Dozens of Homes Burned in California as Wildfires Rage in the West

Three fires in Southern California exploded in size overnight, and the authorities arrested a man suspected of starting one of them. Large blazes continued to burn in Oregon and Idaho.

Fueled by dry and windy weather, three massive fires in Southern California have now burned dozens of homes and forced tens of thousands of people to flee from communities east of Los Angeles.

A fast-moving blaze stretching for 23,000 acres across Orange and Riverside Counties destroyed several homes in the city of Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles, and was threatening 10,500 more structures across the region as of Wednesday evening.

In El Cariso Village, a community in the hills above Lake Elsinore, blackened shells of cars were parked among charred tree trunks. Remnants of a burned home’s patio were strewed with mangled deck chairs.

Across California, more than 34,000 people were under evacuation orders and an additional 97,000 were under evacuation warnings as of Wednesday afternoon, according to state officials. Gov. Gavin Newsom has sent in the National Guard to help with evacuations, and additional firefighters have been dispatched from Northern California as well as from other states.

The largest actively burning fire in the state, in the San Gabriel Mountains above Los Angeles, grew to 49,000 acres, fire officials said. The fire has destroyed 20 homes in the Mount Baldy area, 13 in the community of Wrightwood and six cabins in rural areas, the chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, Anthony Marrone, said at a news conference. An additional 2,500 structures are threatened by the growing fire, which is not at all contained, Chief Marrone said, and more than 10,000 people have had to evacuate their homes.