California fires in pictures: Terrifying images show extent of the US hellfire horror

United States President Donald Trump issued a state of emergency today to unlock aid resources for those threatened by the blaze.

The move will allow the the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate its relief effort with the Department of Homeland Security.

Some 200,000 people have already been forced to abandon their homes, and thousands of firefighters are valiantly tackling the blaze.

Conditions are not expected to improve over the coming days with the National Weather Service forecasting strong dry winds over the weekend.

The largest of the several named blazes, known as Thomas Fire, is singlehandedly responsible for the destruction of 439 buildings and 132,000 acres of scorched land. Only about 10 per cent of the fire was so far contained on Friday.

Hellish scenes captured across California barely scratch the surface of how terrifying the situation is.

The fires have choked out the skies with impenetrable black smoke, constantly reflecting the ominous red glow of the inferno.

Firefighters in Santa Paula were photographed on Monday attempting to contain Thomas Fire as it tore through a basketball court.

Nearly 130 miles away, red-hot embers trailed from the empty husk of what was once a house in Bonsall – burnt down by Lilac Fire.

Meanwhile a team of firefighters in Oroville were pictured surrounded by thick orange smog as they tried to salvage an American flag on the side of a house from the approaching Wall Fire. 

One woman caught in the raging Liberty Fire said she helplessly watched in horror as the blaze destroyed her home in Murrieta.

Lauren Fuga told ABC7 though tears: “I just, I’m at a loss for words. It’s so horrible. 

“You never think that it’s going to happen to you, and it can.”

The Murrieta Fire Department estimated earlier today that about 60 per cent of Liberty was contained to a 300 acre area. So far one property and six outbuildings have been lost to the fire.

As tense as the situation looks on the ground in California, low-orbit pictures snapped by space agency NASA reveal just how severe the wildfires are.

Captured about 240 miles above Earth on the International Space Station (ISS), the photos show vast amounts of thick smoke trailing across the coastal state.

NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik tweeted: “I was asked this evening if we can see the SoCal fires from space. Yes Faith, unfortunately we can. May the Santa Ana’s die down soon.”

A false-colour image of the fires form NASA’s Multi Spectral Imager (MSI) on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Sentinel-2 satellite revealed swathes of charred land and the raging blaze from space.

Sebastian Wayman-Galo, 15, was photographed hosing down smouldering soil near his Ojai home threatened by Thomas Fire. 

Not too far away at Ojai Vista Farm, firefighters were seen rescuing an avocado orchard from burning dry grass.

Meanwhile a woman living in a beach community near the US 101 Freeway was pictured desperately dousing the slowly encroaching fires with buckets of water.

Cal Fire Division Chief Nick Schuler urged people to be ready to evacuate their homes.

He told a group of reporters on Thursday: “People need to be ready because this fire could make it all the way through Oceanside to the coast if it continues.”