Celebrities were fleeing a fierce wildfire as it raged through the millionaires’ enclave of Montecito, west of Lost Angeles, yesterday.

Christopher Lloyd, who played Doc Brown in Back to the Future, lost an $11m home, while Rob Lowe, from The West Wing, helped to rescue neighbours trapped by 200ft-high flames.

At least 13 people were injured and one man, aged 98, was killed. Fire chiefs said the blaze destroyed 200 multi-million-dollar homes. California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, declared a state of emergency.

Last night the Los Angeles mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, warned that a second fire could black out the city.

Oprah Winfrey said her 42-acre estate was safe but she “now really appreciated the horror that is a wildfire”.

Two other fires were also blazing out of control. One - the Sayle fire - erupted overnight on Friday in a forested area near Sylmar, north of Los Angeles, charring some 8,000 acres (3,237 hectares) and burning hundreds of homes.

In Anaheim, home to Disneyland, 12,600 people were ordered to evacuate, while 10,000 more were asked to leave their homes in the Sylmar area, officials said.

Another fire flared southeast of Los Angeles in Orange and Riverside counties, charring 2,000 acres (809 hectares) in the communities of Yorba Linda, Brea, Anaheim and Corona.

More than 100 apartments and houses were damaged or destroyed. “When you walk around the areas that were devastated, it looked like hell today,” Mr Schwarzenegger said.

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