SAN FRANCISCO, June 30 (UPI) -- Thousands of homes Monday remained threatened by wildfires across California, where the governor has declared emergencies in nine counties.
More than 19,000 firefighters from 42 states were working to contain the blazes, using 1,429 fire engines, 500 water-dropping aircraft and 365 earth-moving machines, the Los Angeles Times reported. Nearly 1,500 wildfires have blacked nearly 400,000 acres across California in the past 10 days.
More than 7,500 residences, 136 commercial buildings and about 3,000 other structures were said to be threatened by the fires, the newspaper said. Thirty homes and 21 other structures had been destroyed, the California Forestry and Fire Protection Department said.
Firefighters got a bit of a break Monday when winds helped push one blaze threatening Big Sur back on itself, though more than 1,250 structures were still endangered by the Basin Complex fire in Monterey County, the Times reported.
"You don't realize it driving along the highway, but there are quite a few homes tucked up in those hillsides," said Forest Service spokesman John Ahman. "And those are what we're most concerned with."
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger added Kern and Plumas counties Monday to the list of counties covered by emergency declarations.
The governor's office said in a written statement that the magnitude of the fires was "beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment and facilities of any single county, city and county, or city and require the combined forces of a mutual aid region or regions to combat."
