Wildfires blown by fierce desert winds Monday reduced hundreds of Southern California homes to ashes, forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee and laid a hellish, spidery pattern of luminous orange over the drought-stricken region.

At least one person was killed and dozens were injured. More than 600 homes burned, nearly 130 in one mountain area alone, and thousands of other buildings were threatened by more than a dozen blazes covering at least 310 square miles.

Soon after nightfall, fire officials announced that 500 homes and 100 commercial properties had been destroyed by a fire in northern San Diego County that exploded to 145,000 acres.