**A wildfire in the mountains above Los Angeles is threatening some 10,000 homes, California officials have said.**The fire almost tripled in size on Saturday, fuelled by hot weather and dry brush, firefighters said.
About 1,000 homes have been evacuated and a handful in Big Tujunga Canyon have been destroyed by the flames. Three people were reported injured.
Hundreds of firefighters are trying to contain the fire, which has burnt more than 31 sq miles (80 sq km) of forest.
Officials said the blaze was only 5% contained, with the area’s steep, rugged hills making efforts to fight the fire more difficult.
Mandatory evacuation orders are in place for parts of Altadena, Glendale, Pasadena, La Crescenta and Big Tujunga Canyon.
Evacuation centres have been set up at local schools.
On Saturday, Captain Mike Dietrich, incident commander for the US Forest Service, told the Associated Press news agency: "Today what happened is what I call the perfect storm of fuels, weather and topography coming together.
“Essentially the fire burned at will; it went where it wanted to when it wanted to.”
Smoke from the blaze in the Angeles National Forest could be seen drifting across the skies above Los Angeles.
A number of other fires are also burning in southern and central California.