More than 600 homes burned in Calif. fires

SYLMAR, Calif., Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Wildfires in Southern California Saturday damaged or destroyed at least 600 homes and forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 people, officials said.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County, where the Sayre Fire charred more than 6,500 acres and raced through a mobile home park in the San Fernando Valley early Saturday, destroying an estimated 600 homes. Some residents of the Oakridge Mobile Home Park wept during a briefing when Fire Capt. Steve Ruda held up a charred U.S. flag retrieved from the park as the residents -- in a temporary shelter in a high school gym -- learned their homes were gone.

Later in the day, the Freeway Complex Fire forced evacuations in Orange County, south of Los Angeles. Dozens of houses and apartments were burned in that fire, and residents of Anaheim Hills were ordered out of their homes as flames raced through Yorba Linda and jumped a freeway, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The fires -- made worse by low humidity and winds of up to 70 mph -- followed close on a fire in an upscale area of Santa Barbara County. The Montecito Fire, which destroyed 111 homes, was declared 40 percent contained Saturday.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa asked city residents to conserve water. He told a news conference major power lines along Interstate 5 were threatened.

The Oakridge Mobile Home park was being treated as a crime scene, with authorities leaving open the possibility that the Sayre Fire was deliberately set. LA police officials said five people were arrested Saturday on suspicion of fire-related looting in the San Fernando Valley.

Officials closed several freeways and major thoroughfares to facilitate the firefighting operations.