California burns as wildfires rage out of control

Residents living west of the 405 should brace for evacuations as well in the event the flames cross the freeway.

In what may have been an early sign of the 140-square-mile fire getting new life, several thousand new evacuations were ordered late Tuesday night in Ojai, a town of artists and resorts.

As many as five fires have closed highways, schools and museums, and cast a hazardous haze over the region.

Los Angeles Fire Chief Ralph M. Terrazas said the footprint of the Skirball Fire is the same as the 1961 Bel Air Fire, which destroyed around 500 homes.

California’s top firefighter says the state is in for the worst Santa Ana wind conditions it’s ever seen.

The same vicious winds that made three Southern California wildfires so destructive are also making the firefight itself more hard.

Smoke collected even in areas that weren’t burning.

Meanwhile in the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles, the so-called Creek Fire blackened more than 11,000 acres.

A SOBERING satellite image shows a plume of smoke more than 100 miles long, wafting from the wildfires which have devastated California. It started Monday evening in a rural area and spread to the city.

Southern California has already been hit hard by three major fires that have put tens of thousands of people under evacuation orders and destroyed at nearly 200 homes and buildings, a figure that is almost certain to grow.

How many acres have burned? All the while, firefighters rushed to contain the blaze.

Mary Plummer, a reporter with member station KPCC in Pasadena, tells Morning Edition that “these fires are affecting a real range of geographic areas – some very urban, some very rural”. That fire was spotted near the Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia.

The Missoula Fire Department was sending two engines.

The Skirball Fire – named after the Skirball Cultural Center in northern Los Angeles – burned 475 acres in the Sepulveda Pass near the Getty Center, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Winds will gradually weaken Friday and Saturday, officials said.

On Wednesday, a line of fire was scorching hills toward the Pacific coast.

Firefighters battle a Santa Ana wind-driven brush fire called the Thomas Fire near Ventura, California, December 5, 2017.

Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for Los Angeles and Ventura counties, which will free up state resources. Both are in Ventura County.

Astronauts on the International Space Station took photos of the smoke from the Southern California wildfires affecting the Los Angeles area on the week of December 4, 2017.Astronauts on the International Space Station took photos of the smoke from the Southern California wildfires affecting the Los Angeles area on the week of December 4, 2017. “But we’re glad to get the opportunity to help”. Horn said, her eyes red with tears. In addition to the Bel-Air fire, the Ventura County fire has forced at least 50,000 people to evacuate. “We’re so blessed that we still have a house”.