Southern California Wildfires

The fires that have plagued Southern California for over a week, are finally showing signs of abating, thanks to a little help from the weather and a lot of hard working firefighters.

More then a dozen of the fires are fully under control, while seven are between 50 to 75% contained. The two fires that are still threatening homes are the Poomcha fire in San Diego and the Santiago fire in Orange County.

The Poomcha fire, which has destroyed 143 homes, 77 outbuildings and injured 13 firefighters, is still threatening 500 homes. However, it is 50% contained and firefighters believe that it will be fully contained by Wednesday.

The Santiago fire, which has burnt over 28,000 acres and destroyed 15 homes and 9 outbuildings is only 50% contained. Firefighters have no idea how long it would take to fully contain it.

Only about 1,500 people remain in shelters, down from over 200,000 at the peak of the fires. The Qualcomm Stadium, which was home to thousands of people during the worst fires, was empty on Saturday and being cleaned up for a Sunday football game between the San Diego Chargers and Houston Texas.

As people start to head back home, some are finding nothing but ashes, whilst others are amazed to find their houses intact. While it may take months or even years to re-build homes, people are trying to move forward and rebuild their lives.  All in all, this has been one of the most destructive events in California's history. The fires have destroyed about 3,000 structures and burnt through more than 700,000 acres of land. Seven people were killed, while 113 firefighters and 26 civilians were injured.