Fire damage by the numbers

Just to let everyone know, there are a total of 632 homes and apartments confirmed destroyed since Thursday night. A total of 765 homes and apartments have been damaged or destroyed since the Santa Barbara fire began Thursday night.

A total of 10,500 acres have burned since Thursday night.

By the numbers:

In Sylmar, 501 homes destroyed, 40 homes damaged, containment 20%, acreage 6,500. ... 10,000 people were ordered evacuated from their homes.

In Corona, 14 homes damaged or destroyed.
In Yorba Linda, 30 homes damaged or destroyed. (8,000 to 10,000 people have been ordered evacuated , with 3,600 homes threatened.)
In Anaheim Hills, 20 apartments destroyed, 30 apartments are damaged or destroyed, and 10 homes are damaged or destroyed. (12,600 people have been ordered to evacuate, affecting 4,500 household.)
The Anaheim/Yorba Linda/Corona fire is 0% contained, and has burned 2,000 acres.

In Brea, no homes destroyed, but Brea Canyon High School, a continuation high school, was severely damaged.

In Santa Barbara, 111 homes are destroyed, and 9 homes are damaged, containment 40%, acreage 1,800.

-Rong-Gong Lin II, My-Thuan Tran and Dan Weikel

Evacuating the fire evacuation center in Yorba Linda

In Yorba Linda, the fire moved so fast, hopping the freeway and blackening skies, that evacuees had to be moved -- twice -- from evacuation center. Esperanza High School in Anaheim Hills was the original evacuation center.

But fire and poor air quality forced a move to Travis Ranch Community Center in Yorba Linda.

By 7 p.m., evacuees had been moved to a third evacuation center: Katella High School in Anaheim.

--Brady MacDonald

Photo: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

Santa Clara triple-killing suspect arrested

Santa Clara police today arrested the fugitive suspect in the Friday's triple homicide at a semiconductor firm here.

---

Images

View Larger Images

---

• Econ summit vows action _ takes few concrete steps 11.15.08

---

Police said they arrested Jing Hua Wu, a recently laid off engineer, at 10:45 a.m. at the intersection of El Camino Real and Grant Road in Mountain View. He was booked into Santa Clara County Jail on three counts of homicide.

Wu allegedly opened fire Friday just before 4 p.m. at SiPort, a small firm on Scott Boulevard where police said he had been terminated Thursday or Friday. Police identified the victims as chief executive Sid Agrawal, Brian Pugh, the company's vice president of operations, and Marilyn Lewis, head of human resources.

Wu was a lead product test engineer at SiPort, a 4-year-old company that develops digital radio semiconductors. He has lived for more than 10 years with his wife and three boys in a two-story, three-bedroom home at the end of a cul-de-sac. Hanging plants adorn the front porch, and a plastic pint-sized basketball hoop sits in the empty driveway, a volleyball rests near the curb.

Eleven elementary school age kids live in the eight homes of Emerson Lane, playing basketball or football with parents in the one-lane road. Neighbors say Wu was often playing with his twin six-year-olds or taking them to community pool a block away. Neighbors say the family did not seem to have a lot of visitors, but seem friendly, if reserved and didn't socialize much with others on the street beyond neighborly small talk. His wife would walk their two-year-old son around the neighborhood regularly. Wu always seemed to be working steadily.

Neighbor Eric Johnson said he and Wu went on neighbor's boat once. "He wasn't a big talker, but he was friendly," Johnson said. "Not the kind of guy you'd expect that would be involved in something like this. Geez, I wouldn't even have thought he'd own a gun."

But Johnson said that recent layoffs in Silicon Valley show "that there are a lot of people who you wouldn't expect to be out of job now are."

Neighbor Rajesh Rathi, who has rented a room in a nearby home for two years said, "He never really said hi to anybody," Rathi said.

After the shootings, Santa Clara police closed the office park where SiPort is located to interview people who worked there.

"We heard somebody screaming, shouting around 4 o'clock," said Annie Yang, office manager of Excel Precision, another company in the same office complex. "But after that, we just saw the police running in our area."

Yang said she hadn't heard any words in the screaming or any shots. There are several buildings in the complex, and she was not sure where the incident happened.

"We don't know anything outside. The police just asked us to stay inside," she said, adding that she could hear police helicopters overhead.

Employees at other companies, however, were unaware anything was happening until told by police.

"We were all very surprised that someone was murdered," said Pete Delaney, a software developer for Tensilica, a company near the scene. He said he was in a meeting with fellow employees when police arrived and told them they were safe but would need to show their driver's licenses before being allowed to leave the complex.

Joe Hollinger, who has worked not far from the complex for about a year, said the police response was impressive.

