Calm winds early Wednesday had reduced the blazes in the San Bernardino area to mere smoke plumes earlier today, but the fires roared back with a vengeance as predicted 50MPH gusts took hold.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency. Meanwhile, the sheriff's department said an evacuation order covering 1,200 homes has been expanded to 2,000 homes. Sixteen schools and child care centers were closed.
At least twelve homes were reported destroyed. Roughly 900 firefighters were fighting the blaze.
David Sadecki, a spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, said:
"We are in a state of extreme emergency. We're running very, very thin."
Two firefighters were injured when they were trapped in a house that caught on fire; they suffered serious burns, according to the Santa Barbara News-Press.
The fire was even burning toward downtown Santa Barbara, with residents and businesses told they might need to evacuate if the flames approached.
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