By David Swanson and Kanishka Singh
SANTA PAULA, California (Reuters) -Over 10,000 people were ordered to evacuate from a wildfire northwest of Los Angeles as fierce seasonal winds blew flames into ranches and neighborhoods, destroying dozens of homes, authorities said on Thursday.
Firefighters and police cleared residents from neighborhoods near Camarillo before homes were set ablaze by embers blown two miles (3.2 km) from the fire front, Ventura County fire department Captain Tony McHale said.
“It’s like trying to put out a blowtorch with a squirt gun,” said McHale of the fire, which started in a hillside canyon on Wednesday then tore west, driven by Santa Ana winds.
Fueled by abundant grass and scrub, with wind gusts up to 80 mph (130 kph), the blaze had burned over 20,000 acres (8,094 hectares) by Thursday evening, authorities said.
Several civilians were injured and a “significant” number of homes, businesses and other structures destroyed, McHale said.
The Los Angeles Times said it had counted over 90 destroyed homes. More than 30,000 people live in the potential path of the fire, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection or Cal Fire.
A red flag warning for high winds was in effect until Friday.
Climate scientists say warming temperatures have created wet winters that allowed California’s coastal chaparral – small trees, shrubs and bushes – to thrive. Record-high temperatures this summer dried out hillsides, priming them for wildfire.
The United States is experiencing a strong wildfire year with 8.1 million acres burned to date, compared with an annual, full-year average of around 7 million acres over the last decade, according to National Interagency Fire Center data.
California wildfires have so far this year burned more than three times as much land as last year at this time when the state’s fire season was more benign, according to Cal Fire data.
(Reporting by David Swanson in Santa Paula, Kanishka Singh in Washington and Andrew Hay in New MexicoEditing by Alexandra Hudson, Marguerita Choy and Sandra Maler)
