Two charred bodies were found in a burned home outside San Diego rose as fire fighters continued to battle harsh wildfires in southern California, officials said Thursday, according to dpa. The cause of death was not yet confirmed, but the bodies were found in a destroyed house in Poway, California late Wednesday, the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper reported. Ten other deaths have been attributed to the fire - with three deaths caused directly by the fire and seven others dying during or after evacuations, the newspaper said. The fires burned across southern California for a fifth straight day Thursday but slower winds and cooler temperatures finally helped firefighters gain the upper hand on many of the blazes and residents of some areas were allowed back to survey the damage. California fire officials said Wednesday seven major blazes were contained. Though the largest fires around San Diego continued to burn, a shift in the wind sent them away from populated areas. Officials have estimated that the damages from the fires would amount to more than 1 billion dollars in the San Diego, as 1,600 homes had been destroyed. Another 9,000 homes remained threatened, officials said. Together with damage from other areas, that would make the current fire far more costly than the disastrous Cedar and Paradise fires of 2003, which caused 1.1 billion dollars of damage. But the death toll was much lower than in 2003 when 17 people were killed. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said it was helping local authorities investigate the cause of the fire. In a sign of the heightened tension, police reported shooting and killing one arson suspect who tried to start a fire in San Bernardino county, and arrested another in San Diego who started a blaze that was quickly put out. US President George W Bush, who declared a major disaster area in seven counties, was to visit the area Thursday. Driven by stiff Santa Ana winds from the eastern desert, more than a dozen wildfires have charged through the drought-stricken region which is covered by a string of wealthy cities and towns. The dying winds helped firefighters by reducing the fanning effect on the blazes, and also allowed the growing number of aircraft on the scene to attack the fires relentlessly. The fires also blazed to the east, where a huge wall of flames threatened the resort town of Lake Arrowhead and had burned about 125 houses. About 10,000 firefighters were battling to contain the blazes. A total of 340,000 households had been ordered to evacuate. It was unclear how many households heeded the orders, but only a fraction of them made it to the hastily erected refugee centres set up at sports stadiums, schools and churches throughout the region. Many others stayed with friends and family. Others booked in to hotels, or stayed with strangers who posted welcome listings on the internet. More than 12,000 evacuees gathered in a state of shock at the Qualcomm Stadium in downtown San Diego, at the sprawling city fairgrounds, at the Camp Pendelton Marine base and other military barracks. Officials called for donations of food, bedding and other supplies for the tens of thousands of refugees. It was the largest evacuation since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and was met with a much hastier response by government.
