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Two hundred additional National Guard troops have been called out to battle wildfires today (Sunday) in California, where hundreds of blazes are burning from the state's northern border to the southern town of Santa Barbara.

Emergency management agencies say more than 200 thousand hectares of land are aflame, and the fires are threatening more than 10 thousand homes along the coast of the Pacific Ocean.

One of the worst fires is threatening Big Sur on the central California coast, a scenic vacation area where mountains descend sharply to the ocean shore. More than 20 buildings have been damaged, and the flames are only five percent contained.

Another fire poses a major threat to a coastal town (Goleta) north of Los Angeles. More than two thousand homes have been evacuated, and flames there are consuming forests that were untouched for half a century.