New winds mean new problems for fire crews

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- The imminent collapse of a massive Santa Ana condition is not all good news for firefighters battling more than a dozen wildfires in Southern California.

The blustery winds out of the east were beginning to moderate late Tuesday and beginning to blow out of the west, and therefore becoming less predictable to the crews racing to stay a step ahead of the flames as they encroach into residential areas along the urban-wildland interface.

"From a firefighting point of view, an east wind is predictable," Cal Fire Battalion Chief Robert Lewin said at a media briefing. "Now they are changing an unpredictable. Its still a dangerous situation."

Cal Fire was particularly concerned with the likelihood that two major San Diego County fires would merge overnight in the Palomar Mountain area.

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said some of the more than 500,000 evacuees still out of their homes would probably be able to get back into their neighborhoods Wednesday.

Additional assets and firefighters continued to join the fray, including a huge DC-10 air tanker and a strike team of 34 bombaderos from the Tijuana, Mexico, fire brigade.