What we know: Thomas Fire in Southern California grows to 90,000 acres, forcing tens of thousands to evacuate

An intense wildfire — dubbed the Thomas Fire — continues to ravage Southern California’s Ventura County and is showing no signs of slowing down.

The National Weather Service forecast low humidity and fierce winds up to 80mph Thursday, which could spark a chain of wildfires in an area already annihilated by flames.

That means “very, very dry conditions, very windy conditions ... which is a recipe for explosive fire growth," Rich Thompson, a meteorologist with the agency said last night.

Here is what we know so far:

'Prospects for containment... not good' 

The Thomas fire has burned 96,000 acres by Thursday, forcing thousands of new evacuations as the flames reached the town of Ojai, an upscale arts community northwest of Los Angeles.

So far, it is only 5% contained, officials said.

"The prospects for containment are not good," Ventura County Fire Chief Mark Lorenzen said in a press conference Tuesday. "Really, Mother Nature’s going to decide when we have the ability to put it out."

The blaze has engulfed at least 150 buildings in Ventura. That number is expected to rise as thousands of structures are still in danger.

"The fire is still out of control and structures continue to be threatened throughout the fire area," emergency crews said in a situation update.

At least 50,000 people have been forced to flee their homes with no idea of when they would be allowed to return or if there would be anything to come back to.

There’s a "high possibility" that more areas could be evacuated, Lorenzen warned.

Two dozen schools have been closed for the day, and Highway 150 and Highway 33 are plagued with road closures.

How did it start?

The blaze began north of Santa Paula on Monday evening near a popular hiking trail close to Thomas Aquinas College, according to the Los Angeles Times. However, the cause remains unknown.

Officials do know that ferocious "Santa Ana" winds have spread the blaze at an alarmingly high rate.

"The fire growth is just absolutely exponential," Lorenzen said. “All that firefighters can do when we have winds like this is get out ahead, evacuate people, and protect structures.”

Officials say nearly two thousand firefighters from "many different agencies" are on scene to combat the "out of control" blaze.

No deaths have been reported so far. One firefighter who was hospitalized after an injury has been released, officials said.

Where is the Thomas Fire?

Ventura is a city of more than 100,000 residents along the Pacific coast. Less than 15 miles away, about 30,000 people live in Santa Paula home.

Both cities are less than 65 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

The county, Santa Paula and Ventura have all declared a local emergency.

Fire crews also were called to a brush fire a little more than 50 miles east of Ventura — named the Creek Fire — which burned about 12,605 acres in the Sylmar area so far.

At least three other wildfires popped up in Southern California Tuesday, including the Rye Fire, which grew to about 7,000 acres near Santa Clarita in Los Angeles County.

The devastating blazes come just months after a chain of deadly wildfires wreaked havoc in Northern California’s wine counties.

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