California’s wildfires are burning out of control, but firefighters may get a break when the wind dies down

CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) – A wildfire northwest of Los Angeles burned out of control for a second day Thursday after destroying dozens of homes, but officials said firefighters could get a break with high winds expected to die down in the evening .

READ MORE: California utility shuts off power in 12 counties as ‘Diablo’ winds increase wildfire risk

More than 10,000 residents remained under evacuation orders as the wildfire continued to threaten about 3,500 structures in suburban neighborhoods, ranches and farmland around Camarillo in Ventura County. The fire, which broke out around 9 Wednesday, had no containment.

County fire officials said crews working in steep terrain with the support of water-dropping helicopters focused on protecting hillside homes along the fire’s northeastern edge near the city of Santa Paula, home to more than 30,000 people.

“It’s been 26 hours since this incident started and it remains dynamic and it remains dangerous,” Ventura County Fire Chief Dustin Gardner said at a briefing Thursday morning.

Sharon Boggie said the fire came within 200 feet (60 meters) of her property in Santa Paula.

“We thought we were going to lose it at 7 o’clock this morning,” Boggie said outside his house Thursday as white smoke billowed through the neighborhood. She initially fled with her two dogs, while her sister and nephew stayed behind. Hours later, the situation seemed better, she said.

The National Weather Service said a red flag warning, which indicates conditions of high fire danger, would remain in effect until 6 p.m. 18.00. Winds were expected to drop significantly, but humidity levels will remain critically low, forecasters said.

Officials in several Southern California counties urged residents to be on the lookout for fast-spreading flames, power outages and downed trees during the latest round of notorious Santa Ana winds.

The wildfire burned in a region that has seen some of California’s most destructive fires over the years. A thick plume of smoke rose hundreds of meters into the sky Wednesday, covering entire neighborhoods and limiting visibility for firefighters and evacuees. Aerial TV footage showed flames consuming dozens of homes, while embers whipped along blocks of flats.

The fire quickly grew from less than half a square kilometer (about 1.2 square kilometers) to more than 16 square kilometers (41 square miles) in just over five hours. By Thursday morning, it was mapped at just over 22 square miles (57 square kilometers).

At least 800 firefighters were assigned to the blaze, and hundreds more arrived from across the state, the department said. Numerous structures were affected, fire officials said, but the extent of the destruction would not be known until the 10 damage assessment teams deployed Thursday completed their work.

First responders pleaded with residents to follow evacuation orders. Deputies contacted 14,000 people to urge them to leave as embers spread for up to 3 miles (5 kilometers) and sparked new flames.

The Ventura County Office of Education announced that more than a dozen school districts and campuses in the county were closed Thursday, and a few were already expected to be closed Friday.

Two people suffered apparent smoke inhalation and were taken to hospitals Wednesday, fire officials said. No firefighters reported significant injuries.

Meanwhile to the south, Los Angeles County Fire Departments responded to a wildfire Wednesday in Malibu, where authorities briefly shut down the Pacific Coast Highway as flames burned near multimillion-dollar properties. Officials said two structures burned in the 50-acre (20-hectare) Broad Fire.

Santa Anas are dry, warm, and strong northeasterly winds that blow from the interior of Southern California toward the coast and offshore, moving in the opposite direction of the normal onshore flow that carries moist air from the Pacific Ocean into the region. They typically occur in the autumn months and continue through the winter and into early spring.

With winds gusting over 60 mph (97 km/h) and humidity levels as low as 9%, parts of Southern California could experience conditions ripe for “extreme and life-threatening” fire behavior into Thursday, after which conditions will calm down, the weather service said. A wind gust of 72 mph (116 km/h) was recorded early Thursday at an elevation of about 4,800 feet (1,463 meters) near Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles, the service said.

READ MORE: Diablo and Santa Ana winds could whip across California and increase the risk of wildfires

Forecasters also issued a red flag until Thursday from California’s central coast through the San Francisco Bay Area and into counties to the north, where strong winds were also expected.

California utilities began turning off equipment amid high winds and extreme fire danger after a series of massive and deadly wildfires in recent years were sparked by power lines and other infrastructure.

Power was cut to nearly 70,000 customers in five counties due to the increased risk of wildfires, Southern California Edison said Thursday. More than 250,000 customers were at risk of power outages due to the wildfire, the company said.

Wednesday’s wildfires burned in the same areas of other recent destructive infernos, including the 2018 Woolsey Fire, which killed three people and destroyed 1,600 homes near Los Angeles, and the 2017 Thomas Fire, which burned more than a thousand homes and other structures in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Southern California Edison has paid tens of millions of dollars to settle claims after its equipment was blamed for both fires.

Weber reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press reporters Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles; Kathy McCormack of Concord, New Hampshire; and Sarah Brumfield in Washington, DC, contributed to this report.