Arson Charge Filed in Southern California Wildfire
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our investigations continue into the cause of these fires, and they will continue until hopefully we're satisfied with the results.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have worked very hard, Senator Isakson, to root out these inappropriate uses of the scheduling system and this abuse. It's absolutely inexcusable.</s>MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY: So today by some measures our schools are as segregated as they were back when Dr. King gave his final speech.</s>CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, a busy morning. We're so glad that you just took a couple of seconds to spend it with us and sit down and relax. I'm Christi Paul.</s>VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Always a pleasure. I'm Victor Blackwell. 10:00 here on the East Coast, 7:00 out West. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. And we're starting this morning in California. The fires there are raging. Firefighters are working around the clock. They're trying to get six wildfires under control. At least four other fires are now fully contained. Good news there.</s>PAUL: That's the good news, right.</s>BLACKWELL: Yes.</s>PAUL: More than 1,000 firefighters, though, are battling all these blazes around San Diego. Police have now charged -- just some big news overnight -- one of three people arrested for alleged arson. They have brought a charge here. So far, though, more than 27,000 acres have been scorched.</s>BLACKWELL: This morning, firefighters are making some progress, but they're not in the clear yet, because strong winds and dry temperatures, they could fuel the fires even further. Officials say this is unprecedented. In some cases, walls of flames have the potential to spit out winds as strong as tornadoes. Watch this one. It becomes what is becoming this firenado. It kind of goes into this cone, a tornado of fire. Let's bring in CNN's Dan Simon in hard-hit San Marcos. Dan, what's it look like where you are?</s>DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right now, it's looking pretty good. The winds have calmed down. The temperatures are cooler. The humidity is rising. And that's enabling firefighters to begin to get a handle on these blazes. We are in San Marcos, California. This is one of the areas, as you said, that's been hardest hit. You can see this home. It is just a smoky, charred mess. We're out on a mountainside, and you can see off in the distance -- actually where you see that layer of clouds, that's marine layer, that's actually where Camp Pendleton is, and we're not seeing much smoke over there. So that is also good news. So here in San Marcos, the containment figure is 50 percent. It's beginning to rise over in Camp Pendleton, as well. So it appears that firefighters are starting to make good progress, but, you know, as we've seen with the unpredictable nature of wildfires, they can kick up. So that's why they have so many people on the ground trying to battle these blazes, both on the ground and, of course, from the sky -- Victor and Christi.</s>PAUL: Dan, we know while they're trying to contain the fires, there's an investigation going on. Three people arrested, and one charge being brought this morning. What do you know about this?</s>SIMON: Well, what we know is when these fires broke out, at one time you had eight essentially going at once, there was immediate speculation that arson may be at play. And we know that two teenagers were arrested, accused of trying to start some small brush fires and a then a man in his 50s was arrested separately, also trying to -- allegedly trying to start a small brush fire. At this time they haven't linked any individuals to some of these bigger fires, but that's certainly something that they're investigating because again it was so unusual to have all these fires breaking out at once.</s>PAUL: All righty. Hey, Dan Simon, glad everybody there is OK. Thank you so much.</s>BLACKWELL: Thank you, Dan. And we have with us this morning one of the thousands who had to just pick up, pack up, and get out as those flames closed in.</s>PAUL: Alicia Exon is joining us by phone from San Marcos. Alicia, thank you so much. We're glad that you're able to join us and that you're OK. I know that you've lived there for years, and you say in the last decade you've lived through two of these, quote, "apocalyptic firestorms." What are you seeing? And compare this one to what you've seen in the past for us.</s>ALICIA EXON, SAN MARCOS RESIDENT: Well, first of all, I just thought I should mention that I am in my bed right now.</s>PAUL: Oh, good.</s>EXON: In my own -- in my own house. We came home yesterday. We got the news, and our entire community was really excited to be able to get back in. We don't see any of the big billowing smoke anymore. We're just kind of left with some really poor air quality. But everybody's really excited. And just to give you a sense of -- kind of the community and what's going on, the kids have prom tonight, and there were kids in our neighborhood that were not going to be able to get into their home to get their dresses for prom, and to get their tuxes and their dresses for prom. So this is a big sense of relief. I don't really have much knowledge of -- I mean, there definitely is talk about arson. I hope that that's -- if that is what it is, I hope that they've caught the right person. We're just really hoping that we're on the road to recovery here.