Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger toured the community hardest hit by the state’s first deadly earthquake in nine years, declaring a local state of emergency as aftershocks rattled beneath the central California wine country.

With wind-driven flames threatening the densely populated areas near Los Angeles, firefighters dug today for another brutal day battling one of the most destructive and deadly wildfire outbreaks in California history.

Ash fell on the beach like snow as California’s deadliest outbreak of fires in more than a decade destroyed more than 1,100 homes, killed at least 15 people and consumed land from south of the Mexican border to the suburbs north of Los Angeles.