MONTECITO, Calif. — New evacuations were called on Saturday as surging winds drove an enormous wildfire toward a wealthy enclave in the coastal foothills northwest of Los Angeles.

The mandatory evacuations around Montecito and neighboring Summerland came as winds that had eased a day earlier raged back at around 30 mph with gusts to about 60 mph. A portion of the city of Santa Barbara also is under mandatory evacuation.

The northerly “sundowner” wind was driving the fire south and west.

“When the sundowners surface in that area and the fire starts running down slopes, you are not going to stop it,” Mark Brown with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said at a news conference. “And we are not going to stand in front of it and put firefighters in untenable situations.”

For the 13th straight day, the National Weather Service issued a red-flag warning of extreme fire danger because of hot, dry, windy conditions.

The 404-square-mile Thomas Fire was moving rapidly westward and crested Montecito Peak, just north of Montecito. The enclave includes the mansions of Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres and many other celebrities.

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“It is right above the homes,” fire spokesman Jude Olivas said.

Winfrey expressed her dismay at the latest development on her Twitter account.

“Still praying for our little town. Winds picked up this morning creating a perfect storm of bad for firefighters,” Winfrey tweeted. It was not clear if the former talk show host was in Montecito.

The fire is now the third-largest in California history. It has burned more than 700 homes and killed a state firefighter.

Cory Iverson, 32, died Thursday from burns and smoke inhalation, according to autopsy results announced Saturday by the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Since the fire began on Dec. 4, about 95,000 people have been placed under mandatory evacuation.


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