A firefighter battling nine major and eight smaller fires that have turned Southern California into a disaster area has been killed.
The fireman, believed assigned to firefighting in San Diego County from the San Francisco Bay, died while fighting a blaze outside the historic gold mining town of Julian. Three colleagues were also injured, including at least one with severe burns.
He is the first fireman to have been killed since the fires began last week.
Officials said that as last night there were 18 confirmed deaths in Southern California, two in adjoining areas in Mexico and that a total of 2,427 homes were destroyed along with 634,000 acres. The fires have incinerated 2,000 homes, destroying entire suburban neighbourhoods in hours.
Close to 13,000 firefighters, many of them bone weary from days without rest, were battling hot spots that deceptively smouldered quietly for hours only to roar back up, fuelled by sudden wind changes.
Fire crews in Los Angeles County waged an intense battle against a 100,000-acre blaze that sprang up ahead of strengthening ocean gusts yesterday afternoon.
California fire officials said that the wildfires they are fighting could be on the verge of taking an "apocalyptic" turn if they spread to "a dead line" of diseased and highly flammable trees in the San Bernardino Mountains, which is what might have happened.
President George W. Bush has declared a state of emergency in four counties, and California Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger visited Washington to meet congressional leaders last night to hurry the dispersal of federal emergency funds.