Firefighters struggled to gain control of a series of wind-driven wildfires burning across Northern California, including a raging forest fire that forced hundreds to flee their homes in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The fast-moving blaze about 10 miles northwest of Santa Cruz grew to 900 acres - or about 1 1/2 square miles - Wednesday night after it broke around 3 p.m. Mandatory evacuations were ordered for 500 residents in the heavily forested hills. Voluntary evacuations were in place for another 1,000 residents. The fire threatened hundreds of homes and could spread, Battalion Chief Paul Van Gerwen said. About 650 firefighters were expected to be in place by Thursday morning.

The Santa Cruz fire flared just two weeks after another blaze two miles away scorched about 6 1/2 square miles and destroyed at least three dozen homes.

Jeanne Colbus, 60, said she and her 94-year-old mother quickly left their home after she saw smoke in the hills and received a call ordering them to evacuate.

"I was gardening and I looked up and saw that big column of smoke," said Colbus, who planned to spend the night at an emergency shelter at a middle school in Felton, several miles from the blaze. "I'm scared. We don't have fire insurance for one thing. A lot of our things are irreplaceable."

In Butte County, several hundred homes were evacuated ahead of a fast-growing wildfire near Chico, about 90 miles north of Sacramento. The blaze, which started around noon, had grown to a little more than 9 square miles Wednesday night and threatened about 250 structures. It only about 10 percent contained.

"We've had very active winds, low humidity and high heat. As you know, that's a recipe for disaster," said Joshpae White, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Those weather conditions also prevailed throughout the rest of Northern California, where hundreds of firefighters were deployed on fire lines from the North Coast wine country to the Central Valley.

For a second day, erratic wind gusts surprised firefighters who were overrun by flames.

Three firefighters were burned near Lincoln, about 25 miles northeast of Sacramento, when they were caught in a 65-acre grass fire burning in a dry rice field. Two of them had moderate to severe burns to their faces and arms, while the third was treated for minor facial burns.

The extreme fire danger was expected to last through Thursday, with temperatures hitting 100 degrees throughout the Central Valley. Felix Garcia, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service (web|news) in Sacramento, said winds are expected to decrease, which would help the firefighting efforts.

In Colorado, a federal fire management team was expected to arrive Thursday to coordinate more than 50 firefighters battling a lightning-sparked blaze at a remote U.S. Army training site about 160 miles south of Denver. The fire had burned about 20,000 acres, or about 31 square miles, inside Fort Carson's Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, spokeswoman Karen Linne said.

Across the country in North Carolina, fire officials said air quality from Raleigh to Winston-Salem could be affected Thursday by smoke from a wildfire burning in and around the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.

About 50 homes were ordered evacuated because of the 62-square-mile wildfire, officials said. The fire, sparked June 1 by a lightning strike, is about 40 percent contained, officials said.

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Associated Press writers Don Thompson and Samantha Young in Sacramento contributed to this report.