Jim Hill: Change in wind direction could aid firefighters near San Diego

Jim Hill

CNN Correspondent Jim Hill is reporting from Alpine, California, where firefighters are trying to fight a 10,000-acre wildfire.

Q: Is there any relief in sight for firefighters battling this fire?

HILL: The headline of the day is that they expect a change in the weather: The hot, dry Santa Ana winds blowing from the east are dying off and are being replaced by a westerly flow from the ocean. In other words, the winds are expected to reverse directions.

It means two things. The westerly flow is cooler and more humid, so this will improve firefighting conditions for firefighters. A cooler, more humid wind will keep the fires down in intensity. They won't burn as rapidly.

In addition, because the winds are coming from the opposite direction, in some cases it will push the fire back onto itself. So, that will aid firefighters as well.

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The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Most of the attention is being given to an automobile fire that happened on a highway through this mountainous region. They suspect the car fire touched off the wildfire, but it has not been officially confirmed.

Q: Describe the scene of the fires.

HILL: If you walk around this area of mountains, valleys and canyons, you see a pall of smoke that is almost like fog settling over this community. You can see hot spots and dense columns of smoke rising up in different isolated areas. There are large expanses of valley areas and hillsides that are charred. The brush and small scrub oaks are burned black.

About 300 people in the area were told to evacuate. This is a sparsely populated region. You have clusters of homes as well as isolated, small ranches in the area. So, it's not densely populated. Many of the people who evacuated spent a short time in an evacuation shelter and then made other arrangements for themselves with friends and relatives. A number of those people are being allowed back in their homes now. At least five homes were burned.

Q: How are the firefighters battling the blaze?

HILL: There are 2,000 firefighters on the ground, broken up into 20-person hand crews. Those ground crews are trying to build a fire line to contain this 10,000-acre blaze. They want to encircle the fire and keep it from spreading.

There are seven air tankers dropping retardant and water on the fire. Two of those aircraft are C-130s from the National Guard that are specially equipped for firefighting. They have a system where, instead of dropping water out of huge tanks using gravity, they actually have a system that forces the water out under pressure, allowing more water to get to the fire in a much quicker fashion.

There are also nine water-dropping helicopters that have been brought in.

In addition, 220 fire engines from surrounding counties are on the scene for structure protection. Those fire engines are used to protect homes and buildings when the fire is threatening. That way, they can try to douse anything that comes near the structures.