Perfect Conditions Fuel California Wildfires: 'We Just Can't Keep Ahead of It'
California's fire season has shifted into high gear. Tens of thousands of residents have been forced out of their homes by raging flames.
In Southern California parched land, hot temperatures, and 40 mile-per-hour Santa Ana winds are fueling this beast of a blaze.
"We have zero containment on the fires," Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby told reporters Thursday.
The so-called "Tick Fire" has forced as many as 50,000 people to flee their homes.
The video showed horses frantically running around their pen as flames dance around them.
Nearby firefighters cut their way into a daycare after embers landed on the roof and ignited the building.
Meanwhile in Northern California's Sonoma County, famous for its world-renowned wines - a wave of terror. The entire community of Geyserville, home of about 900 people, has been evacuated as the so-called "Kincade Fire" engulfed more than 15 square miles.
"They were going door to door, house to house, and they were really 'Get out now, grab your keys and your dogs and go,'" says Tom Cardoza who was forced to evacuate.
"We just can't keep ahead of it. We're almost just chasing it and trying to get ahead of it," says Amy Head, California Fire Battalion Chief.
For weeks California power companies have been cutting power preemptively in an effort to prevent electrical fires. More than 30,000 are without power in Southern California as utility officials consider cutting the lights to nearly 400,000 more customers.
Pacific Gas and Electric reported a jumper on one of its transmission towers broke close to where the Kincade Fire started near Geyserville.
The company is conducting an investigation, but isn't yet taking responsibility since officials aren't sure precisely how the fire began.
As the weekend approaches firefighters are expecting worse conditions as they brace for wind gusts topping 70 miles-per-hour.
