Ventura County, California

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Ventura County in the US state of California is facing a relentless wildfire spanning 10,431 acres with zero containment, the news agency Reuters reported on Thursday (Nov 7) citing Fire Department officials. 

Fire Chief Dustin Gardner said that the blaze was being fuelled by strong Santa Ana winds, adding, that the wildfire led to widespread evacuations and structural damage in areas like Somis and Camarillo Heights.

“This is a classic Santa Ana wind event. We've got sustained winds more than 50 miles an hour with gusts over 80. Every firefighter in the region, all of our partners from Los Angeles City, Los Angeles County, Orange County, Kern County, Santa Barbara County, our partners at Cal Fire, our partners in the sheriff," Gardner said in a video address on Wednesday

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"Every law enforcement agency available, every helicopter, every fixed-wing aircraft, everything we've been able to get a hold of is here fighting this fire and it is moving at a dangerous rate of spread,” he added. 

'Our goal is to preserve life and structures'

Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff, who was part of Wednesday's video address, said that the goal was to preserve life and structures. 

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"We have made over 14,000 contacts to evacuate people within the community. Please continue to stay out of the area unless you absolutely need to be here. Please stay away," Sheriff Fryhoff said.

Ventura is to be placed under Red Flag warning

The Fire Department also said on Wednesday that Ventura County would be placed under a Red Flag warning which would last until Thursday evening.

"We encourage all Ventura County residents to register for emergency alerts at VCAlert.org. If a wildfire starts, we encourage everyone to visit VCEmergency.com for the latest evacuation notices and incident information."

(With inputs from agencies)