Winds of up to 50mph set to hit California as more than 14,000 firefighters continue to battle wildfires

Gusty winds could worsen wildfires in California, authorities have warned, as more than 14,000 firefighters continue to battle the flames.

Existing wildfires have already grown explosively and Diablo winds in the north and Santa Ana winds in the south were forecast to hit the state on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, 14 firefighters were forced to deploy emergency shelters as flames overtook them and destroyed the Nacimiento Station, a fire station in the Los Padres National Forest on the state's central coast, the US Forest Service said.

They suffered from burns and smoke inhalation, and three were flown to a hospital in Fresno, where one was in critical condition.

In total, more than 14,000 firefighters are battling the fires.

Two of the three largest blazes in state history are burning in the San Francisco Bay Area, though they are largely contained after burning three weeks.

In the past two days, helicopters have been used to rescue hundreds of people stranded in the burning Sierra National Forest, where the Creek Fire has destroyed 365 buildings, including at least 45 homes, and 5,000 structures were threatened, fire officials said.

Flames threatened the foothill community of Auberry between Shaver Lake and Fresno.

In Southern California, fires burned in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Diego counties, and the forecast called for the arrival of the region's notorious Santa Anas.

The hot, dry winds could reach 50mph at times, forecasters said.

People in several foothill communities east of Los Angeles were being told to stay alert because of a fire in the Angeles National Forest.

"The combination of gusty winds, very dry air, and dry vegetation will create critical fire danger," the National Weather Service warned.

The US Forest Service closed all eight national forests in the southern half of the state and shutter campgrounds statewide on Monday.

California has already set a record with nearly 2.3 million acres burned this year - surpassing a record set just two years ago - and the worst part of the wildfire season is just beginning.

"It's extraordinary, the challenge that we've faced so far this season," Governor Gavin Newsom said.

The threat of winds tearing down power lines or hurling debris into them and sparking a wildfire prompted Pacific Gas and Electric, the state's largest utility, to shut off power to 172,000 customers over the weekend.

More outages were expected Wednesday, with power not expected to be completely restored until Wednesday night.

To the south, Southern California Edison warned roughly 55,000 customer accounts may lose power while San Diego Gas and Electric said 16,700 customers are at risk of a preemptive outage.

In the Sierra National Forest east of Fresno, dozens of campers and hikers were stranded at the Vermilion Valley Resort after the only road in was closed on Sunday because of the Creek Fire.

The sound of a helicopter awoke Katelyn Mueller on Tuesday, bringing relief after two anxious nights camping in the smoke.

"It was probably the one time you're excited to hear a helicopter," she said. "You could almost feel a sigh of relief seeing it come in."

The use of military helicopters to rescue a large number of civilians for a second day - 164 before dawn Tuesday and 214 people from a wooded camping area on Saturday - is rare, if not unprecedented.

"This is emblematic of how fast that fire was moving, plus the physical geography of that environment with one road in and one road out," Char Miller, a professor of environmental analysis at Pomona College, said, who has written extensively about wildfires.

"Unless you wanted an absolute human disaster, you had to move fast."

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