US: California's bush fires yesterday merged into gigantic walls of flame, destroying neighbourhoods in an arc from the Mexican border to suburbs north of Las Vegas, killing at least 13 people and incinerating more than 835 homes.
Driven by hot Santa Ana winds and fed by the tinder dry stumps of millions of trees killed by bark beetles, the fires filled the skies over southern California with smoke and ash and threatened 30,000 more homes.
One of 10 major fires leaped over the Ronald Reagan Freeway which runs through Simi Valley, and spread toward Chatsworth, a heavily populated area north of Los Angeles. Residents fled to western parts of the city.
Gov Gray Davis asked President Bush to declare Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties disaster areas, and Mr Bush promised he would help "in any way we can."
The choking smoke and ash from the seven-day-old fires disrupted air and road traffic and closed schools and businesses.
Several victims were trapped by fires that billowed without warning along the narrow Wildcat Canyon area on the Barona Ranch Indian Reservation. Some died in their cars while others perished trying to run ahead of the flames, including two children with their parents, according to San Diego County officials.
The death toll was the worst since 1991, when fires in the Oakland hills of Alameda County killed 25 and destroyed more than 3,200 homes.
Churches and schools were opened to accommodate families who were often just given minutes to flee their homes. Television showed pictures of burning brush flying onto houses that were immediately engulfed in flames along with cars in the driveway.
The fire near San Diego, known as the Cedar fire, was reportedly started by a lost hunter who set off a flare in a wooded area.
In San Bernardino County outside Los Angeles, a blaze called the Old Fire destroyed 25 homes yesterday when it jumped a road and moved into the heavily forested town of Crestline. It torched 400 homes on Sunday.
More than 7,000 firefighters, some from neighbouring states, fought the blazes which by yesterday had consumed more than 330,000 acres, or 500 square miles. Two men collapsed and died in San Bernardino County, one while trying to salvage possessions, the other while watching his home burn, the county coroner said.
Around the suburbs of San Bernardino the Old Fire and the Grand Prix fire merged to create a burning front some 40 miles long. One flank burned through four towns while the other flank destroyed more than 450 homes, according to a report from Associated Press.
Police were seeking two suspected arsonists on possible murder charges in connection with the San Bernardino fires.
Another 80,000-acre fire northwest of Los Angeles, in Ventura County, threatened approximately 2,000 homes and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.