Nearly 800 firefighters Thursday struggled to gain control of a series of wildfires burning across Northern California, including a raging forest fire that forced hundreds to leave their homes in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The blaze in the Bonny Doon area about 10 miles northwest of Santa Cruz quickly grew to 700 acres after it broke around 3 p.m. Wednesday, and it was only 5 percent contained Thursday morning. 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 to as many as 1,500 acres, Battalion Chief Paul Van Gerwen said.

High winds pushed the blaze Wednesday; Thursday's weather was calmer but temperatures were quickly rising, with 90-degree weather expected.

"It's getting hotter and drier. We'd like to see the humidity come up," Van Gerwen said.

More than 50 people had arrived at the evacuation shelter at San Lorenzo Valley Middle School in Felton by Wednesday evening, said Red Cross spokeswoman Lindsay Segersin.

Dana Price, 51, and her husband had just come home when they got the mandatory-evacuation call and quickly packed up their computers, musical instruments and pets - two dogs, a parakeet and a cat.

"The sad thing is, as you're evacuating, you're walking around your house thinking, this might be the last time I see this picture, this might be the last time I'm doing this," she said.

Hot temperatures and tinder-dry vegetation prevailed throughout Northern California, where hundreds of firefighters were deployed on fire lines from the North Coast wine country to the Central Valley.

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 Wednesday, had grown to 6,000 acres and threatened about 1,650 structures. It was only about 10 percent contained Thursday morning.

"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. "It's very remarkable that no structures have been damaged. I think that's due to the very aggressive firefighting we've been able to do today."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Butte County late Wednesday to free up additional firefighting resources. He declared another one in Santa Cruz County early Thursday.

Farther south, the state's largest wildfire had charred more than 16,000 acres in the Los Padres National Forest and was only 16 percent contained.

The fire had spread east to a remote part of the Army's Fort Hunter Liggett and was also moving toward the incident command post Thursday morning. No buildings or people were in immediate danger, and winds were driving the fire away from inhabited areas of the military base, said Manny Madrigal, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.

"It's pretty remote where it's burning now," Madrigal said, though he added that evacuation plans for the base were being developed.

Wildfires on Tuesday destroyed 32 homes in Stockton, about 50 miles south of Sacramento, and 21 homes in Palermo, about 60 miles north of the state capital. Winds have decreased since then but the extreme fire danger was expected to last through Thursday.

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Associated Press Writers Don Thompson and Samantha Young in Sacramento and Jason Dearen in San Francisco contributed to this report.

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On the Net: Fire information at and .http://www.oes.ca.govhttp://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_current

Written By JORDAN ROBERTSON

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