Calif. Wildfires Put Chargers in Limbo
Fires in SoCal have left the San Diego Chargers without a stadium to play in.
SAN DIEGO, Oct. 23, 2007 — -- The San Diego Chargers don't know where or when they'll play their next game. San Diego State would rather not play its game Saturday.
The weekend seems months away as more than a dozen wildfires continue to rage in cities from the Mexican border north past Los Angeles and play havoc with the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday more than 300,000 people have been evacuated and some 8,000 of those people had sought refuge at Qualcomm Stadium, home to the Chargers and San Diego State's Aztecs. Up to 1,000 homes have been destroyed and the governor said that 1,500 more homes remain in danger.
"If you're told to evacuate, evacuate. Safety is the most important thing," Schwarzenegger said, according to ABC News. There have been two confirmed deaths and 34 people have been seriously injured, The Associated Press reports.
While they spent Monday taking care of their families and trying to find out if their homes survived the wildfires, the Chargers were busy Tuesday preparing to fly to Phoenix to practice at the Arizona Cardinals' suburban headquarters.
With firefighters en route with orders to evacuate, San Diego State basketball coach Steve Fisher and his wife had about an hour to gather some belongings and leave their home. They're riding out the fires in a hotel. Blog
Meanwhile, San Diego State coach Chuck Long said both schools' athletics directors and officials from the Mountain West Conference would discuss whether it's prudent to play Saturday's game against BYU at Qualcomm. A decision will be made by 6 p.m. ET.
"I'm actually pushing for a postponement if we can," Long said during an interview on "College Football Live" on ESPN. "There's just so much going on in this city right now and the fires that it's hard to think about a football game at this point.
"The air quality is so bad that you can't practice. You can't breathe if you go outside for any length of time."
For the Chargers, the present means three days of hotels and bus rides and an unfamiliar workplace while wondering what's going on back home.
