Thousands of Californians have been told to flee the path of intense wildfires threatening 12,000 homes in the Los Angeles area after two firefighters were killed trying to tackle the blazes.
The state governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, urged those in the fire's way to get out as ash rained down on cars in downtown Los Angeles. The fires were spreading in all directions in the dry conditions.
Firefighters fixed their attention yesterday on the blaze's fast-moving eastern side where flames lapped at the foot of the vital communications and astronomy centre of Mount Wilson, and on the north-western front, where the two firefighters were killed on Mount Gleason, near the city of Acton.
"We ask for your understanding, for your patience as we move through this difficult time, and please, prayers for the families of our two brothers that we lost," county deputy fire chief Mike Bryant said through tears at a news conference.
Fire Captain Tedmund Hall, 47, and firefighter Specialist Arnaldo "Arnie" Quinones, 35, were killed in a crash, said Los Angeles county fire captain Mike Savage. Authorities did not give a cause for the crash, and officials would take no questions on the deaths.
Television helicopter video last night showed an upside-down vehicle on the mountainside.
"Our hearts are heavy as we are tragically reminded of the sacrifices our firefighters and their families make daily to keep us safe," Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
The blaze was only about five per cent contained and had scorched 71 square miles in the Angeles national forest. Mandatory evacuations were in effect for neighbourhoods in Glendale, Pasadena and other cities and towns north of Los Angeles. Officials said air quality in parts of the foothills bordered on hazardous.
The fire, which broke out Wednesday afternoon, was the largest of many burning around California, including a new blaze in Placer county, north-east of Sacramento, that destroyed 60 structures, many of them homes.
The southern California fire was expected to reach the top of Mount Wilson, where 22 television stations, many radio stations and cell phone providers have their transmitters, said US forest service captain Mike Dietrich.
Firefighters were pulled from the top of the mountain after clearing brush and spraying retardant on antennas because it was too dangerous for them to remain.
"We've done all the preparation we can," county fire spokesman Mark Savage said.
Television stations said if the antennas burned broadcast signals would be affected but satellite and cable transmissions would not be.
Two giant telescopes and several multimillion-dollar university programmes are housed in the century-old Mount Wilson observatory. The complex of buildings is both a historic landmark and a thriving modern centre for astronomy.
At least 18 homes were destroyed in the fire and firefighters expected to find many more, authorities said.
While thousands fled, two people who tried to ride out the firestorm in a backyard hot tub were burned. The pair in Big Tujunga Canyon, on the south-western edge of the fire, "completely underestimated the fire" and the hot tub provided "no protection whatsoever", sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said yesterday.
The pair made their way to firefighters and were airlifted out by a sheriff's rescue helicopter. Deputies gave them adequate notification to evacuate from deputies but decided to stay, Whitmore said.
Whitmore described their condition as "critical" but fire officials said one of the two was treated and released and the other remained hospitalised in stable condition. A third person was burned on Saturday in an evacuation area along highway two near Mount Wilson, officials said. Details of that injury were not immediately known.
"There were people that did not listen, and there were three people that got burned and got critically injured because they did not listen," Schwarzenegger said at a news conference at the fire command post.
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