said after an aerial tour of the affected area . `` The weather has made it very difficult for the air assets to get up and fight the fires . ... If the weather cooperates , maybe we can turn the tide tomorrow . '' Officials have evacuated nearly 350,000 homes in San Diego County alone , where the worst of the fires are blazing . Using U.S. Census Bureau numbers from the 2000 census , that could mean as many as 950,000 were affected by the fires . Watch evacuees shaken , firefighters battling '' In San Diego County , at least half a million residents had been ordered to find refuge in shelters , schools and stadiums as fires pushed into new areas . Among the evacuees as more than 4,000 military personnel from several bases in the area . With the winds pushing them across the area , the fires spread quickly , forcing some residents to flee in the middle of the night . `` My wife woke me up like 12 o'clock , screaming and yelling that the flames were coming down , '' said Johnny Villanueva of Spring Valley , who fled with his
SAN DIEGO , California -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Firefighters in Southern California are facing wind-whipped walls of flame from 15 wildfires that have scorched more than 400,000 acres and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes . Firefighters battle the Witch fire Tuesday in the Del Dios area of Escondido , California . The blazes have killed one person and injured at least 70 more . Firefighters were aided by resources from Mexico , the state and federal governments and even inmates from California 's prisons . San Diego Fire Department Battalion Chief Bruce Cartelli described scenes of `` utter devastation '' with hundreds of homes lost and `` many hundreds '' of others damaged . `` It 's probably the worst significant event in my career of 36 years , '' he said . `` It will not end ... until it reaches the ocean or the winds turn around , '' Cartelli said . Meteorologists suggested that Santa Ana winds , which have fueled the wildfires with some gusts approaching 100 mph , could die down Wednesday afternoon . `` We are still facing some very serious fires , '' Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff