• November 10, 2003
• Vol. 60
• No. 19

Inside the Inferno

'The Fire Was An Arm's Length Away': Survivors Cope with California's Raging Flames

From celebs like Olympian Maurice Greene, forced to flee his multimillion-dollar Simi Valley mansion, to the working poor burned out of their homes in San Diego, Californians are reeling in the face of the deadliest fires the state has seen in more than a decade. At press time, the quick-moving tsunami of flame-whipped up by 50-mph winds-had killed at least 16, destroyed more than 1,700 homes and other structures and consumed more than a half million acres. Residents like Susan Clark had only minutes to save what possessions they could. "We took our basset hound and hamsters," says Clark of the now incinerated San Bernardino home she shared with her husband and three children. "You look people in their faces and you know they lost everything they had," says firefighter Tom Siragusa, 46. "And there is nothing you can say."