SAN DIEGO, California (AFP) - Firefighters reported progress Friday in controlling wildfires in southern California, but the death toll rose to nine as President Bush toured the scorched US state.

"We're hoping to turn the tide soon," said Jose Alvarez with the San Diego County Office of Emergency Services. "But some of the fires are still out of control."

US President George W. Bush toured parts of the hardest-hit areas Thursday, stopping in a San Diego neighborhood where he met with rescue workers, firefighters and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

A lull in the powerful desert winds that have fueled the flames gave firefighters respite on Friday as they battled multiple blazes that have destroyed at least 1,400 homes, scorched 182,500 hectares (451,000 acres) and displaced more than 500,000 people.

With diminished winds, an air armada of helicopters and tanker planes -- 60 in San Diego County alone -- was able to fly non-stop dropping water and fire retardants on a blazes across the region.

At least 13 fires continued to rage early Friday, down from a high of 23 on Monday. The largest was the Witch fire in San Diego County, which was threatening 5,000 homes.

Bush, who was widely criticised for his delay in visiting the area affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, toured a neighborhood razed by the flames Thursday.

"The first thing I want to let the people know out here in southern California is that many across our nation have been moved by the plight of the citizens who have lost their homes, lost their possessions, particularly those who have lost their life," Bush told reporters.

Schwarzenegger described the aerial tour of the disaster zone he took with the president as "heartbreaking." The fire "is among the worst disaster in California's history," he said.

So far nine people have been confirmed killed by the fires, according to an AFP tally based on statements from Schwarzenegger and figures from San Diego County authorities.

Victims include a couple who ignored requests from neighbors to evacuate their home in the San Diego suburb of Poway, one of the worst-hit areas across the state.

Border Patrol agents also discovered the charred bodies of three men and a women in a rugged region near the Mexican border. Officials said late Thursday the four dead may have been illegal immigrants attempting to cross the border.

California's Office of Emergency Services said that 20,900 homes were still threatened by flames.

Ramiro Rodriguez, with the Emergency Services office, said that by Thursday the number of firefighters battling the flames grew to 10,693. Some 2,600 prison inmates trained to tackle fires are also on the front-lines.

San Diego County officials said the damage to property was more than one billion dollars and was expected to go higher.

San Diego has emerged as the ground zero of the crisis, where the bulk of hundreds of thousands of evacuations have taken place.

More than 300,000 households have been ordered to evacuate the city, where officials have put the numbers of displaced people at 500,000.

A spokeswoman from the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services said officials expected the numbers of displaced people to be "significantly higher" than 500,000 but would not give an estimate.

The causes of the different fires vary from a fallen power line to suspected arson. In Orange County, a 150,000-dollar reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of an arsonist.

San Bernardino police shot and killed a suspected arsonist after chasing him out of dry scrub on Wednesday, and Hesperia police arrested a man on suspicion of arson, local media reported.

Smoke from the fires had drifted north all the way to the state capital of Sacramento by Thursday. Smoke clouds were also expected to eventually drift over the gambling mecca of Las Vegas, in the nearby state of Nevada.