Wildfires that have burned for days merged into walls of flame stretching across miles in parts of Southern California yesterday, leaving 13 people dead, burning 650 homes and frustrating overmatched firefighters who worked relentlessly against fierce winds.

The state?s largest fire, in eastern San Diego County, caused at least nine deaths, including two who died inside their car as they apparently tried to escape the flames, San Diego Sheriff Bill Kolender said.

?We were literally running through fire,? said Lisza Pontes, 43, who escaped the fire with her family after the roar of flames woke them at 3:45 a.m. As they drove off, they saw a neighbour?s mobile home exploded.

?I was grabbing wet towels. Fire was at our feet,? Pontes said. ?It was blazing over our heads and burning everywhere.? The biggest fire started on Saturday near the mountain town of Julian when a lost hunter set off a signal fire. The hunter was detained and may face charges. Among those killed were one person whose body was found in a motor home, and three in other vehicles, county sheriff?s spokeswoman, Susan Knauss said.

Extreme situation

Three were killed while trying to escape on foot and two were dead on arrival at local hospitals.

About 260 homes were destroyed, San Diego police said. Another fire near San Diego that started on Sunday killed two people and destroyed 36 homes while burning 3,000 acres. It also prompted evacuations in northeastern Escondido. The flames drew much of their strength from the fierce Santa Ana winds, whose gusts of up to 70 mph moved the fires along.

Around the congested suburbs of San Bernardino, a city of about 200,000 about 50 miles east of Los Angeles, one flank of a 50,000-acre fire burned through four towns while the other flank destroyed more than 300 homes.

Two men collapsed and died, one as he was evacuating his canyon home and the other as he watched his house burn. The 30-mile fire in the San Bernardino area was formed when two smaller fires merged, covering the region with thick smoke and ash.

Other fires on the outskirts of Los Angeles County merged to create a 80,000-acre fire that threatened 2,000 homes in four communities and closed four highways, sealing off access to two mountain towns.

Firefighters, including 25 strike teams and 125 engines, tried to make a stand at Crestline in the San Bernardino National Forest, according to US Forest Service fire information officer Stanton Florea. But, Florea said homes there were burning as well. Firefighters were spread thinly around threatened communities, focusing on saving what homes they could.

Winds prevented the air tanker drops of retardant and use of backfires that are key tactics of fire containment. The area is vulnerable because drought and an infestation of bark beetles have left millions of dead trees. ?If the fire starts to crown, racing from one tree to the next, it will be an extreme situation,? Florea said.

Brandy DeBatte, 21, stayed at her Crestline home until the electricity went out and the smoke started to thicken. ?I got our animals. I got insurance papers. I didn?t want to be up there if the town was going to burn down,? she said. Hours later, she was having second thoughts as she realized how much she had left behind: ?I should have gotten more out, and I didn?t.?

Mass evacuation

Three looters who tried to take advantage of the San Bernardino evacuations were arrested, police said. Some of the evacuations ordered included Indian reservation casinos, California State University, San Bernardino, where fire burned two temporary classrooms and a temporary fitness center, and Patton State Hospital, home to 1,300 mental patients. About 1,100 prison inmates also were evacuated, and at least 200 juvenile wards were evacuated. About 1,000 people were packed the San Bernardino International Airport center.

At the Alexander Hughes Community Center in Claremont, where more than 50 homes were destroyed, evacuees searched for friends and neighbours. A note on a bulletin board outside the center read: ?Dear Kim and Joanne. I came for you here and want to offer you my extra bedroom and as much hospitality as you need. Love, Gina.?

The winds are expected to subside today before picking up later in the week in the San Bernardino area, National Weather Service meteorologist Robert Balfour said. ?We?ll have a 24-to36-hour window where winds will die down, but the vegetation is so dry and the terrain so steep that the fire will probably take off and go into the mountains then,? Balfour said. ?It will want to race up the ridges.?