UPDATE 5-As winds surge, new wildfire threatens Reagan Library outside Los Angeles

A fast-moving wildfire threatened thousands of homes and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum outside Los Angeles on Wednesday as extraordinarily dry, heavy Santa Ana winds buffeted the region, forcing meteorologists to grasp for new language to warn of the danger. The fire broke out in Ventura County's Simi Valley, about 30 miles from a growing blaze that has been consuming the shrub-covered hills near the Getty Center museum in Los Angeles since Monday, displacing thousands of residents from some of the area's priciest neighborhoods.

For firefighters, the weather forecast could hardly be worse. The National Weather Service issued an unprecedented "extreme red flag" warning for wildfires in Los Angeles and Ventura counties ahead of two days of intense, dry wind gusts that were forecast to reach near hurricane force. "I don't know if I've ever seen us use this warning," said forecaster Marc Chenard. "It's pretty bad."

Authorities worried that the high winds could spread flaming embers around the region and also could make it harder for aircraft to fly and drop water accurately on fires. Statewide, the weather service issued alerts of "critical" or "extreme" fire hazard conditions covering more than 34,000 square miles (88,000 square km), encompassing some 21 million people.

The Easy Fire in Simi Valley ignited just before dawn and quickly grew to 1,300 acres by late morning as it was fanned westward by Santa Ana winds, according to the Ventura County Fire Department. A long wall of orange flames and thick, gray smoke could be seen just down the slope from the hilltop Reagan Library, which houses the late former president's archives and memorabilia, including the Air Force One jet he used for official travel. Firefighters, backed by water-dropping helicopters and airplane tankers carrying payloads of flame retardant, swarmed the area as flames closed in on the library campus.

"We're surrounded. It's a scary situation. But I'm sure they'll get on top of it," John Heubusch, the library's executive director, said in an on-air interview with KNX radio in Los Angeles. "It's as close as it gets." County fire officials ordered residents to evacuate the area around the library, which includes a number of sprawling ranch properties. Residents in face masks coaxed nervy horses into trailers to drive them to safety.

Ventura County Fire Chief Chad Cook said several structures were burned, and 6,500 homes were listed as threatened by the blaze. Several smaller fires also erupted around Southern California, including one in the neighboring community of Calabasas and one in Riverside County east of Los Angeles.

A few employees remained at the library, which has fire doors and sprinklers, spokeswoman Melissa Giller told ABC7 News. The library has trucked in goats in years past to eat away flammable scrub around the building's perimeter. The Santa Ana winds are a regional weather phenomenon that sends gusts westward off the desert to the east, through mountain passes and out to the Southern California coast. They are forecast to reach sustained speeds of 50 to 70 miles per hour (80 to 110 km per hour) on Wednesday and Thursday, raising the risk of sparks and embers being whipped into fresh wildfires in unburned areas.

City arson investigators say the Getty fire was likely caused by a broken tree branch blown into power lines during high winds on Monday morning. It spread, consuming 745 acres (300 hectares) by Wednesday morning, with about a quarter contained by firefighters. At least 12 homes have been destroyed. Electricity remained cut off to roughly half a million homes and businesses in Northern and Central California on Tuesday as a precaution by the state's largest utility.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has accused utilities of failing to adequately modernize and safely maintain their power systems.

BLACKOUTS

In Northern California, firefighters struggled for a sixth day against the 76,000-acre (30,760-hectate) Kincade Fire in Sonoma County's winemaking region. High-wind forecasts prompted Pacific Gas and Electric Co to impose a new round of blackouts for nearly 600,000 homes and business. Early Wednesday, PG&E announced it had restored about 73 percent of the 970,000 affected in earlier shutoffs.

Utilities serving Southern California's more urban areas have imposed smaller-scale outages. PG&E acknowledged last week that the Kincade Fire broke out near a damaged PG&E transmission tower at about the time a live high-voltage line carried by that tower malfunctioned.

The company filed for bankruptcy in January, citing $30 billion in potential liability from a series of deadly fires sparked by its equipment in 2017 and 2018. Citing progress made against the Kincade fire, Newsom said the number of evacuees in Northern California had diminished from 190,000 at the peak of that blaze to 130,000 on Tuesday.

Property losses from the Kincade, listed at 30% contained, were put at 189 homes and other structures, double Monday's tally. Also Read: UPDATE 4-Fast-moving Los Angeles wildfire destroys homes, prompts evacuation orders