$1.1 bln spent in California's fighting raging Thomas Fire

LOS ANGELES -- California's Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said Saturday evening some $1,100 million have been spent in fighting the Thomas Fire, which has been burning for 12 straight days.

Mark Brown, an operations section chief in Cal Fire told reporters at a news briefing that the third largest wild fire since 1932 when the southwestern US state had records had scorched 267,500 acres of land, with the fire so far contained in 40 percent of them.

Some 8,500 firefighters from at least a dozen states are battling the huge blaze, aided by 32 helicopters and 5 other planes, he said, the cost of firefighting jumped from $89 million announced Friday to $1.1 billion in just 24 hours.

Fueled by strong winds, the fire on Saturday spread fast toward Montecito, a coastal city of 20,000 population known for its luxury resorts and mansions of celebrities, 160 km northwest of Los Angeles.

The firefighters managed to "fight the fire back to the ridges against the wind aggressively", Brown said, adding that hundreds of houses were spared from flames in Saturday's operation.

The Thomas Fire, starting Dec 4 in the Ventura County, went northward to the Santa Barbara county last week, destroying about 1,000 buildings and killing two persons there including a firefighter.

On Saturday, evacuation orders were called off in the Ventura County while renewed in the Santa Barbara County, for communities around Montecito.