Border agents discovered four charred bodies near the Mexican border last night to take the probable death toll from California's wildfires to 12.
Agents found the badly burned remains, thought to be three males and a female, at the bottom of a rocky ravine in the mountains east of San Diego, about three miles from the border. They are thought to have been illegal immigrants.
Together with two other burned bodies found earlier Thursday in a house in San Diego county, the discovery doubled the probable death toll from the fires. At least 60 people have been injured.
As crews used a break in the weather to bring most of the fires under control, President George W. Bush met some of the estimated 500,000 people who fled their homes in California's largest mass evacuation.
Mr Bush, who was criticised for his handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, flew over hard-hit San Diego in a helicopter with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and visited charred neighbourhoods.