WILDFIRES, FUELLED by high winds and soaring temperatures, raged across southern California over the weekend causing thousands of residents - including some Hollywood stars - to flee their homes.
Less than a month after the area was swept by fires propelled by fierce Santa Ana winds, another series of blazes moved through neighbourhoods from the celebrity enclave of Montecito, outside Santa Barbara, to Los Angeles suburbs and south to Orange county.
Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in the region as the three main fires consumed around 29sq m (7,510 hectares). More than 30,000 people were evacuated from their homes as 800 homes were destroyed, including 200 in Montecito and 500 mobile homes in the Sayre fire north of Los Angeles.
Main roads were closed and more than 100,000 residents were left without power on Saturday.
In some areas people were warned to boil water amid fears that the water supply had been contaminated.
Residents remained indoors as specks of ash were blown by the winds. Warnings over air quality were issued from the mountains to the beaches of southern California, and the Pasadena marathon was cancelled.
A 98-year-old man died on Friday while being evacuated in Santa Barbara but no further fatalities were reported. Eleven people were reported injured, including six firefighters.
The fire treated the rich and famous of Montecito with the same disdain as it did the residents of mobile home parks. Celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Rob Lowe, John Cleese, Jeff Bridges and Christopher Lloyd all have homes in the small suburb south of Santa Barbara.
Speaking on Winfrey's TV show on Friday, Lowe described how he had helped neighbours as he fled his own home. "The next door neighbour's house, they were trapped behind their gates and could not get out," Lowe said.
"Their daughter was lost on the property and so another gentleman and I pried the gates open. Embers were raining down. They were in our hair, they were in our shirts. The wind was easily 70mph and it was absolutely Armageddon."
Firefighters were aided by calmer winds yesterday. The hot winds had lessened from highs of 85mph (138km/h) on Friday and Saturday to 30mph (48km/h).
However, new fires continued to break out to the south, with Diamond Bar, south of Los Angeles, covered in a fresh plume of smoke in the early morning. Investigations were launched into the causes of the fires, although authorities said there was no evidence of foul play. Five people were arrested on Saturday, two on suspicion of looting in the Sylmar area north of central Los Angeles.
Veteran firefighters said that the devastation wrought by the fires was as bad as any they had seen. "I've been 31 years in the city of Los Angeles and have not seen anything like this," Michael Bowman, a battalion chief for the Los Angeles fire department, told the LA Times.
He described combing through the mobile home park as the fire approached, waking residents to warn them of the danger.
With three colleagues he helped a disabled woman trapped in her mobile home to escape. "Between the four of us, we were able to take the woman out of the house as fire was breaking the glass," Mr Bowman said.
Mr Schwarzenegger said: "When you walk around the area that was destroyed, it looks like hell. I feel awful for the people whose homes were destroyed."
- (Guardian service)