Wildfires continue to wreak havoc in the US

A wildfire threatening thousands of homes in Southern California spread slowly through scenic canyonlands, straining resources as crews struggled to contain hundreds of other blazes around the state.

“The firefighters are stretched thin, they are exhausted,” and some have gone days without sleep, said Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who visited a command post in Santa Barbara County.

A series of wildfires, most ignited by lightning two weeks ago, has burned more than 800 square miles of land throughout California.

The blazes have destroyed at least 69 homes and other buildings and contributed to the death of a firefighter who suffered a heart attack while digging fire lines.

About 1,400 fires have been contained, but more than 330 still burned out of control Saturday.

Mr Schwarzenegger said the state’s top priority was in the coastal region of Santa Barbara County, where nearly 2,700 homes were threatened by a four-day-old fire in the Los Padres National Forest that has consumed about 13 square miles.

More than 2,600 homes were under mandatory evacuation, and residents in another 1,400 were warned to be ready to flee if the flames gathered speed.

The fire, which was burning in 15-foot-high, half-century-old chaparral, had the potential to roll through a hilly area of ranches, housing tracts and orchards between the town of Goleta and Santa Barbara.

Nearly 1,200 firefighters struggled to surround the blaze while a DC-10 air tanker and other aircraft dumped water and fire retardant along ridges and in steep canyons.