Brush fires spread through state of California

A fierce, wind-whipped brush fire grew along the California coast northwest of Los Angeles today, threatening thousands of homes and a military base as about 200 dwellings were evacuated and a university campus closed.

A force of more than 900 firefighters had managed by daybreak to carve containment lines around about 10 percent of the perimeter of the inferno, which has scorched some 10,000 acres of dry, dense brush and chaparral since erupting yesterday morning.

Several farm buildings and recreational vehicles were engulfed, and fire officials said 15 homes were damaged, though no residential structures were lost and no injuries have been reported, authorities said.

While the extent of evacuations was scaled back today, some 4,000 homes were considered to be under threat, the Ventura county fire department said. The so-called Springs Fire and a flurry of smaller blazes around the state this week marked an abrupt start to a California fire season that weather forecasters predict will be worsened by a summer of high temperatures and drought throughout much of the US West.

"We're seeing fires burning like we usually see in late summer, at the height of the fire season, and it's only May," Ventura County fire department spokesman Tom Crush said.

Strong, erratic winds that complicated efforts to combat the Springs Fire through much of the first day abated somewhat this morning but seemed to be picking up again, Mr Crush said.

In the meantime, wind conditions had improved enough to allow several planes equipped for dumping payloads of fire-retardant chemicals to return to the air at dawn along with a fleet of six water-dropping helicopters, he said.