Over 130 homes lost in California wildfire: officials

Ag AFP

CAMARILLO, United States: More than 130 homes are now known to have been destroyed by a raging wildfire burning outside Los Angeles, as a break in the weather on Friday gave firefighters a chance to tame the blaze.

Hurricane-strength winds that battered the area this week fuelled an explosion in the Mountain Fire near Camarillo, which grew rapidly to over 20,000 acres (8,000 hectares).

Thousands of people in the path of the inferno were forced to flee, some describing how they had only minutes to gather crucial possessions and pets as unpredictable flames leapt from home to home.

Linda Fefferman said she knew she had to go when she smelled smoke.

“I´m trying to load the car with animals and important papers, my oxygen concentrator, and when it got too smoky for me, I knew I had to get out,” she told a local broadcaster.

A neighbor with a chainsaw helped remove a fallen tree that was blocking her path, and Fefferman was able to flee.

“I went down to the Goodwill parking lot, watched the smoke, you know, probably our own house burning.

“Nothing is left. It´s gone,” she said. “It´s all gone.”

Fefferman said she thought 14 or 15 houses on her street alone had been destroyed by the flames.

Authorities said on Thursday that initial inspections revealed at least 132 homes had been lost, with 88 more damaged.

The blaze erupted on Wednesday morning and spread rapidly, fanned by fierce seasonal Santa Ana winds from California´s desert interior.