"I walked out, and there was a very large number of police there. By the time I looked, they had an entire block full of police cars, they had a police helicopter, and they had more police arriving all the time," he said. "It definitely seemed like as soon as they knew what was going on, they were bringing everything they had to bear on the situation."

According to his SiCorp biography, Agrawal had been working in high tech for 25 years, including stints at Adobe, Intel and Bell Labs. In a recent submission to the online Indian networking site SiliconIndia, he talked optimistically about the future of his field.

" 'Green Technology' is the buzzword of the day. We are already seeing investments chasing anything that is green," he wrote. "This translates to opportunities for startups."

In an interview not long after the shooting, Asha Agrawal, the CEO's wife, said she hadn't been able to reach her husband and was trying to find out if he was safe.

"My friend is waiting there, but he cannot find out anything," she said.

Pugh, according to the company biography, had 25 years experience in semiconductor operations. He received an undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and a master of science from Stanford University.

Reached at home, SiPort spokesman Sunder Velamuri said he could offer no details about the shooting because police were still completing their work.

"This is a huge shock," he said. "We don't know all the details yet."

Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call (408) 615-4700.

Chronicle staff writers Matthew B. Stannard, Rachel Gordon and Carolyn Jones contributed to this report.

Montecito Blaze Update: 40 Percent Contained, 111 Homes Burned

The Tea Fire in Montecito, south of Santa Barbara, was 40 percent contained Saturday. The fire had burned 1,800 acres and caused an estimated $3.5 million in damage by Saturday morning, according to a 7 a.m. update on the Montecito Fire Department Web Site.

Despite previous estimates that 200 or more homes had been destroyed, that number was adjusted downward, to 111, on Saturday morning.

According to the Web site:

• "Evacuations and road closures remain in effect for the west portion of Montecito and portions of Santa Barbara."
• "Fire Progression is projected to move to the west towards Mission Canyon Road in the Santa Barbara area; and an eastward spread towards Hot Springs Road in the Montecito area that has been affected by the fire. The south end of the fire is holding but crews will remain in the area. The north end of the fire, which extends into the Los Padres National Forrest, has open line and will be a focus for the next operational period."
• "Structures Destroyed and Property Damaged: The fire has destroyed 111 homes, and damaged 9 residential structures. 1,500 residents remain threatened."
• "Personnel and Apparatus: 2,235 firefighters and overhead personnel are assigned to this incident under unified command. There are 9 helicopters assigned to the fire, no fixed wing aircraft, hundreds of engines and multiple strike teams assigned to the Tea Incident."
• "Two civilians have been injured. There are no confirmed reports of injuries to any firefighting personnel."

Of the 5,400 residents evacuated, some were allowed to return to their property on Saturday. (Check latest evacuation orders here.)

A state of emergency was declared in Santa Barbara County as the wind-driven, out-of-control fire ripped through the wealthy community of Montecito after it started Thursday night.

The blaze flared up so fast that it caught some terrified residents behind the automatic gates of their mansions. It started in the foothills of Montecito, just south of Santa Barbara. Fanned by winds between 50 and 70 mph, the fire broke out in the Cold Springs area at about 6 p.m.

At least 13 people were reported injured by Friday. A 98-year-old man with multiple medical problems died after being evacuated to a hotel, but it was unclear if his death was directly related to the blaze, Santa Barbara County Sheriff-Coroner Bill Brown said.

Fire officials began an aggressive attack from the air at daybreak Thursday with the help of nine water-dropping helicopters and 10 air tankers, said Terri Nisich, a spokeswoman with the Santa Barbara County Executive Office. A high wind warning was in effect in Los Angeles and Ventura counties through Saturday, with possible gusts of up to 70 mph in some passes and canyons.

Sheriff Bill Brown took an aerial tour of the area Friday morning. He said the triangle shaped burn area is bordered by Westmont College to the east, St. Mary's Seminary to the west, and the Upper Riviera to the south.

"That seems to be where the homes have been lost," Brown said. "There are at least 100 plus that have been destroyed. Forty plus homes have been lost in the East Mountain area, just west of Westmont College."

Montecito is filled with ocean-view multimillion-dollar properties owned by celebrities such as Michael Douglas, Rob Lowe and Oprah Winfrey, who owns a 42-acre estate. The landmark Montecito Inn was built in the 1920s by Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle, and the nearby San Ysidro Ranch was the honeymoon site of John F. Kennedy in 1953.

Publicists for Lowe and Winfrey told the AP the celebrities' homes had not been destroyed and neither was staying in the area Thursday night.

Yorba Linda/Corona fire gives John Force a scare

The brush fire that was spreading in the Yorba Linda/Corona area on Saturday came too close to home at the NHRA Finals drag races at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona.

