State of Emergency in California as Blaze Rages

Nov. 14, 2008 — -- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Santa Barbara County, Calif., as firefighters have been unable to control a wildfire that has already damaged at least 100 homes and injured 13 people.

"We're going to have a very, very tough day today for firefighting, and when the winds kick up this afternoon we're going to have an incredibly challenging situation," Santa Barbara County Fire Chief Ron Prince told reporters. "Control of this fire is not even in sight."

Flames ripped through multimillion-dollar mansions Thursday evening in the upscale Southern California community of Montecito and tore through neighboring Santa Barbara County today.

This morning, Montecito Fire Chief Kevin Wallace described the fire to ABC's "Good Morning America".

"It's definitely out of control. We don't have containment on any of the lines," he said.

"We had winds blowing up there at that elevation at around 60 mph," he added later. "We've had dry fuels all summer. Mother Nature basically took over."

Scores of water-dropping helicopters took off at daybreak after they'd been grounded overnight by high winds and heavy smoke that had spread into downtown Santa Barbara.

Four people were injured and about 5,400 of the community's 14,000 residents were evacuated, and more were expected possibly to be forced to flee today.

Firefighters battled the fast-moving blaze that broke out around 6 p.m. Thursday and had spread to about 2,500 acres as of this morning.

The fire destroyed not only homes but several buildings on the campus of Westmont College. Wallace told "GMA" the students had been safely evacuated to the gymnasium, where they could see the physics building burning.

"You could see a really bright light, a red scarlet light in the sky that looked like the fire was 10 feet away," said Sarah Shasberger, a Westmont student.

A total of 13 people have been injured, including two firefighters who suffered smoke inhalation, and two residents were hospitalized with substantial burns, officials told The Associated Press.