Wildfire burns Calif. homes

Associated Press

CARLSBAD, CALIF.

Flames engulfed suburban homes and shot up along canyon ridges in one of the worst of several blazes that broke out Wednesday in Southern California during a second day of a sweltering heat wave, taxing fire crews who fear the scattered fires mark only the beginning of a long wildfire season.

Thick black smoke darkened blue skies over the Pacific coast city of Carlsbad, about 30 miles north of San Diego, known for its Legoland California amusement park. The park was closed Wednesday because of a power outage caused by the fire.

Thousands were asked to evacuate their homes — including in Carlsbad — after the blaze erupted about 10:34 a.m. Wednesday and spread through rapidly heavy brush before jumping into residential areas.

Despite a state fire report of 30 homes burned earlier in the day, Carlsbad Fire Chief Michael Davis said he knows of just three homes destroyed and about a dozen damaged, all of them in the same neighborhood.

Another fire was chewing up 600 acres 20 miles to the north of the university near Fallbrook, forcing the shutdown of a stretch of Interstate 15.

On the nearby Marine Corps base of Camp Pendleton, which borders Fallbrook, a separate 1,000-acre blaze led to residents in military housing also being asked to leave.

The causes of the various fires were under investigation.