Punishing winds that whipped California fires could last

Punishing Santa Ana winds that pushed fires into Los Angeles-area neighborhoods, burning six homes, are expected to last through today.

The wind-whipped blazes broke out yesterday in the Santa Clarita area. One remains uncontained. As many as 50,000 people are under evacuation orders.

In Northern California, a fire near the wine country town of Geyserville has burned 49 buildings.

Pacific Gas & Electric had cut power to hundreds of thousands of people in the region as a fire safety measure but said it had not deenergized a transmission line that had a problem about the time the fire started.

However, authorities haven’t determined causes of any of the fires.

Most of those power outages ended late yesterday but PG&E warned they might resume tomorrow when fierce winds are expected to return and boost fire danger.