| Stunning photographs of the fire |

At least 70 multimillion-dollar mansions have been destroyed by a powerful wildfire that has surged into the wealthy enclave of Montecito, northwest of Los Angeles.

The suburb, which is popular amongst billionaires and Hollywood actors, was in flames today with more than 800 hectares engulfed.

Entire blocks of mansions have already been burnt down in the area known as the “American Riviera” which is home to 10,000 people including Oprah Winfrey, the talk show host, Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, and the British actor John Cleese.

More than 1,000 firefighters are tackling the fire - dubbed the Tea Fire locally because it is rumoured to have started in the Tea Gardens in the hills above Santa Barbara and Montecito, about 90 miles from Los Angeles.

Around 2,500 residents were forced to flee the flames. Leslie Hollis Lopez was one of those running from the inferno. “It looked like lava coming down a volcano,” she said as she gathered belongings from her house.

Michaelo Rosso, another fleeing resident said: “You can just hear the explosions of vehicles, homes . . . It sounds like the Fourth of July out here.”

Up to 20,000 people in the wider area have been left without power, but only minor injuries have been reported so far. It is not known how the blaze started.

The wildfire moved into Montecito early yesterday evening and within six hours had spread through much of the suburb. It is unclear whether any of the homes owned by actors including Michael Douglas and Kevin Costner have been affected.

Westmont College, a private Christian university, was severely damaged with a residence hall and several classrooms destroyed, and about 800 students were evacuated to the school’s fireproof gymnasium.

By this morning, the fire had spread five miles north to the fringes of Santa Barbara City, where at least 20 more homes were damaged, officials said. Mandatory evacuations have been ordered with temporary shelters set up in local schools and college buildings.

In an unusual and risky move, three water-dropping helicopters were dispatched to the area in the middle of the night. Such missions are not normally undertaken after dark. Winds reaching 70 miles per hour were an added complication.

Terry McElwee, operation chief for the Montecito Fire Department, told the Los Angeles Times: “I have so many concerns. It’s just moving so fast right now . . . We’re having trouble rounding up enough resources."

Southern California has been placed on high wildfire alert this weekend due to unusually hot weather, drought conditions and forecasts of strong Santa Ana winds blowing in from the desert.

A year ago, 30 wildfires burned during one week in Southern California, destroying some 2,000 homes and forcing a record 500,000 residents to evacuate.

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