BY CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A firefighter lights backfires to protect the neighborhood of Bonita as fires continue to wreak destruction across Southern California.
A swimming pool is coated with ash in the wealthy enclave of Rancho Santa Fe.
• October 1991: Oakland hills of Alameda County in the San Francisco Bay area; 1,520 acres; 3,276 homes and apartments destroyed; 25 people killed. Cause: A flying ember from a fire believed to have been contained ignited a tree.
• November 1993: Malibu area of Los Angeles County; 18,000 acres; 323 homes destroyed; three deaths. Cause: arson. It was among more than 20 that killed four people, destroyed more than 1,000 homes and consumed 193,814 acres over two weeks.
• October 2003: Near San Diego; 273,000 acres; 4,847 structures destroyed; 15 deaths. Cause: Accidentally started by a hunter. It was among 15 wildfires that killed 22 people, destroyed 3,640 homes and blackened 750,000 acres of Southern California over two weeks.
Some of the worst wildfires in California since the 1930s, based on deaths, destruction or acreage burned:
President Bush declared a state of emergency in Southern California today as hellish firestorms stoked by Santa Ana winds forced thousands more to abandon their homes.
"All of us across this nation are concerned for the families who have lost their homes and the many families who have been evacuated from their homes," Bush said. "We send the help of the federal government."
Bush, who was widely criticized for the botched federal response to Hurricane Katrina, promised help on Day 3 of the fiery cataclysm that has consumed more than 1,000 homes, burned through more than 400 square miles and turned 300,000 Californians into refugees.
"We've learned from the past," California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said. "Everybody is working together."
Marines newly returned from Iraq were mustered to help exhausted firefighters battle blazes that appeared to ignite out of nowhere, smeared the sky with smoke - and sent walls of flames marching across the scrub brush from the mountains to the Pacific Coast.
"We are getting very strong northeast winds," Capt. Don Camp, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told The Associated Press. "They are very erratic, causing us to modify our procedures."
Adding to the woes were furnace-type temperatures approaching 100 degrees in San Diego and nearby Orange County.
Meanwhile, Marines at Air Station Miramar in San Diego were ordered to fly their F-18 fighter jets, C-130 cargo planes and helicopters to bases elsewhere in California and Arizona to get them away from the flames.
Mandatory evacuations of civilians in hardest hit San Diego County were also ordered and the freeways were clogged with cars heading north and east in search of safety.
So far, the wildfires have claimed one life in San Diego County and injured 42. At least 16 of the injured were firefighters - some of whom reportedly lost their own homes while trying to save the homes of others.
At Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, up to 10,000 evacuees waited for the crisis to be over and watched the local news coverage of the fires on the stadium's television sets.
Local officials pleaded for donations of blankets, board games, cots, pillows and food for the people staying there as hundreds more arrived by the hour.
Many evacuees, fleeing along with their friends and neighbors, were unsure where to go for shelter.
Wanda Tomkinson, 79, checked into the Doubletree in Del Mar for safety. But she and her husband and their Boston terrier had to decamp when the hotel was evacuated.
Tompkinson said they hoped a family friend would be able to take them in. If not, she said, "the Lord'll take care of us."
The first of the wildfires erupted on Sunday along the Mexican border and hopscotched across the parched landscape as far north as Burbank, outside Los Angeles. They did not discriminate, devouring everything from Malibu mansions to middle-class homes.
Wildfires have wreaked havoc here in the past. Four years ago this month, blazes tore through Southern California, killing 22 people and destroying 3,640 homes.
On October 22, 2007, NASA satellites continued to capture remarkable new images of the wildfires raging in Southern California.
Nearly 330,000 people in San Diego County, California located in the United States are being ordered to evacuate after massive wildfires started to spread and grow. As a result, U.S. President George W. Bush has declared a state of emergency in California clearing the way for federal aid assistance.

"All of us across this nation are concerned for the families who have lost their homes and the many families who have been evacuated from their homes. We send the help of the federal government," said Bush in a statement to the press.
This pair of images, depicting the area around Los Angeles on October 21, 2007, shows just how quickly the fires grew.
Almost 1,500 houses have been burned to ashes and fires continue to threaten nearly 60,000 more. Firefighters now fear that the fires could merge into one giant blaze if the Santa Ana Winds continue sending close to if not over 500,000 people running for safety. One person has died as a result of the fires with 42 injured. 16 of those are reported to be firefighters who were battling the blazes.

"It will not end ... until it reaches the ocean or the winds turn around," said San Diego County Fire Battalion Chief, Bruce Cartelli. At least 13 wildfires have burned more than 356,000 acres (142,400 hectares) in areas stretching from San Diego, near the border with Mexico, to Malibu, near Los Angeles.
 
Air Station Miramar for the U.S. Air Force is also being evacuated with the base's planes and other military equipment being transported away from the raging fires to Arizona and places far north of the fires in California.