California residents flee after wildfires

Guardian (UK): Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes in the southern Californian resort of Santa Barbara after a wildfire raged out of control. The blaze, which ignited in the dry brush on Tuesday and was being investigated as arson, blackened some 500 acres around picturesque Santa Barbara by nightfall, leaving behind smouldering, burned-out husks where multimillion-dollar mansions once stood.

As the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, declared a state of emergency, Santa Barbara officials said 5,430 homes housing over 13,000 people had been evacuated. Neighbourhoods remained under threat as more than 900 firefighters struggled to make headway against flames whipped up by hot, dry winds through steep and sometimes inaccessible canyons.

"We are in a state of extreme emergency," Santa Barbara county fire spokesman David Sadecki said. "We're running very, very thin." Sadecki said the blaze was difficult to fight because of "extreme weather" – temperatures over 32C (90F) – and winds gusting at up to 50mph….

Montecito Tea Fire, in Santa Barbara, California, November 2008, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr at the site: http://flickr.com/photos/edward-vielmetti/, under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License