San Diego ? Tens of thousands of people fled mountain communities in San Diego and San Bernardino counties Tuesday and caused a traffic jam on a narrow mountain highway as frantic residents raced to avoid California’s deadliest wildfires in more than a decade.

Frustrated firefighters said there was little they could do to stop the flames, and exhausted crews in San Diego County were pulled back even though two devastating blazes began merging into a super fire near Julian, a mountain town of 3,500 known for its apple crop.

To the north, about 80,000 full-time residents have been evacuated from the San Bernardino mountains since Saturday. Tens of thousands fled on Tuesday alone.

“Just about everything is burning,” said William Bagnell, fire chief of the Crest Forest Fire Protection District.

Death toll at 16

Authorities announced two more deaths in San Bernardino County on Tuesday, bringing the death toll from the fires to 16. The number had been at 17, but San Diego County authorities lowered their figure by one.

Nearly 1,600 homes have been destroyed, and 10,000 firefighters were on the front lines throughout the state. Gov. Gray Davis estimated the cost at nearly $2 billion.

“This is a total disaster,” Davis said. “It reminds me of when I was in Vietnam, communities were burned out.”

Since Oct. 21, at least 10 wind-driven wildfires — many of them arson-caused — have rampaged through Southern California, demolishing neighborhoods, gutting businesses and blackening more than half a million acres of land from the Mexican border to the Ventura-Los Angeles county line.

A burned-out shell and charred belongings are all that remains of Sarah Barklow's home in Claremont, Calif. Barklow visited her wildfire-ruined neighborhood Tuesday. Wildfires have displaced some 10,000 people from their homes throughout Southern California.

Just west of Julian, dozens of fire crews tried to protect homes from flames eating through brush, pine and oak.

A five-member crew pulled up outside a concrete-and-stucco home and went to work carrying down awnings and using chainsaws to cut away shrubs. As they worked, propane tanks popped in the distance, sending columns of black smoke into a sky already painted orange by flames.

“This is some of the most stressful firefighting I’ve done,” said U.S. Forest Service firefighter Damien Sanchez, a seven-year veteran.

45-mile front

In San Diego County, a blaze of more than 200,000 acres formed a 45-mile front stretching into Scripps Ranch and Julian. The fire was just miles from joining with a 37,000-acre fire near Escondido.

The two fires have destroyed more than 900 homes. If they join up, the flames would cut off escape routes and whip up the wind.

Reinforcements were sent out, but Rich Hawkins, a U.S. Forest Service fire chief, said he needed twice as many firefighters.

“They’re so fatigued that despite the fact the fire perimeter might become much larger, we’re not willing to let the firefighters continue any further,” he said. “They are too fatigued from three days of battle.”

Authorities believe the largest, nicknamed the Cedar Fire, was set by a lost hunter trying to signal rescuers. The state Forestry Department issued a misdemeanor citation to Sergio Martinez, 33, for setting an unauthorized fire.

Town all but destroyed

On Tuesday, the fire destroyed 90 percent of Cuyamaca, a town of 160 people about 10 miles south of Julian.

“I’m sad to say the community of Cuyamaca was destroyed this afternoon,” CDF chief Bill Clayton told San Diego’s KFMB-TV.

In some areas, the flames are feeding on millions of dead trees, weakened by drought and killed by a bark beetle infestation. Officials were particularly worried about “crowning,” where flames leap from one treetop to another, leaving firefighters on the ground all but powerless to stop them.

“If that occurs, we don’t have the capability to put those fires out,” U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Carol Beckley said. “It will be a firestorm.”

On the highway near Julian, high walls of flames lit up a mountain ridge along Lake Cuyamaca. The blaze sounded like an explosion as flames tore across the dry brush and trees.

Glenn Wagner, San Diego County chief medical examiner, said he expects the death toll to rise even more as crews begin inspecting the hundreds of charred homes.

“This fire was so fast,” he said. “I’m sure we’re going to find folks who simply never had a chance to get out of their houses.”

Some victims died within view of San Vicente Lake, a boating and fishing destination in Ramona. “Could you imagine looking out at all that water in San Vicente Lake and still dying in the fire?” Wagner said.