Evacuations grow as Los Angeles fire rages

LOS ANGELES: Raging southern California wildfires showed no signs of abating early yesterday, injuring three people and prompting evacuation of 4,000 homes a day after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency.

The blazes, including some just a few km north of sprawling Los Angeles, were still "out of control," according to fire officials, and by mid-afternoon had engulfed over 8,000 hectares of vegetation.

The flames, being fought by more than 1,800 firefighters and fire planes dropping their loads of water, also threatened 10,000 other individual homes and nearly 2,500 other structures.