Los Angeles: Two firefighters were killed when their vehicle rolled down a mountain side amid the intense flames of a wildfire that threatened 12,000 homes.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger urged those in the fire's path to get out as the blazes rained ash on cars as far away as downtown Los Angeles, spreading in all directions in dry conditions.
Firefighters fixed their attention on Sunday on the blaze's fast-moving eastern side where flames lapped at the foot of the vital communications and astronomy centre of Mount Wilson, and on the northwestern front, where the two firefighters were killed on Mount Gleason near the city of Acton.
"We ask for your understanding, for your patience as we move through this difficult time, and please, prayers for the families of our two brothers that we lost," Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief Mike Bryant said through tears at a press conference on Sunday.
Bryant said the men's families have been notified. He did not release their identities or give a cause for the crash, and officials at the press conference would take no questions on the deaths.
Television helicopter video on Sunday night showed an upside-down vehicle on the mountain side.
The blaze was only about 5 per cent contained and had scorched 171 square kilometres in the Angeles National Forest.
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