As plumes of black smoke from the fire filled the southern horizon at the drag strip, John Force -- the 14 time funny-car champion and a team owner -- burst into the media center to say the fire was threatening his Yorba Linda headquarters, along with homes of some team members.

"They just evacuated Robert's house," Force said, referring to driver Robert Hight, who's hoping to win the sport's funny car championship Sunday.

Force, wearing his racing fire suit because he still had one more qualifying run ahead, leaned over reporters' shoulders to look at websites tracking the fire. He pointed to maps displayed on their laptops and tried to calculate the distance between the flames and his property.

"It will be all right," said the irrepressible Force. But some reporters who live in the fire area, or have relatives there, already had packed up and left Pomona.

Nature already has taken a toll on Force this year. In July, several crystal trophies broke when a 5.4 earthquake shook the Yorba Linda area.

-- Jim Peltz

Evacuations Ordered due to Fire in Corona, Yorba Linda

MyFOX Los Angeles

Corona -- A wildfire stoked by powerful Santa Ana winds has damaged 12 homes and charred 800 acres in Corona and is now fanning out toward Yorba Linda, where houses are being evacuated in an area where the vegetation has been turned brownish-yellow by drought.

Fire officials say the evacuation is occurring on Merryweather Circle, in the northeast section of the city, adjoining the Chino Hills.

"We are doing an evacuation," said Corona police Sgt. Sgt. Sergio Banales. Traffic between Orange and Riverside counties on the Riverside (91) Freeway was stopped as well.

By 10:02 a.m., Corona firefighters had requested assistance for immediate evacuations on Crestridge Drive and another residential street known as Crest Line, according to Orange County fire and CHP personnel.

Santa Barbara Fire update

Well, the Tea Fire has been upstaged by the Sylmar Fire. (Both links are to LA Times stories. Do LA Times stories still drift behind a paywall after a week? Not sure. If so, I’ll change them to more permanent pages later.) Here’s the latest I’ve heard from KCLU radio…

The official toll of burned structures is now 111, although the real number is likely higher than 150. There are still small ground fires to put out along the north side of Mission Ridge Road, and that’s what’s keeping the evacuation roadblocks up. The fire is officially 40% contained. Officials are hoping to lift evacuation notices by the end of the day.

Noozhawk says the number may be as high as 200. Here’s more.

I’m heads-down, finishing a major writing assignment, and won’t be revisiting fire matters until later today. Meanwhile it’s clear that the Tea Fire is in the mopping-up stage, as the life-rebuilding stage has barely begun for hundreds of people here.

A friend just called and said that the barricades are still up, but the cops there also said they expected some areas to be opened within an hour. If you’re in an evacuated area, check with SB County Fire or Montecito Fire.

Congressional steroid siren Philip Schiliro named to top Obama post

The top aid to Representative Henry Waxman has been named as one of President-Elect Barack Obama's top staff members. Philip Schiliro, known as the brains behind Congressional steroids inquires, assumes the role of Presidential liaison to Congress. To the AP:

President-elect Barack Obama has chosen a veteran Capitol Hill aide as his top White House representative to Congress, the Democrat's transition team announced Saturday as he works to fill out the senior ranks of his team.

Philip Schiliro has worked in Congress for more than 25 years, many of which were spent as a top aide to longtime Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and the House Oversight Committee. His official title will be assistant to the president for legislative affairs when the new administration takes over Jan. 20.

The move signals a continuing effort by Obama to ensure he has a smooth relationship with the Democratic-controlled House and Senate. Others on his team also have long ties to Capitol Hill, including Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the next White House chief of staff...

Currently, Schiliro is the director of congressional relations for Obama's transition team, and was a senior adviser on the presidential campaign.

Like several other top Obama advisers, Schiliro has ties to Tom Daschle; he served as policy director when the former South Dakota senator was the Senate Democratic leader. He also was the staff director of the Senate Democratic Leadership Committee. In the 1990s, he twice unsuccessfully ran for a congressional seat from New York's Long Island.

Much of Schiliro's career has been spent investigating allegations of wrongdoing under Waxman and the House Oversight Committee.

He has been credited with bringing the issue of steroids in Major League Baseball to Waxman's attention in 2005 after reading Jose Canseco's book, "Juiced," which said he and other players had used performance-enhancing drugs. Congress investigated the allegations and subpoenaed baseball stars, including retired slugger Mark McGwire.

Will Schiliro use his influence and his interest in steroids to affect national PED policies? For instance there may need to be changes in PED laws more in accord with further criminalizing doping to please the IOC if the United States wishes to host future Olympic Games (although this is in question)

Storms, Tornadoes Kill 2 In N.C.

