Wildfires continued to explode across Southern California on Wednesday as dry conditions and roaring winds turned the region into a tinderbox, forcing thousands to evacuate.
The Thomas Fire, as the blaze has been dubbed, put approximately 50,000 residents under a mandatory evacuation and burned more than 55,000 acres in the Ventura County area with no containment after springing up earlier this week, officials said.
By Wednesday morning another fire erupted farther south in Los Angeles, threatening The Getty Center, a campus of the J. Paul Getty Museum, and causing the location and surrounding roads to close, according to NBC Los Angeles. The cause of that fire is unknown at this time.
Strong Santa Ana winds, which carry hot, extremely dry air from inland, fanned the flames overnight in Ventura County, gusting from 35 mph to 55 mph. However, officials said the winds were expected to decrease in intensity early Wednesday.
“However, again by late tomorrow night into Thursday, those Santa Ana winds are expected to increase again in strength,” Todd Durham, the incident commander for CalFire Incident Management Team Four, said Tuesday night.
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Related: Thousands flee massive Southern California wildfire
More than 1,770 personnel were working to fight the flames ripping through Ventura County, according to the latest incident report. One firefighter was injured but has since been released from the hospital, officials said.
No fatalities or civilian injuries had been reported as of Tuesday night, according to the incident report, but 150 structures had been destroyed and 12,000 more were threatened. It was not immediately clear if the structures in the report were homes or businesses.
Durham said during a press conference that he believes the number of destroyed structures is greater than the official report.
Rodrigo Rivera, 22, a resident of Oxnard, went to Ventura to check on a friend and ended up helping evacuate residents early Tuesday morning. He said a firefighter approached and asked them to help.
“When he came running towards us that’s when I realized this is not controlled at all,” Rivera said in a phone interview. “You know it’s a serious moment when a firefighter comes running to you asking for help.”
Late Tuesday, fire officials said that the fire in Ventura County jumped Highway 101 and began heading west to Solimar Beach, causing evacuation orders to be issued for the North Coast area of Ventura County.
Photos: Southern California wildfire devours homes as residents escape
Officials have still not stated what caused the fire to spring up, but some said the ongoing drought has left the area “ripe for fire spreading.”
Fire officials said overnight that they anticipated the behemoth would continue growing.