Three huge wildfires are forcing tens of thousands of Californians to evacuate

Three fast-moving wildfires are raging across California Friday, devastating at least one town and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

The trio of blazes — one in the north of the state, and two others in Ventura and Los Angeles counties, in the south — broke out Thursday and spread rapidly, fueled by strong winds and dry conditions.

One of the fires, the so-called Hill Fire, is just a few miles from the scene of Wednesday’s mass shooting in Thousand Oaks, bringing an unwelcome new threat to a grieving community.

Ventura County Fire Department officials said the fire, which started Thursday, had spread to cover 10,000 acres.

The county is also battling a separate blaze, the Woolsey Fire, that ripped across thousands of acres of Ventura and Los Angeles counties early Friday. The blaze is threatening some 30,000 homes, prompting mandatory evacuations of the affected areas: Among them was Kim Kardashian, who posted footage from the evacuation of her Calabasas neighborhood to social media.

But the greatest destruction is in Northern California, where the so-called Camp Fire has forced 40,000 people in Butte County to evacuate since it ignited early Thursday. There have been unconfirmed reports of fatalities: Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said authorities were still trying to establish how many had died.

“This was a rapidly moving fire,” Honea said. “And it moved very, very quickly from a rather remote area to populated areas.”

READ: “Diablo winds” could make California’s massive wildfires even worse

The blaze has devastated the town of Paradise, a settlement of 26,000 people in the Sierra Nevada foothills, about 85 miles north of Sacramento.

An estimated 1,000 structures have been razed by the Camp Fire so far, most of them in Paradise, according to local fire officials. The rapid advance of the flames, fanned by gusts approaching 50 mph, forced some residents to abandon their vehicles and flee on foot, according to reports.

“People were abandoning their cars and running with their babies and kids. This was right before someone rammed our vehicle with theirs, trying to get through,” Whitney Vaughn, a resident of Paradise, wrote on Facebook. “There were no firefighters in sight. I am hoping all of these people made it out.”

Evacuation orders are in place for Paradise, Magalia, Concow, Butte Creek Canyon and the Butte Valley areas, with rescuers working to reach residents trapped in some locations.

Cover image: A structure is seen engulfed in flames during the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, U.S. November 8, 2018. (REUTERS/Stephen Lam)