(CBS/AP) A cluster of strong thunderstorms swept across central North Carolina early Saturday and spawned tornadoes, killing two people. A child was also missing.

A woman was found dead in her wrecked home and her son was missing in the community of Kenly, which is about 35 miles southeast of Raleigh, said state police spokeswoman Patty McQuillan. The boy's father was taken to a hospital with injuries.

In neighboring Johnston County, authorities said a child also was killed.

Kenly suffered "complete devastation," resident Michael Barnes Sr. told CBS affiliate WRAL. "It looks like a war zone."

Officials said the severe storm affected half a dozen counties, knocking down tress and power lines. A number of homes and buildings were damaged or destroyed.

WRAL reports tornado touch downs in Benson, Dunn, Elm City, Kenly, Lucama and Smithfield. The storm passed through Kenly, on the Johnston-Wilson county line, around 3:30 a.m. and through Wilson about a half-hour later.

Kenly residents picked through the rubble of a one-story brick home that was devastated. Family and friends piled up mattresses, took pictures of the damage and filled garbage bags with trash.

Family portraits had been tossed into the woods some 200 yards from the home. The skeleton of a camper the family had just bought rested nearby, amid other remnants thrown from the home.

One half of Mark Stephenson's home was flattened, while a tree had fallen through other half, on top of his 19-year-old daughter's bedroom. She was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

"It's hard to believe, it's hard to take in," Stephenson said. "We've got our lives and our health, so we're good to go."

His 14-year-old son, Hunter, pointed over to what used to be his bedroom - now just a pile of bricks and beams. Hunter's bedroom was being remodeled and he had been sleeping in the living room.

"I'm lucky," he said. "It's crazy, if I would have been in there, I would have been dead."

Three homes away, Stacey Franks, 31, checked on her 78-year-old father. Two large trees had missed falling on his mobile home by a few feet. His tractor-trailer had been flipped on its side.

"He's nerves are really damaged. He's just upset," Franks said of her father. "I just can't believe this has happened."

Authorities did not immediately release the names or ages of those killed or injured.

A Red Cross Shelter was opened at a church in Kenly. National Weather Service officials were sending crews out to survey the damage.

The weakened storm system moved northeast to the Virginia coast. Blaes warned there was potential for another round of nasty weather along the Carolinas coast Saturday afternoon as a cold front crept across the region.

Power outages affected more than 1,000 customers, primarily in Johnston, Wilson and Sampson counties, but Progress Energy crews had restored service to many customers, according to WRAL.

Sid Agrawal SiPORT CEO Murdered, Jing Hua Wu at Large (Photos)

SiPORT Inc CEO and Director Sid Agrawal was gunned down on Friday afternoon at the company’s Santa Clara, California office complex. Also confirmed dead is V.P. of Operations Brian Pugh. A woman, whose identify is being withheld pending notification of next of kin, was also reported to have been killed.

A manhunt is underway for Jing Hua Wu, a former engineer at the fabless digital radio semiconductor company who was recently given his layoff notice. The disgruntled man entered the Silicon Valley office building at 4:00 p.m. and opened fire according to Santa Clara Police Lt. Mike Sellers.

Officers scoured the complex and searched the suspects home in Mountain View, CA. He is still at large and is armed and dangerous. His photo is shown at the top of this story. He is described as 5′7″, 170 pounds, black hair and black eyes. He is reportedly driving a silver four-door Mercury Mariner sport utility with California license number 6CJU602. Santa Clara Police can be reached at 408-615-4700 if anyone encounters the suspect.

Linh Nguyen, a mechanical engineer who works next door at Excel Precision reported: “I was on the computer and a co-worker was going home, and we heard a commotion. People were running into our building, strangers. I don’t know who they were but they were very upset, they looked disturbed and then we heard that three people had been shot. We locked the doors and waited.”

The company has removed their management page from their company website but Google cache has it here.

Photo of Sid Agrawal below and video from SiPORT crime scene.

Fire Forces Evacuations, Burns Homes in Sylmar Area

A new fire has broken out in the Los Angeles area of Sylmar above the east San Fernando Valley. Several homes have burned and there are many more threatened at the southern edge of the Angeles National Forest. High winds and dry conditions have helped fuel the fire. At least 1500 acres have burned and the fire is moving to the west and south east towards the Pacoima Dam. There are some evacuations but no reported injuries. “We are doing evacuations as the first priority, we are doing structure protection as a second priority, and we have not tried to establish any type of perimeter yet, and that is because of the extreme weather conditions,” Deputy Chief John Frazier told reporters. Helicopters have been helping slow the advance of the fire along with at least 500 personnel with more on the way.