Growing wildfire destroys 75 homes

It has doubled in size to cover four square miles, having been whipped up on Wednesday from a small slumbering brush fire by a fierce "sundowner" wind.

The fire burned some mansions in the upmarket coastal city to their foundations and forced about 12,000 people to flee.

Some 1,400 firefighters are battling the flames, aided by aircraft.

Ten firefighters have been injured, at least three seriously, and the number of residents who need to be evacuated is excepted to double.

"We really can't do any containment lines. It's too dangerous," said Santa Barbara County fire captain David Sadecki.

"We're doing some structure protection, but firefighters can be in a safe location one minute and in a dangerous situation the next."

The flames have been "hopscotching" across properties, burning some while sparing others.

A seaside city of 90,000 people about 100 miles north-west of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara rises rapidly from the coastline on the south to the foothills of the Santa Ynez Mountains in the north.

It dates back to the Spanish colonial era, features numerous multimillion-dollar homes and is a major tourist destination.