UPDATE - MAPS UPDATED FOR SATURDAY, MAY 4, 2013 (SEE BELOW)
As area temperatures soared and gusty Santa Ana winds blew across Southern California, the fierce Springs wildfire continued to spread along the California coast northwest of Los Angeles, threatening 4,000 homes and a Naval air base, as thousands of residents were evacuated ahead of the flames.
More than 950 firefighters built containment lines by late afternoon around about 20 percent of the inferno, Reuters reports, which has blackened an estimated 28,000 acres of dry, dense brush and other vegetation since erupting Thursday morning.
Fire managers said they expect it will take through the weekend and into Monday until they are able the get full containment of the blaze, which left thick smoke blanketing the celebrity-studded beach community of Malibu and other areas further inland.
Several farm buildings and recreational vehicles had already been engulfed while fire officials reported 15 homes and five commercial properties damaged.
While more than two dozen secondary residential buildings had been lost to fire, no primary residential structures were yet lost and no injuries to either residents or emergency responders had been reported.
The Springs Fire and several other blazes around the Golden State state signaled an abrupt start to California's fire season, predicted by at least some forecasters to grow worse through the summer's typically dry high heat and lingering drought conditions.
"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 Kruschke told Reuters.
The Springs Fire, which investigators suspect may have started from a discarded cigarette, broke out at 6:30 a.m. local time on Thursday, next to U.S. 101 freeway and less than 10 miles from the Pacific coast. The fire spred read quickly to the edges of the communities of Camarillo and Newbury Park.
Flames had advanced by Friday morning to a short distance from the ocean's edge at some points, leading authorities to close several miles of the famed Pacific Coast Highway, which runs up and down much of the state's 770-mile length.
Point Mugu U.S. Naval Air Station, situated on the coast near theborder between Los Angeles and Ventura counties, ordered all non-essential personnel to stay home a second day as flames moved closer to the base's firing range, said spokeswoman Kimberly Gearhart said. She indicated no ammunition was stored at that location.
Meanwhile, a base unit that houses 110 active-duty military personnel and their families was evacuated on Friday because of heavy smoke.
The California State University at Channel Islands campus and area student housing was closed for a second day, the university said, even though official evacuation orders were lifted.
A separate late-afternoon brush fire in the hills above Glendale, a suburb immediately north of Los Angeles and about 50 miles east of Camarillo, led to a quick evacuation of a number of homes and elementary school. Water-dropping helicopters and ground crews responded quickly contain it.
In Riverside County, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, a fire destroyed two houses and damaged two others Thursday before firefighters got it under control.
At least five additional smaller wildfires broke out in Northern California.
May 4, 2013
May 3, 2013