CAMARILLO, Calif. — A wildfire northwest of Los Angeles grew out of control for a second day Thursday after destroying dozens of housesbut officials said firefighters may take a break as high winds are expected to ease in the evening.

More than 10,000 residents remained under evacuation orders as the mountain fire continued to threaten some 3,500 structures in suburban neighborhoods, ranches and agricultural areas around Camarillo in Ventura County. The fire, which broke out around 9 a.m. Wednesday, was not contained and the cause was unknown.

County firefighters said crews working in steep terrain, with the help of water-wielding helicopters, were focused on protecting hillside homes along the northeastern edge of the fire, near the city of Santa Paula, where more than 30,000 people live.

“It has been 26 hours since this incident began, and it remains dynamic and dangerous,” Ventura County Fire Chief Dustin Gardner said during a briefing Thursday morning.

Kelly Barton, 43, watched firefighters sift through the charred rubble of her parents’ ranch of 20 years in the Camarillo hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Crews discovered two safes and his parents’ collection of vintage door knockers, untouched amid the devastation.

“It was their forever retirement home,” Barton said Thursday. “Today, at 70, they have to start again. »

His father returned home an hour after it was evacuated on Wednesday and found it already destroyed. He was able to get four of their vintage cars to safety, but two – including a Chevrolet Nova he had owned since he was 18 – burned to “toast,” Barton said.

The National Weather Service said a red flag warning, indicating high fire danger conditions, would remain in effect until 6 p.m. Winds are expected to decrease significantly but humidity levels will remain extremely low, forecasters said.

Officials in several Southern California counties urged residents to remain vigilant amid fast-spreading fires, power outages and downed trees during the latest round of disasters. notorious Santa Ana winds.

The Mountain Fire was burning in a region that has seen some of California’s most destructive fires over the years. A thick plume of smoke rose several hundred meters into the sky on Wednesday, covering entire neighborhoods and limiting the visibility of firefighters and evacuees. Aerial television footage showed flames consuming dozens of homes while embers whipped residential buildings.

The fire quickly expanded, growing from less than half a square mile (about 1.2 square kilometers) to more than 16 square miles (41 square kilometers) in just over five hours. As of Thursday morning, the mapped area was just over 57 square kilometers.

At least 800 firefighters were assigned to the blaze and hundreds more were arriving from across the state, the department said. Many structures were affected, firefighters said, but the extent of the destruction will not be known until the 10 damage assessment teams deployed Thursday have completed their work.

Marcus Eriksen, who owns a farm in Santa Paula, said firefighters kept embers from spreading to his home, vehicles and other structures, even as piles of compost and wood chips were engulfed. .

The flames were up to 30 feet high and moving quickly, Eriksen said Thursday. Their speed and ferocity overwhelmed him, but firefighters continued to fight to save as much as they could on his property. Thanks to their work, “we dodged a bullet, big time,” he said.

First responders asked residents to follow evacuation orders. MPs contacted 14,000 people on Wednesday to urge them to leave as embers spread up to 5 kilometers and ignited new flames.

Sharon Boggie said the fire happened less than 200 feet from her home in Santa Paula.

“We thought we were going to lose him at 7 this morning,” Boggie said Thursday as white smoke billowed through the neighborhood. She first fled with her two dogs while her sister and nephew stayed behind. A few hours later, things seemed better, she said.

The Ventura County Office of Education announced that more than a dozen school districts and campuses in the county were closed Thursday, with a few expected to be closed Friday.

Two people suffered apparent smoke inhalation and were taken to the hospital Wednesday, firefighters said. No firefighters reported serious injuries.

Meanwhile, down south, Los Angeles County fire crews responded Wednesday to a wildfire in Malibu, where authorities briefly closed the Pacific Coast Highway as flames burned near multimillion-dollar properties of dollars. Officials said two structures burned in the 50-acre (20-hectare) Broad Fire.

The Santa Anas are dry, hot, gusty northeast winds that blow from the interior of Southern California toward the coast and offshore, moving in the opposite direction to the normal land flow that carries moist air from the Pacific. They typically occur during the fall months and continue throughout winter and into early spring.

With gusts topping 60 mph and humidity levels as low as 9 percent, parts of Southern California could be ripe for “extreme and life-threatening” fire behavior through Thursday, after which Conditions will calm down, the weather service said.

Forecasters also issued red flag warnings through Thursday from California’s central coast to the San Francisco Bay Area and northern counties.

California utilities have started turning off equipment in strong winds and extreme fire risk after a series of massive and deadly wildfires in recent years were sparked by power lines and other infrastructure.

Power cut to nearly 70,000 customers in five counties due to increased risk, Southern California Edison said Thursdayand more than 250,000 other customers were at risk of interruption.

Gabriela Ornelas, a spokeswoman for Edison, could not immediately say whether power had been cut in the area where the mountain fire started. Ornelas said outages can be a hardship for customers, but sometimes they are necessary for safety reasons.

The wildfires burned in the same areas as other recent destructive infernos, including 2018. Woolsey Firethat killed three people and destroyed 1,600 homes near Los Angeles, and the 2017 Thomas Fire, which burned more than a thousand homes and other structures in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Southern California Edison paid tens of millions of dollars to settle claims after its equipment was blamed for the two fires.

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Weber reported from Los Angeles. Jaimie Ding and Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles; Ethan Swope in Camarillo; Eugene Garcia in Santa Paula; Amy Taxin in Orange County; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; and Sarah Brumfield in Washington, DC, contributed to this report.