A large fire is burning out of control in California, causing 1800 people to flee their homes. Source: AAP
A RAPIDLY spreading wildfire raging through a rugged Southern California mountain range has already destroyed 26 homes and is threatening more than 500 other residences, forcing about 1800 people to flee.
One man suffered serious burns and five firefighters were injured, including two from heat exhaustion.
More than 1400 firefighters and nine helicopters were battling the flames as they pushed eastward along the San Jacinto Mountains, a desert range 145km east of Los Angeles.
The wind-whipped blaze was getting bigger and heading towards the desert town of Cabazon, said Cal Fire Riverside Chief John R. Hawkins.
The fire was estimated at nearly 57 sq km on Thursday with 20 per cent containment, but the direction could change in the area, which is known as a wind tunnel. Evacuation orders were issued in five towns, including parts of Cabazon.
"The conditions at the front right now are very dangerous," Hawkins said.
Authorities still have not determined what caused the fire.
Susana Medrano stood in her front yard, mesmerised by the orange and red flames creeping along the wind-swept mountain ridge behind her home, and struggled to leave.
Her children sat in the back of her pickup after grabbing the new clothes and backpacks they had bought for the school year, which starts next week. Now they were wondering whether they will have a place to live.
"It's hard because we don't know what's going to happen," said the mother of four, her eyes tearing up as she prepared to stay with family down the road in San Bernardino.
"I've never seen the fire so close to my home."
Medrano was among scores of residents in Cabazon who were evacuated in the pre-dawn hours of Thursday and returned after sunrise to pack up more belongings and watch the flickering line of fire snaking along the brown, scrubby mountains.
In the nearby town of Banning, Lili Arroyo, 83, left with only her pet cockatiel, Tootsie, in its cage and a bag of important papers from her home, which was rebuilt after being destroyed in a 2006 wildfire.
"There were embers and ash coming down all over the sky," Arroyo said. "The smoke was really thick. I was starting not to be able to breathe."
Along with Cabazon, the evacuation orders covered two camping areas and the rural communities of Poppet Flats, Twin Pines, Edna Valley and Vista Grande.
A different blaze, a 60-acre wildfire, forced evacuations of about 75 homes on Thursday near Wrightwood, a community in the San Gabriel Mountains popular with skiers located about 64.36km northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
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