California residents flee mansions after wildfires

• Santa Barbara evacuates more than 13,000 people
• Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declares emergency
Link to video: Wildfires threaten Santa Barbara homes

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.

Three firefighters suffered burns and respiratory injuries when their engine was engulfed in flames, its hoses burned through, as they tried to protect a home. They were taken by helicopter to a Los Angeles-area burn centre for treatment.

In a city that has experienced a number of wildfires, officials said this one was as close to the city centre as any they had seen. Less than six months ago a fire destroyed more than 200 homes in Santa Barbara and neighbouring Montecito, and in 1990, a blaze killed one person and destroyed 641 homes, apartments and other structures in the county.

Santa Barbara, which has about 90,000 residents, is a tourist destination about 100 miles west of Los Angeles.

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