At least one Bermudian has had a narrow escape after wildfires raged near her home in California at the weekend.

?It?s devastating,? said Bermudian and Simi Valley resident Chyral Waldron. ?The whole hillside, right down to the street, it?s burning. Friends had to evacuate because it was down to their backyards.

?It?s just... I can?t believe someone would do something like this.?

According to AP reports yesterday, officials say at least 16 people have been killed since Saturday with nearly 2,000 homes consumed by the fires.

At last count a total of 13 wildfires spread over five counties in Southern California have burned more than 600,000 acres ? an area roughly 45 times the size of Bermuda. US President George W. Bush has declared a major disaster area in California.

Arson is suspected in at least three blazes, though Ms Waldron said according to news reports one may have been caused by a camper who fired a flare after being lost in the forest.

One burning hillside is across the street from Ms Waldron?s home, and she has been watering her house for the last two days, concerned that embers would blow over the road. ?It?s been a dreadful two days.?

The fire had started to the east and north of her home in Simi Valley, however it moved closer and connected with another fire, jumping the freeway in the process. The blaze has been complicated by dry conditions and strong winds.

?We get a lot of heavy winds,? she said. ?The curtains were ready to rip off the wall, I had to close the windows before the fire started.?

Then, on Saturday morning, the blaze started moving closer to her home. ?I looked out and thought ?oh, the hills are on fire?. But it seemed further away than it was.

?On Sunday we just sat there and watched it. We had no other choice. It was amazing, I just couldn?t believe it could happen that bad.

?It continued to burn and burn... I couldn?t believe what I was seeing.?

As her bedroom was on the west side of the house, where the fire was burning, Ms Waldron said she slept in the east side of the house Sunday night ? just in case.

On Monday she left her house at about 5.30 a.m. in order to beat the traffic on the freeway, and when she spoke with on Tuesday the flames seemed to be moving away from her.

Now fire-fighters are allowing the fire to burn at will in the bush, she said, conserving water for attempts to save houses in the path of the blaze. ?There?s million dollar homes burned.

?It?s still burning, but it?s further east and north now, up by Magic Mountain. All we have right now is lots of smoke and ash. Actually it started near where it is now. It?s like it has its own mind, it?s gone back home.

?They?re saying they only have ten percent control over it,? she added. ?There?s still a long way to go.?

Long-time Bermuda visitor Nicole Paige, who has been coming to the Island yearly for almost a decade, described the scene near her home as ?Armageddon?. Ms Paige lives six miles from the Simi Valley fire and works three miles from the Chatsworth/Stevenson Ranch fire.

?The sky has been completely ashy, it looks like snow on your cars but its white ash,? she said. ?And the sun is this red colour that just lurks there through the charcoal sky.

?It?s really quite eerie if you ask me. The pyro that set these fires makes me sick.?