SAN DIEGO – With aid from the weather and a mini-air force of tankers and helicopters, more than 5,000 firefighters are gradually battling San Diego County's remaining fires to a standstill, officials reported Thursday.

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The good news was tempered, however, by word that two bodies had been found – one on Wednesday night and one on early Thursday morning – in an unincorporated area just northeast of Poway.

They were discovered in a home on Highland Valley Road, victims of the Witch Creek fire.

The grim find brings to three the number of people killed by the firestorm. One man was killed Sunday in the Harris fire.

Other people who died due to accidents or medical complications during or after their evacuation from threatened neighborhoods sets the total number of fire-related deaths at 10, county officials say.

Overall, the firestorm has destroyed an estimated 1,470 homes as it burned over nearly 350,000 acres, said county Supervisor Ron Roberts.

But with the hot, dry Santa Ana winds having dissipated, the breakneck pace of the various fires has slowed considerably. Around the county, residents who evacuated over the past four days began to trickle back into Rancho Bernardo, Escondido and much of Fallbrook.

In particular, the three blazes that have wrought the greatest destruction to homes – the Witch Creek, Harris and Rice Canyon fires – “are all looking pretty good,” said Cal Fire spokeswoman Roxanne Provaznik.

However, none of the fires, including the Horno fire on Camp Pendleton Marine Base, is more than 50 percent contained. Most have only 10 or 20 percent of their area enclosed in fire lines, officials said.

For the record Because of incorrect information from a source, a story Thursday inaccurately said that the arrival of a giant Canadian seaplane – the privately owned Martin Mars – for battling the wildfires was delayed because of customs issues. The delays were caused by bad weather. Also, the Martin Mars is based on Vancouver Island, not in Vancouver. The Union-Tribune regrets the errors. It is the policy of the Union-Tribune to correct all errors. Please contact: Carol Goodhue, readers representative, (619) 293-1525, or readers.rep@ uniontrib.com.

Firefighters were focusing their attention Thursday on two areas and two fires.

East of Jamul, the Harris fire is feeding on heavy, flammable foliage to turn northeast toward Lyons Valley Road, fire officials said. The fire is most active northwest of Barrett Lake in an area called Four Corners. In North County, weak winds overnight enabled firefighters to hold the Witch Creek fire out of Julian, but the town is still considered vulnerable and residents aren't being allowed to return.

The same is true for Ramona, one of the first communities hit hard by the fire. The area is largely without water, county officials said.

Responding indirectly to criticism from politicians over the amount of air support available to firefighters, Carlsbad Fire Chief Kevin Crawford described the amount of aircraft on hand as “unprecedented in any county.”

The roster already includes 13 air tankers, 42 helicopters, five C-130 transports adapted as tankers, four air attack aircraft used to scout and coordinate air operations and Tanker 910, a DC-10 jumbo jet converted as an tanker.

The massive Martin Mars seaplane, held up Wednesday by bad weather, arrived yesterday at Lake Elsinore from its base in Vancouver, British Columbia.

A converted World War II amphibian, the lumbering four-engined Mars can drop enough water to cover three acres of land at once.

“We have begged, borrowed – and by some estimations, even stolen – aircraft from other portions of the state to fight (these) fires,” Crawford said.

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