California fires: Powerful winds intensify flames as they reach edge of LA

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Efforts to quell a number of major wildfires burning their way across Southern California have been hampered by gusting winds as the area consumed by the blazes continues to grow

Some 200,000 people have evacuated ahead of the fires, which have destroyed hundreds of homes and forced hundreds of Los Angeles-area schools to close.

Authorities feared four major fires - ranging from Los Angeles up the Pacific coast to Santa Barbara County - would be whipped up by the region's notorious westward Santa Ana winds. Speeds were expected to reach between 50mph and 80mph, with a automated alert warning of “extreme fire danger”.

It also raised the prospect new fires igniting if winds carry embers or drive flames further into the parched landscape.

Officials expressed tempered relief in a morning briefing that overnight winds had been as ferocious as expected, giving firefighters an opportunity to beat back the flames although in more difficult conditions.

“We were promised erratic weather but luckily the erratic weather was erratic in a good way,” Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, describing firefighters who had to extinguish flames threatening their fire engines before they could move to protecting houses.

Despite that relative reprieve, officials warned that the threat from high winds would persist.

“We’re seeing this wind event now that is very very dangerous, very very critical,” California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services head Mark Ghilarducci told reporters. “These winds are going to be very severe”.

The hazard from those weather conditions “cannot be overemphasized,” Cal Fire head Ken Pimlott said, noting that responders were not just combatting the large blades but working to suppress “many” small fires before they could metastasize.

Firefighters were continuing to battle on multiple fronts against infernos that were only slightly more contained than a day earlier.

The Skirball fire, which began as a brush fire and has been menacing the upscale Los Angeles neighbourhood of Bel Air, was at 5 percent containment after it had spread over some 475 acres and destroyed at least four homes.

In northern Los Angeles County, firefighters had gotten the 7,000 acre Rye Fire within 15 percent containment after making progress overnight. The Creek Fire had destroyed or damaged 30 structures and threatened a dozen communities as firefighters grappled with rugged terrain to bring the 12,600 acre blaze within 10 percent containment. Some 2,500 people were dispatched to battle the two.

And in Ventura County, the largest of those four conflagrations, the Thomas Fire, had grown to some 96,000 acres as firefighters contained 5 percent of the blaze amid mass evacuations that forced thousands of people out of their homes. Officials estimated that 150 structures had been destroyed.

North of San Diego, a fifth blaze called the Lilac Fire grew from about 10 acres to between 100 and 150 acres in less than an hour on Thursday morning, destroying two structures, damaging 12 more and prompting evacuations, the local CAL FIRE agency reported.

The Skirball Fire threatened media magnate Rupert Murdoch's Moraga Estate winery. The property was evacuated, with possible damage to some buildings, Mr Murdoch said in a statement, but "We believe the winery and house are still intact.“

While the flames only directly endangered a sliver of of Los Angeles, people across the city shared stories of loss as they went about their days beneath thick smoke and an orange haze.

“Everything is covered in ash. All of our eyes are watering,” said Betsy Burnham, a 55-year-old interior designer whose home is safe for now. “None of us can believe” that the fires have encroached so closely on the city’s affluent west side, she added.

“It’s really shocking,” Ms Burnham said.

The Los Angeles Police Department tweeted “LAPD Working to Save Every Californian, Pets Included” along with a photo of a police officer in a respirator rescuing a cat.

The Los Angeles Unified School District, the country's second largest with more than 640,000 students, said it closed at least 265 of its nearly 1,100 schools. The University of California Santa Barbara canceled classes as well.

Residents were also being ordered to evacuate a tiny beachfront community northwest of Los Angeles where the Thomas Fire is churning down hillsides toward seaside homes.

A California Highway Patrol officer drove through Faria Beach Thursday announcing the evacuations through a loudspeaker as surging winds roiled smoke through the streets.

Residents used garden hoses to spray palm trees to keep them from burning as firefighters scrambled to stop the progress of flames.

The US 101 highway along the coast was intermittently closed, as were several highways in and around the Ventura County resort town of Ojai, where most of the 7,000 residents are under evacuation orders.

A woman’s body was found at the site of a car accident near Ojai. The woman’s identity have not been determined, or whether it was in any related Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Kevin Donoghue said.

Ventura County Fire Chief Mark Lorenzen said if the wind continues, and rain doesn’t touch the region, the Thomas Fire could continue for a few more weeks.

“Until the wind stops blowing, there’s really not a lot we can do as far as controlling the perimeter, so our opportunities are hopefully going to come in tomorrow as the wind lets up,” Mr Lorenzen told the Los Angeles Times said. Then, he said, the firefighters can place line around the blaze and contain part of it, but “this is a fight we’re going to be fighting probably for a couple of weeks.”