Wildfire burns out of control in California desert [video report]

LOS ANGELES - A 10,500-hectare wildfire burned out of control in the California desert today, threatening thousands of homes after destroying structures in a town used for filming Hollywood westerns.

Authorities in San Bernardino County, east of Los Angeles, have declared a state of emergency and asked Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for disaster relief as more than 2000 firefighters worked to contain the blaze.

The fire, which officials believe was started on Sunday by lightning and whipped through bone dry brush by hot desert winds, was burning in the Yucca Valley area north of the resort city of Palm Springs.

Mandatory evacuation orders were in place for several desert communities, including Pioneertown, which has served as the backdrop for Hollywood westerns since the 1950s.

Officials said about 30 structures, some in Pioneertown, had been destroyed and that nine people had suffered minor injuries.

- REUTERS