(Wed) Temecula helps evacuees, faces fire

While escaping much of the devastation, the Temecula area grappled with a crippling freeway closure and waves of wildfire refugees from the south and west who flooded into a string of makeshift Red Cross centers.

“We have been on the run from fires for the last two days,” said Manuel Renteria, a bedraggled Ramona resident who fled the massive Witch Fire that roared through much of central San Diego County.

Renteria said he had heard that a Temecula evacuation center had opened but he did not know its location. A police officer spotted him parked at a fast food restaurant on Temecula’s south si...