A fierce, wind-driven wildfire spread on Friday along the California coast northwest of Los Angeles, threatening 4,000 homes and a military base as residents were evacuated ahead of the flames and a university campus was closed.
By nightfall more than 950 firefighters had built containment around about 20 percent of the inferno, which has blackened more than 43 square miles (111 square kilometers) of dry brush and chaparral since erupting on Thursday morning.
More firefighters were said to be on the way and fire officials said they hoped that diminishing winds and higher humidity would help them make headway overnight and on Saturday.
Fire managers said they expected it would take until next Monday to fully contain the blaze, which sent a pall of thick smoke drifting over the beach community of Malibu and farther inland across Los Angeles County.
Several farm buildings and recreational vehicles were engulfed and fire officials said 15 homes were damaged, along with five commercial properties. While 25 outbuildings were destroyed, no residential structures were lost and no injuries had been reported.
Some 4,000 homes were considered threatened, with evacuations ordered for about a quarter of those residences, the Ventura County fire and sheriff's departments said.
The so-called Springs Fire and a flurry of smaller blazes around the state this week marked a sudden start to a California fire season that some weather forecasters predict will be worsened by a summer of high temperatures and drought throughout much of the US West.
Los Angeles Times
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