| Stunning photographs of the fire |

America’s A-list celebrities faced catastrophe today as wildfire tore through an enclave of multimillion-dollar mansions on the hilly coastline of California.

Firefighters were struggling to contain the blaze, which is threatening to destroy the homes of Oprah Winfrey, the talk show host, Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, and the actors Michael Douglas and Jeff Bridges.

More than 100 properties have already burnt down in the suburb of Montecito, which is popular amongst billionaires and Hollywood actors. About 14,000 people live in the area near Santa Barbara known as the “Celebrity Riviera”.

On her television programme this morning, Winfrey said that she had been staying at another of her properties but had made arrangements to rescue her pets.

“I don't have kids, so the most important thing for me is my dogs," she said. "And so we already had a plan for getting the dogs out and going to the Four Seasons in Westlake, because they take dogs."

She said that her next concern would be making sure that the ashes of Sophie, her dead dog, were removed safely.

Winfrey said that the flames were currently about 2 miles from her mansion in Santa Barbara but one of her neighbours has been forced to evacuate his family.

Rob Lowe, who starred in The West Wing, fled last night. "We just left with the kids," he told Winfrey. "We just got everybody out. This thing came on so fast, you just can't believe it."

About 100 homes and part of a college campus near to the ultra-wealthy bohemian seaside town had been destroyed, with entire estates gutted by flames and palm trees burning like match sticks.

Witnesses described the scene as being like lava shooting out of a volcano. The heat of the flames was so intense, they said, many buildings had simply exploded.

The authorities said that two firefighters had suffered smoke inhalation and two residents had been admitted to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital with substantial burns.

The fire broke out just before 6pm on Thursday and had spread to about 2,500 acres — nearly 4 square miles — forcing almost half of the residents of Montecito to evacuate.

At Westmont College, a Christian liberal arts college nestled amid the wooded rolling hills, about 1,000 students were caught off-guard by the rapidly moving flames.

“It came pretty fast,” said Tyler Rollema, a 19-year-old student who was eating dinner in the cafeteria when students were told to head to the gym. “We came out and it was just blazing.”

About 500 firefighters were trying to stop the flames from spreading further west into more densely populated neighbourhoods.

One of the 200 or so people evacuated from their homes was Ed Naham, a 58-year-old writer. "I don't think we are going to have the house when we go back,” he said.

“We are used to seeing smoke because we do have fires up here, but I've never seen that reddish, hellish glow that close. I was waiting for Dante and Virgil to show up.”

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