Nearly 8,000 homes have been evacuated in southern California after strong winds whipped up a wildfire that could soon threaten Ventura, a city of more than 100,000 people. The blaze broke out on Monday evening east of Santa Paula, which is about 60 miles north-west of Los Angeles. By the early hours of Tuesday it had grown to more than 40 sq miles (100 sq km), consuming vegetation that had not burned in decades, the Ventura county fire sergeant, Eric Buschow, said