sprint. Now comes the marathon."

In a news conference afterward, Schwarzenegger and Lt. Gov. John Garamendi both said the state had dramatically outperformed its response to the southern California wildfires of 2003, losing fewer lives and property despite more fires.

"While there was a very good response to those horrific fires in southern California, the response this time was much, much better," Garamendi said. "The ability of the state government to learn from the problems and shortcomings of the 2003 effort is obvious. It's obvious that there was substantially lower loss of life, lower loss of property, fewer homes burned."

State officials have responded to criticism of the time it took to deploy air resources by pointing to local agencies who are the first responders and to outmoded federal equipment. Schwarzenegger said the state had not purchased all the new fire engines recommended by the Blue Ribbon Commission after the 2003 fires because of the state's budget crisis, but added that it is continually purchasing more.

The governor said there would be time to analyze how to make further improvements, but that time would come later. He spoke instead of the fire chiefs and evacuated residents he said had expressed their gratitude to him for the state's help.

"The fact of the matter is, I'm looking right now at the extraordinary work that was done and how many people's lives were saved," Schwarzenegger said.

-- Michael Rothfield

Nancy Duncan made so many new friends at the Orange Show Fairgrounds evacuation center that she wasn’t sure she wanted to leave today .

“They are having barbecue tonight -- are you sure you don’t want to stay one more night?” she asked her daughter-in-law, Nicole Duncan, 35. “It’s really been wonderful. I got Arnold’s [Schwarzenegger] autograph and played cards with the grandkids in the van. I’ve been on television three times. It’s been really, really wonderful.”

Nicole on the other hand couldn't wait to get home for a real shower. Her kids, however, also wanted to stay.

“I thought there would be more enthusiasm about leaving,” Nicole said.

Authorities today allowed residents of Crestline, Enchanted Valley and Cedar Pines Park to go home, thinning the evacuation center ranks, which numbered about 1,800 Thursday. New numbers were not available.

Chris Navarette, 45, was plenty excited about going home.

“It was nice for awhile but it’s time to go now,” he said. “I feel very fortunate because I have friends who have lost everything.”

Refugees from the Lake Arrowhead, Green Valley Lake, Grass Valley and Running Springs areas remain at the shelter.

-- David Kelly