</s>BLACKWELL: Very quickly, Alicia, do you know if that prom is still going forward, is going to happen?</s>EXON: I'm sorry?</s>BLACKWELL: Do you know if the prom is going to happen as scheduled?</s>EXON: Yes. I think that they are still planning a prom. I've got a text last night from one of the girls at the high school asking if I could do a waterfall braid. I think -- I think they're planning on prom. We did get news that school would resume on Monday. So I think they are planning on prom tonight.</s>BLACKWELL: Let me ask you, you have seen, as you said, a couple of these apocalyptic firestorms.</s>EXON: Yes.</s>BLACKWELL: You've lived there for some time. Are you going to stay? I mean, you've been fortunate thus far. But you're going to stay where you are?</s>EXON: We're going to stay where we are. My kids are a little older. You know, let me tell you, as structures start to burn, there becomes a very poor air quality, and it's important to pay attention to the particulate matter, because that can cause some really serious health concerns. There have been fires in the past that have burned far more structures, and that's not what we're seeing on this one. I mean, it's bad and there have been a lot of fires that have broken out. But the witch fires that I believe were in 2007, I think that those -- I could be wrong on this, I think that it burned more structures. I just remember hearing a lot more about the particulate matter and the chemicals that were airborne.</s>PAUL: So you're not experiencing any problems, you know, breathing or --</s>EXON: No.</s>PAUL: No? Not right now?</s>EXON: No. But I was back then, because I had babies, and my children were a lot smaller. And if you had a child who had asthma or anything like that, you just needed to get out. And I don't -- I don't feel like it's that bad now. We had ash in our home -- we had ash on the ground of our home so that we were putting plastic down as people came from the outside and marched through our house. That was back -- that was the 2003, I think that was the 2003 fire. So I don't feel like we're experiencing that. But it might be that there are people on the other side of the hill who are.</s>BLACKWELL: Yes.</s>EXON: So, you know, it's all when winds. It's all about how the wind is flowing and where it's pushing that air. And yes, so --</s>BLACKWELL: We're going to check on that wind. Alicia Exon, thank you so much for sharing your story. Glad to know that you're back in your bed in your home.</s>PAUL: Yes, and have fun at prom, everybody.</s>BLACKWELL: Thank you. Thanks, Alicia.</s>EXON: Thanks, guys.</s>PAUL: Let's bring in -- sure, thank you so much. Let's bring in meteorologist Alexandra Steele here, because she has been watching the weather that Alicia was just talking about.</s>BLACKWELL: Yes. Tell us about the winds. How are they now?</s>ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right, Alicia makes some great points. It is all about the winds and the directions from which they're coming. And that is key. So, you know, regardless of this -- if these were set or not set, the stage has been set for fires. And this is why. Dry conditions, we've got an historic drought on our hands. Hot temperatures. Of course, we've seen record heat day after day, month after month. And these very strong robust Santa Anas. Santa Ana, it's all about the direction from which the wind is coming. Offshore, meaning blowing like this. What we're seeing now with the change is an onshore wind, blowing like this from the south, bringing in the moisture above the Pacific Ocean. It's cold, that water. The moisture above it is coming in and finally we're seeing that. So temperature-wise, out of the 90s into the 70s, which is good news. The temperatures are coming down. The humidity is coming up. And this is the wind. The most important thing to note, the direction from which these arrows are coming. And finally, we've seen a change in that wind direction. The pattern is breaking, the ridge is giving way to a trough, allowing for that. And you know we've got some moisture in the air. We've got a dense fog advisory. So hallelujah for the dense fog. Certainly the best news coming. So, you guys, the weather forecast is favorable. The fire forecast less so, because the stage is set, and we're only going to go from here.</s>PAUL: All right. Alexandra, thank you. Giving us the latest there.</s>BLACKWELL: You know, the kidnapped girls in Nigeria are still -- are still with this group, this militant group, Boko Haram.</s>PAUL: Lawmakers here are now asking what the U.S. can do to help free them. So that's one of the questions we're going to be talking about. Also, in Turkey, the death toll from that mine disaster tops 300 now. We just got new numbers. The anguish is turning into anger there. We'll have a report for you coming up.