The Southern California Mountain Fire is destroying dozens of homes and putting thousands under evacuation orders

A fast-moving wildfire, fanned by high winds, tore through a community northwest of Los Angeles for a second day Thursday after destroying dozens of homes and forcing thousands of residents to flee as it exploded in size in just a few hours .

The Mountain Fire prompted evacuation orders for more than 10,000 people on Wednesday as it threatened 3,500 structures in suburban communities, farms and agricultural areas around Camarillo, a city of about 70,000, Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement.

The fire was at zero percent as of late Wednesday, according to the Ventura County Fire Department. The National Weather Service said a red flag warning, indicating an “extremely dangerous situation” for extreme fires, would remain in effect through Friday. Winds are expected to decrease significantly Thursday evening, the weather service said.

Those types of warnings have not been issued in the area since 2020, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Officials in several Southern California counties have urged residents to be alert for fast-spreading fires, power outages and downed trees amid the latest round of infamous Santa Ana winds.

With forecast wind gusts of up to 50 mph and humidity as low as nine percent, parts of Southern California could experience conditions ripe for “extreme and life-threatening” fire behavior through Thursday, the weather service said. On Wednesday the wind gusts reached a speed of 98 km/h.

'As intense as it can be'

A thick plume of smoke rose hundreds of feet into the air Wednesday, blanketing entire neighborhoods and limiting visibility for firefighters and evacuees. The fire grew from less than 1.2 square kilometers to more than 62 square kilometers in just over five hours.

First responders urged residents to evacuate. Officers contacted 14,000 people to urge them to leave as embers spread for miles, fanning new flames.

Ventura County Fire Chief Trevor Johnson described crews racing their engines toward homes threatened by flames to save lives.

“This is as intense as it gets. The hair on the back of the neck of the firefighters certainly stood on end,” he said during a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.

Two people apparently suffered smoke inhalation and were taken to hospitals on Wednesday, fire officials said. No firefighters reported any significant injuries.

Officials said they used all means, including water-dropping helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft dropping fire retardant, but the fire was still out of control.

The Mountain Fire raged in a region that has seen some of California's most destructive fires over the years.

Wednesday's fires were burning in the same areas as other recent devastating fires, including the Woolsey fire 2018killing three people and destroying 1,600 homes in the Los Angeles area, and the Thomas Fire 2017destroying more than a thousand homes and other structures in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Southern California Edison, one of the largest utilities in the U.S., has paid tens of millions of dollars to settle claims after its equipment was blamed for both fires.

Forecasters also issued red flag warnings until Thursday from California's central coast through the San Francisco Bay Area and into counties in the north, where strong winds were also expected. Utilities in California have started turning off equipment as some wildfires in recent years have been caused by power lines and other infrastructure. On Wednesday, more than 65,000 customers in Southern California were preventively without power and more than 20,000 in Northern California.