A towering firestorm sent thousands of residents in Southern California?s mountain communities running for their lives on Tuesday as the most destructive of the state?s wildfires roared back to life after diminished winds briefly lulled its flames. With officials describing the fires as a once in a 100 years disaster, Gov. Gray Davis put losses from the wildfires burning from north of Los Angeles to the U.S.-Mexico border at $2 billion in firefighting costs, damage and lost income.

Nearly 2,000 homes have been destroyed by the flames and officials fear that the death toll of 18 will jump dramatically once rescue workers are able to scour the burning border areas between Mexico and San Diego where would-be illegal immigrants are feared to have died. Residents jammed narrow winding roads leading out of a burning mountain about 50 miles (80 kms) east of Los Angeles on Tuesday as one of the 10 wildfires raging across Southern California threatened to engulf two popular resort towns.

As exhausted firefighters tried desperately to beat back the flames on the mountain in the San Bernardino range, authorities ordered more than 40,000 residents of Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear, both popular resorts, to flee their homes. The fire burned over a ridge through bone-dry and disease- infested timber that provided ideal fuel for an inferno that spewed out a towering plume of smoke and ash.

The fire has claimed at least 20 homes near Lake Arrowhead since late Monday, and could incinerate thousands more before fire fighting crews are able to contain it. Kristel Johnson, a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman, said the fire was so intense that it had created its own weather system of hot, swirling winds that drove walls of flame erratically down hillsides.

State fire officials reported late on Tuesday that while two of the 10 major fires appeared to have been fully contained, firefighters were now tracking eight smaller blazes spawned by the larger fires.

Andrea Tuttle, director of the California Department of Forestry, told reporters on Tuesday that a break in the dry Santa Ana winds that propelled the flames down from the mountains allowed firefighters to ?go into offensive mode? for the first time in four days.

Gina Keating