A fast-moving wildfire has prompted evacuation orders for nearly 8000 homes in southern California and killed one person in a road accident.
The blaze broke out on Monday and quickly burned 4,000 hectares in hours, Ventura County Fire Sergeant Eric Buschow said.
The winds were pushing it toward Santa Paula, a city of some 30,000 people about 97km northwest of Los Angeles.
Evacuation orders were expanded to include houses in Ventura, which is 19km southwest and has 106,000 residents.
"The fire growth is just absolutely exponential," Ventura County Fire Chief Mark Lorenzen said. "All that firefighters can do when we have winds like this is get out ahead, evacuate people, and protect structures."
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One motorist was killed fleeing the fire, a local ABC affiliate reported.
More than 250,000 homes were without power and at least two structures were destroyed, a local power company said on Twitter.
"We got my kids out first," Melissa Grisales told ABC 7 in Los Angeles. "Pretty scary, really. I didn't think it was going to come to that, but I am starting to get pretty concerned."
The fire is being stoked by wind gusts of up to 115km/h that were expected to remain in the area along with low humidity through the week, the National Weather Service says.
