A deadly wildfire, known as the Thomas Fire, has forced thousands of Americans to evacuate their homes in the foothills north of Los Angeles.
The fast-moving blaze has already engulfed 26,000 acres of land, according to Ventura County Fire Department (VCFD) officials, who are battling hard to stop the fire spreading further.
Unfortunately, strong Santa Ana winds have fanned the flames, giving firefighters little hope of containing the inferno.
Earlier this morning Mark Lorenzen, chief of VCFD told reporters: ”We anticipate that the fire is going to impact the eastern end of the city of Ventura within the hour.
“The prospects for containment are not good. Really Mother Nature is going to decide whether we have the ability to put it out because it is pushing hard.”
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Maps released by CAL Fire show that the Thomas Fire is currently located just north of Ventura City and Santa Paula.
The map below shows the area where officials hope to contain the fire.
Evacuation zones are marked with a blue border, while the fire’s latest perimeter is highlighted in red.
“We’re really just trying to catch it around the edges and just pinching it off as quickly as we possibly can,” Ventura County firefighter Jason Hodge told the Los Angeles Times.
CAL Fire has issued a ‘Red Flag’ alert for swathes of California’s coastline, amid fears low humidity and winds of up to 70mph could worsen the fire’s impact.
The warning, which initially came into effect on Sunday, stretches from Santa Maria all the way down to San Diego.
A Red Flag alert is the most severe warning the fire service can give and is only issued for weather events which may result in “extreme fire behaviour” in the next 24 hours.
About 1,000 households have been ordered to evacuate their homes in Ventura County, which lies about 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, Thomas Aquinas College has evacuated all 390 of its pupils as a precautionary measure.
The Catholic school tweeted: “All students were evacuated, first to Sacred Heart Church, then to homes of friends, faculty & alumni. Classes for tomorrow have been canceled.”
More than 260,000 people have been left without power in southern California as the Thomas wildfire tears through Ventura County.
The Los Angeles Times report that 180,000 Southern California Edison customers in Ventura have lost power, with a further 83,000 without electricity in nearby Santa Barbara.
The latest wildfire comes just less than two months after 13 people were killed by infernos in California’s wine region.
Read more: CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE LATEST UPDATES