California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency Tuesday as whipping Santa Ana winds continued to stoke a wildfire that has already scorched 70 square miles near north Los Angeles.
The ravenous fire began in the brush and scrubs outside the city of Ventura on Monday, but within hours, hot embers whipped up by the extremely dry, powerful winds were carried into the enclave of 100,000 residents.
The fire destroyed dozens of buildings in Ventura, including an adolescent psychiatric hospital with 80 patients, and thousands were forced to evacuate. Sheriff’s deputies knocked on doors throughout the night to warn residents to evacuate.
“This fire is very dangerous and spreading rapidly, but we’ll continue to attack it with all we’ve got,” Brown said. “It’s critical residents stay ready and evacuate immediately if told to do so.”
Wind gusts sometimes exceeding 60 mph complicated the effort, said Rich Macklin, spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department.
Howling Santa Ana winds pushed a wildfire from rural hills into parts of the Southern California city of Ventura overnight with explosive speed, destroying dozens of buildings and forcing thousands of people to evacuate, CNN reports.
By Tuesday morning, the fire had burned about 45,000 acres in 13 hours, and some homes were ablaze in the northern part of Ventura -- a city of more than 100,000 people along the Pacific coast.
The fast-moving fire forced sheriff's deputies to knock on doors to warn residents to evacuate in the dark. About 150 buildings, including homes and an evacuated Ventura hospital, had been destroyed by Tuesday morning.
On Ventura's northern edge, at least 10 homes and numerous palm trees were burning in one neighborhood, sending thick smoke and dangerous embers into the gusty air.
00:05 (GMT +4) An evacuee, Catherine Wastweet, stood on a street Tuesday morning and looked up to the foothills where her neighborhood was aflame.
"We live up there ... but we just don't know whether our house is burned down or not, because we can't even see through all of the smoke," she said.