AFP

LOS ANGELES, Nov 16: More than 500 mobile homes were destroyed and 10,000 people fled as a wildfire described as the most devastating to hit Los Angeles in Large flames are blown from burning mobile homes by strong wind as most of the homes in the Oakridge nearly half a century ripped through a city suburb on Saturday, officials said.

One day after an inferno laid waste to over 100 mansions in the celebrity enclave of Montecito, 160 kms up the coast, California's fire scourge struck in the densely populated district of Sylmar on the northern fringe of Los Angeles.

The wildfire -- fuelled by seasonal winds of up to 80 miles per hour -- erupted late Friday and swept through some 6,500 acres turning everything in its path to charred ruins, authorities said.

Ground zero of the blaze was a mobile home park near Sylmar where more than 500 residences were reduced to a smouldering wasteland by early Saturday.

Los Angeles officials described the blaze as one of the worst in the city's history in terms of its speed and sheer destruction.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, blaming the spread of the fire on "absolutely atrocious" winds, said the blaze was the worst of recent memory.

"We have never lost in recent times anything close to this number," Villaraigosa told reporters.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yarovslavsky, said the fire, which was 10% contained by 2100 GMT, was the worst since a 1961 blaze in wealthy Bel Air that destroyed more than 480 homes.

"This is as bad a fire as I can remember since the 1961 fire," Yaroslavsky said. "The explosiveness of it, and the human devastation that is involved...

Around 1,100 firefighters using helicopters, bulldozers and engines were battling the fire, attempting to halt its advance as a state of emergency was declared across Los Angeles County.