Fast-moving Calif. wildfires leave scorched trail of destruction
LOS ANGELES -- Residents had little time to react as a wildfire near Santa Barbara quickly grew to thousands of acres.
Strong winds fueled the Whittier fire, forcing hundreds to evacuate, including nearly 90 children attending summer camp.
Everyone got out safely, but at least twenty structures have been destroyed.
A much larger fire continues to burn just to the north, where the Alamo fire has now scorched more than 20,000 acres.
"We thought we had a pretty good line on it, but the winds picked up," said Fire Captain Dave Zaniboni. "We had a pretty strong north/northeasterly wind. It jumped that retardant line."
Local ranch owner Gretchen Leaf had to quickly pack up and evacuate.
"It appeared to be ok, and then we looked up, and there was this big, black cloud," Leaf said.
That's also what residents faced north of Sacramento, where over 4,000 acres have burned in the Wall fire.
"The wind was shifting bad last night, going one way or another. So those poor firefighters, you know how their hands full," said one man.
At least ten buildings have burned to the ground, with no containment in sight.
In Los Angeles, record-setting temperatures are being blamed for another major fire -- a transformer that exploded, knocking out power to 140,000 customers.
There have been no deaths in any of these fires, but there have been several injuries.
To put this year into perspective -- so far, there have been 2,100 fires in California. That's up 22 percent from this time last year.