Evacuations as fires burn out of control in California

Apocalyptic-looking plumes of smoke have filled skies east of Los Angeles as firefighters battled three major wildfires that erupted amid a blistering heatwave and threatened tens of thousands of homes and other structures. Evacuation orders were expanded on Tuesday night as the fires grew and included parts of the popular ski town of Big Bear and the entire community of Wrightwood, with about 4500 residents. In neighbouring Orange County, firefighters used bulldozers, helicopters and planes to control a rapidly spreading blaze called the Airport Fire that started on Monday and spread to about eight square kilometres in only a few hours. The blaze was ignited by a spark from heavy equipment being used by public workers, officials said. By Tuesday night, it had charred more than 78 sq km and was heading over mountainous terrain into neighbouring Riverside County with no containment, fire authorities said. Two firefighters who suffered heat-related injuries and a resident who suffered from smoke inhalation were treated at a hospital and released. In the San Bernardino National Forest, some 65,600 homes and buildings were under threat by the Line Fire, including those under mandatory evacuations and those under evacuation warnings, nearly double the number from the previous day. Residents along the southern edge of Big Bear Lake were told to leave the area on Tuesday night, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. The blaze had charred more than 130 sq km of bushland and blanketed the area with a thick cloud of dark smoke. The acrid air prompted several districts in the area to close schools through the end of the week because of safety concerns. Three firefighters had been injured since the blaze was reported on Thursday, state fire managers said. In northern California, a fire measuring less than 2.6 sq km that started on Sunday burned at least 30 homes and commercial buildings and destroyed 40 to 50 vehicles in Clearlake City, 120km north of San Francisco, officials said. About 4000 people were forced to leave by the so-called Boyles Fire, which was about 50 per cent contained on Tuesday night. Other major fires were burning across the western United States, including in Idaho, Oregon and Nevada, where about 20,000 people had to flee a blaze outside Reno.