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SAN DIEGO-A major wildfire that has scorched thousands of acres and destroyed hundreds of homes in Southern California has been declared an arson, according to Orange County law enforcement and FBI officials said on Wednesday.Officials said that there is a $70,000 reward for information leading to an arrest for those responsible for the Santiago fire in the rugged eastern part of the county.The Orange County Sheriff’s Department said that no search warrants have been served, and there are no suspects in custody. The FBI has become involved in the investigation because part of the fire was on federal land in National Forest.A thick plume of smoke rising skyward out of a flaming canyon in Orange County Wednesday signaled the first hope of containment for firefighters battling Southern California's ravaging wildfires.The vertical movement of the smoke showed that the fierce Santa Ana winds that had whipped a Malibu brush fire into a 426,000 acre inferno were starting to ease, FOX News' Claudia Cowan reported Wednesday. "We've had a good day so far," San Miguel Fire Chief Augie Chio told FOX news. "Morale is very high out there," he said.Meanwhile, Orange County officials executed a search warrant Wednesday as part of a probe into whether one or more of the fires in that county were the result of arson. Earlier Wednesday, the California Highway Patrol arrested a motorcyclist who was caught setting a brush fire in San Bernadino County, near Lake Arrowhead.Jodi Miller, a spokesperson for San Bernadino County, told FOX News that the small brush fire set by John Hund, 48, of Hesperia, was an isolated incident and immediately extinguished by witnesses. He is not suspected of starting wildfire burning large swaths of the county."It is not related whatsoever to the fires going on in our mountains," Miller said.Sixteen fires burning for four days across seven counties stretching from Malibu, north of Los Angeles, to the Mexican border, have killed five people, destroyed 1,500 homes, consumed 426,000 acres— or about 665 square miles— and forced almost one million people from their homes—the largest evacuation in the state's history. More than 70,000 homes remained threatened.New evacuations were ordered Wednesday in San Diego County, the hardest hit area where, officials said, five separate fires have caused more than $1 billion in property damage. The largest of the San Diego County fires has consumed 196,420 acres — about 300 square miles — from Witch Creek to Rancho Santa Fe, destroying 650 homes."Clearly, this is going to be a $1 billion or more disaster," Ron Lane, San Diego County's director of emergency services, told reporters during a news conference.Cool ocean breezes forecast to arrive Wednesday afternoon brought relief to some areas, but in Lyons Valley, threatened to blow the the fire in new directions. Firefighters there told FOX News' Geraldo Rivera they feared the westward-blowing ocean winds would cause the fire to U-turn and hit homes missed by the fires' original path.President Bush declared on Wednesday that a major disaster exists in California and ordered federal aid to supplement the state and local recovery efforts in the area."Americans all across this land care deeply about them," the president said after a Cabinet meeting convened to coordinate federal relief efforts. "We're concerned about their safety. We're concerned about their property."• Bush Signs Major Disaster Declaration to Combat California Wildfires
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