San Diego Heat Dips, but It’s Still a Record

Searing temperatures set a third consecutive record in San Diego Monday but dropped out of triple digits as forecasters predicted a break in the stifling heat that contributed to another dangerous brush fire and sent more than 100,000 people to San Diego beaches.

In the midst of the heat, about 1,000 people on Otay Mesa and in San Ysidro spent their fourth day in a row without water as the result of a break in a 40-inch water main. About 600 people in eastern El Cajon suffered the same fate Monday.

Two days after a huge brush fire charred 600 acres of Mission Trails Park and damaged 21 homes in the city’s San Carlos area, firefighters quickly turned back a 10-acre brush fire that threatened seven Southeast San Diego homes shortly after 5 p.m. Monday.

California Department of Forestry and U. S. Forest Service firefighters spent the day containing a 53-acre brush fire in Warner Springs.

With the temperature reaching 97 degrees at Lindbergh Field--the third consecutive day that the heat set a daily record--116,000 people packed city beaches and more crowded the North County shore. But, as the scorching Santa Ana winds waned, conditions were noticeably more comfortable on the coast.

“It’s a lot less windy today,” said Mission Beach lifeguard Beverly Sox. “Beaches were crowded since early this morning and people seem to be a lot more comfortable with the weather. (There are) not so many complaints about wind and heat.”

Lifeguards made 26 rescues, including that of a 25-year-old diver who suffered a possible air embolism and a 20-year-old woman who suffered head and abdominal injuries when two jet skis collided, said city lifeguard Mike McDaniel.

Monday afternoon power outages cut off service to about 830 homes in the Lake Murray Boulevard area of La Mesa and about 200 homes in the Mt. Soledad area of La Jolla, said Dave Smith, manager of media communications for San Diego Gas & Electric.

The La Mesa outage, which lasted from 3:12 p.m. to 4:20 p.m., was caused when circuits overloaded because of demand from air conditioners. SDG&E; workers caused the La Jolla outage when they turned off electricity to repair a transformer damaged by tree branches.

Small, scattered power outages were reported in parts of Spring Valley, La Mesa, Santee, Del Cerro and Laguna Hills on Monday night, Smith said.

Air Conditioners Get Workout

Use neared the record set Aug. 26, when SDG&E; users consumed 2,568 megawatts of electricity. With air conditioners blowing full-blast Monday, county residents used 2,563 megawatts of electricity, Smith said.

A rupture in a 40-inch water main in Otay Mesa, between Otay Mesa and Telegraph Canyon roads, had left about 1,000 people without water since 6 a.m. Friday. More than 50,000 gallons of water has spilled from the main during the four days. Residents were using water trucked in by city workers and water from an open hydrant, said Ira Pendleton, a principal supervisor for the San Diego City Water Utility District.

Repair crews were hoping to complete work on the main by 10 p.m. Monday night, but were investigating a report of another break in a nearby 20-inch main about 7 p.m. Sunday , Pendleton said.

A break in a 16-inch water main feeding the water-distribution system in eastern El Cajon on Monday left 100 to 200 families without water. They were being served by three water trucks brought in by city workers, said Shirley Massie, spokeswoman for the Helix Water District.

With backup tanks running dry, as many as 1,500 families could be without water unless residents conserve, Massie said.

Canyon Brush Fire

San Diego City firefighters turned back a fast-moving brush fire in a canyon that threatened seven homes in the 1000 block of Oakhurst Drive and the 5700 block of Alta View Drive, San Diego Fire Department spokesman Larry Steward said.

Thirty firefighters took about half an hour to control the two-alarm blaze, which scorched 10 acres of brush. One firefighter suffered heat exhaustion, and arson investigators were checking the cause, Steward said.

The blaze was dwarfed by wildfires near Los Angeles, where the largest fire burned about 20,000 acres of rugged brush land near the community of Piru, situated about 20 miles west of Newhall on the Ventura-Los Angeles county line.

Residents of about 30 homes, alerted for a possible evacuation Sunday, were believed to be out of danger by noon Monday as hundreds of firefighters from Ventura and Los Angeles counties brought about half the fire into containment, said Los Angeles County Fire Inspector John Lenihan. Authorities expected to encircle the blaze by noon today and bring it fully under control late tonight, he said.

Two firefighters, both inmates in state work camps, were hospitalized during the fire, one from heat exhaustion and one after being hit by a falling rock, Lenihan said. Both were reported in good condition at a Newhall hospital.

Riverside County firefighters were having less success battling major fires that burned at Lakeland Village, on the outskirts of Lake Elsinore, and at Juniper Flats midway between Perris and Homeland in the southeast part of the county.

The Lakeland Village blaze, blamed on an illegal campfire, was threatening as many as 250 homes and was forcing the evacuation of some residents late Monday, authorities said.

The 500-acre fire had caused about $75,000 in property damage and no containment was in sight, despite the efforts of 355 firefighters and a number of air attacks, Fire Department spokeswoman Anna Smith said.

“We’re losing structures” on one street in the area, Smith said. “The fire has jumped Highway 74 and it’s moving fast. . . . It’s hot-burning.”

The blaze at Juniper Flats, which firemen believed was contained early Monday, broke through fire lines shortly after noon and consumed an additional 200 acres, bringing the total for that blaze to 4,800, she said. More than 300 firefighters were hoping to mop up that blaze before the end of the holiday weekend.

Beating Heat in San Diego

San Diego County businesses reported a run on anything that could be used to beat the heat.

“We’ve sold everything,” said Rudy Garcia, a salesman at the Fletcher Parkway Sears Home Improvement Department. “The phones have been ringing off the hook . . . there are no more fans or air conditioners--we even sold all the display models.”

Aztec Ice Co. in San Diego reported being completely booked with orders.

“It’s been crazy,” Aztec Ice secretary Patrick Allen said. “It seems like everyone but God has been calling. We are really backlogged right now. . . . I have people from yesterday calling and screaming at me for their ice. We’re so busy even the owner’s out there driving a delivery truck.”

Although the cooling trend will continue on the coast, residents of inland valleys, who received little benefit from Monday’s wind shift, will continue to endure temperatures in the 90s and 100s today.

A heat advisory remains in effect for the valleys, where temperatures of 96 to 105 are forecast for today. The mercury should drop to 90 to 98 Wednesday, said National Weather Service forecaster Harvey Hastrup.

In contrast, highs along the beaches will be 77 to 83 today and 73 to 78 Wednesday. The coastal strip will have temperatures of 85 to 90 today and 80 to 85 Wednesday, Hastrup said.

“It’s a slow change . . . the high pressure is weakening,” he said.

Times staff writers David Ferrell and John Kendall in Los Angeles contributed to this story.