El Cajon family flees to Las Vegas

Dennis Martin knew it was time to high-tail it.

The decision to leave El Cajon, Calif., was easy for the 57-year-old machinist: His shop was closed temporarily because of the raging wildfires, his 12-year-old son, Blaise, was getting anxious about the flames that appeared to be bearing down on the family's home, and no one in the family wanted to keep breathing the stifling smoke.

But instead of heading to nearby San Diego to join thousands of his fellow evacuees at Qualcomm Stadium, Martin packed his wife and son into their car about 5 p.m. Monday and drove 336 miles to Las Vegas.

A neighbor of Martin's had escaped to Las Vegas in 2003 when wildfires ravaged San Diego and killed 17 people.

"It seemed like a good idea," Susan Martin said from her family's temporary digs at Palace Station on Tuesday afternoon.

The Martins said they plan on staying in Las Vegas for at least a few days. They've been getting updates on the fires from a friend who remained in El Cajon.

The word out of California on Tuesday was not good, said Mike Dondero, fire management officer for the Nevada Division of Forestry.

California authorities put out a call for an additional 40 strike teams to help fight the fires. A strike team is made up of five fire engines, 20 firefighters, a team leader and a trainee.

Nevada had sent 35 fire trucks and their four-member crews to Southern California on Monday.

On Tuesday, an additional strike team rolled out of the Las Vegas Valley to join the effort. The 18 members of the team included firefighters from the Nevada Division of Forestry and the Elko and Mount Charleston departments.

They were sent to a staging area in Chino, Calif., and from there, they will be routed to wherever they are needed. They are expected to be in California for two weeks.

"We told our guys to be very careful down there. The winds are pretty ferocious," said John Jones, southern regional forester for the Forestry Division.

Also, two Nevada National Guard helicopters and their 10 crew members were sent to Ventura County on Tuesday morning.

Several federal agencies sent people from Nevada. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sent a fire analyst to the Segwich fire in the Santa Ynez Valley, and the Bureau of Land Management sent three firefighters to a staging area in Riverside. The National Park Service sent three firefighters from Lake Mead National Recreation Area on Monday.

About 175 fire personnel have been dispatched to California from Nevada as of Tuesday evening, and Dondero said the contingent from Nevada might grow.

Greg Funderburk, the captain of the three-member firefighting team from Lake Mead, said his team had seen fires from the road but had not yet had a chance to fight them.

They had been assigned to help on the Santiago Fire near Irvine and were traveling there Tuesday night.

The firefighters he saw returning from the front lines appeared exhausted, but his team was in "pretty good spirits," he said.

"We're just anxious to get in there and do some good," he said.

Contact reporter David Kihara at dkihara@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-4638.