LOS ANGELES: A “dangerously fast” wildfire fanned by hurricane-strength winds was burning out of control near Los Angeles on Wednesday, with thousands of residents ordered to evacuate and some taken to the hospital.
Multiple large homes were destroyed as the fire tore through neighborhoods, blanketing a huge area in thick, choking smoke.
Fierce gusts up to 80 miles (130 kilometers) an hour were fueling flames that were scorching through farmland.
The Mountain Fire was reported near Moorpark, 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles, on Wednesday morning.
By afternoon it had exploded to 10,400 acres (4,200 hectares), Ventura County Fire Department said, and flames had reached a suburb of Camarillo, home to around 70,000 people.
Local broadcasters showed luxury homes in the Camarillo Heights area engulfed in flames, many utterly destroyed.
Further up the hillsides, aerial footage showed people frantically loading horses into trailers at sprawling ranch properties as swirling flames loomed nearby.
“It’s bad out there, but we’re getting them all out,“ one woman told local broadcaster KTLA as she drove horses out of the area.
“(The fire) was surrounding on both sides... It’s just all over the place. It’s not one clear fire line. It’s everywhere.”
- ‘Particularly dangerous’ -
Firefighters had no official figures for the number of properties affected by the blaze, with conditions on the ground too dangerous to allow damage assessment.
There was no immediate figure for the number of people hurt, but officials said some had been taken to the hospital.
Ventura County Fire Chief Dustin Gardner said the rapidly spreading blaze was entirely uncontained, with firefighters rushing to get people out of the way of the fire, which was casting embers as far as 2.5 miles (4 kilometers).
“Every helicopter, every fixed wing aircraft, everything we’ve been able to get a hold of is here fighting this fire, and it is moving at a dangerous rate,“ he told reporters.
“Bushes are burning, grass is burning, hedgerows are burning, agricultural fields are burning, and structures are burning.
“This fire is moving dangerously fast.”
He said the fire’s erratic behavior was extreme and urged everyone to follow instructions from law enforcement.
“When you get an evacuation order from the sheriff, leave. Your homes can be replaced. Your lives can’t. Leave.”
Gail Liacko said she had to flee her home very suddenly on what had appeared to be a “normal morning.”
“All of a sudden there was soot on our patio furniture, coming from the front of the house as well as the back, and the smoke was kind of surrounding our street,“ she said.
She and her husband quickly began to throw things together.
“It was just very surreal. You just don’t know what to pack in a moment of absolute panic.”
Tens of thousands of customers had lost power in the area as electricity companies shut off supplies -- a common strategy in California during high winds in a bid to reduce the risk of new fires from energized power lines.
The National Weather Service warned dangerous winds were set to continue until at least the end of Thursday.
“Extreme and life-threatening fire behavior... Particularly dangerous situation,“ an NWS warning said.
Another blaze had also broken out in Malibu, threatening multi-million dollar homes on some of the most desirable coastline in Southern California.
