American Red Cross Opens New Shelter
Shelter To House Residents Displaced By Wildfire
POSTED: 3:29 pm PDT November 3,
2007
UPDATED: 4:02 pm PDT November 3,
2007
SAN DIEGO -- North County residents displaced by the Poomacha Fire were moving into temporary housing at a newly opened American Red Cross shelter Saturday.The Kilroy Center at 10850 Via Frontera in Rancho Bernardo opened Friday, said Peyton Roberts of the American Red Cross.Roberts said the site will provide housing for people previously staying at a shelter inside Valley Center High School. The school was shut down for more than a week due to the fire but has since resumed classes.
Other North County residents displaced by the Rice Fire are staying at Saint Peters Church at 450 S. Stagecoach in Fallbrook. The church replaced the original designated shelter at Fallbrook High School.In total, an estimated 515,000 people were evacuated countywide during the Harris, Witch, Poomacha and Rice fires beginning on Oct. 21, the largest fire evacuation in U.S. history, according to county officials.All evacuation orders were lifted Oct. 31 but hundreds of residents are without a place to live after losing their homes to the blaze.The Poomacha fire destroyed 147 homes in the northeastern rural outskirts of San Diego County, while the Rice Fire destroyed 206 homes in an area just west of the Poomacha Fire, according to Cal Fire.As of 8 a.m. Saturday, Cal Fire reports that the Poomacha fire is 93 percent contained, having burned 49,410 acres so far. The Rice, Witch and Harris fires were all 100 percent contained in the past week.Fanned by strong Santa Ana winds, the Rice fire burned 9,472 acres; the Witch Fire claimed 197,990 acres; and the Harris Fire, 90,400 acres.
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