California wildfire

A deadly wildfire in rugged mountains near Palm Springs burned out of control for a second day yesterday, forcing more people to flee their homes to escape a 24-kilometre wall of flames.

The fire, blamed on arsonists, has roared through 9,700 hectares, killing four firefighters and leaving another badly burned and in critical condition.

Knocking on doors and using bullhorns, firefighters roused several hundred people in the middle of the night and told them to leave as the fire neared their houses, fire officials said.

They joined another 700 who left hurriedly, leaving belongings and even some pets behind after the fire broke out on Thursday.

Another 400 to 1,000 people spent a tense night trapped in a recreational vehicle park in the San Jacinto mountains because firefighters were unable to get them out.

More than 1,000 firefighters worked through the night despite an acrid blanket of thick smoke covering the fire zone, 145 km east of Los Angeles and 27 km northwest of Palm Springs.

Weather forecasters expected another day of gusting, hot Santa Ana winds throughout southern California. In Orange County, 140 people were evacuated at daybreak from a campground in the Cleveland National Forest after a small brush fire broke out there.

Riverside County fire officials said the blaze near Palm Springs was deliberately set and a $100,000 reward has been offered for information about the perpetrators.

They gave no details about why they consider it an arson fire. The Los Angeles Times yesterday quoted people as saying they had seen teenagers smoking marijuana around midnight on Thursday near where the fire is thought to have started.