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THREE NEW DEATHS
Firefighters in San Diego County were mourning the death Wednesday of a colleague fighting the state’s largest fire. Three other firefighters were injured, one of them critically.
The firefighters were near Wynola, a town a few miles northwest of Julian, where hundreds of firefighters have converged to make a stand against the Cedar Fire.
Local wildfire coverage
• KNSD San Diego
• KNBC Los Angeles
• Orange Country Register
• Ventura County Star
Steven Rucker, 38, an 11-year veteran of the Novato Fire Department in Northern California, was killed while trying to save a home near Wynola. His death was the first of a firefighter since the blazes began last week, and at their morning briefing Thursday, many firefighters wore black bands on their badges in his memory.
Novato Deputy Fire Chief Dan Northern fought back tears as he described Rucker as a hard worker who volunteered to fight the fire that killed him.
“He wasn’t sent there,” Northern said. “He asked to go.”
The death toll later reached 20 after two people were found dead on an Indian reservation as the result of the same fire.
MORE HELP ON WAY
More crews and their equipment from other states were arriving to join or relieve some of the 13,000 firefighters already on the front lines.
The towering peaks of the San Bernardino range east of Los Angeles and the mountains of eastern San Diego County are the major fronts in the long arc of wildfires that have roared over 660,000 acres — about 1,000 square miles, or more than three times the size of New York City.
Seven fires were burning in four counties Thursday morning.
The westerly winds blowing Thursday also represented a shift, creating the possibility that fires would head along new paths. In addition, smoke and ash spread as far as Phoenix, prompting officials there to warn the very young and very old to stay indoors.
More than 2,600 homes have been destroyed in California since Oct. 21, including that of Rep. Duncan Hunter, who represents San Diego in Congress. “We’re going to rebuild,” Hunter told MSNBC TV. His home in Alpine, Calif., burned in the Cedar Fire.
The 250,000-acre Cedar Fire had already destroyed 1,400 homes on the south side of Julian, a gold-rush tourist town. Ten miles south of Julian, about 90 percent of homes were destroyed in Cuyamaca, a lakeside town of about 160 residents.
The Cedar Fire was reported to be 15 percent contained, and it was not expected to be fully contained before next Wednesday.
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