Fire Crews Struggle to Gain Ground : Destruction: High temperatures hamper efforts as flames claim 15 buildings in Mother Lode country. O.C. firefighters are sent there.

A wildfire raged out of control after blackening more than 5,500 acres in the Mother Lode country about 60 miles southeast of Sacramento on Tuesday as four other blazes continued to burn in Monterey, San Diego and Contra Costa counties.

Thousands of firefighters struggled through dense timber and brush to battle the fires in steep, rugged terrain as temperatures in much of the state continued to top 100.

The most destructive of the blazes was the Gold Rush region fire that had destroyed 15 structures and driven more than 1,300 people from their homes since it broke out Sunday night about three miles east of San Andreas in the foothills of Calaveras County.

Fire engines from around the state, under the auspices of the Office of Emergency Services, were called to help battle the blaze. A Fire Department spokeswoman said at least 32 strike teams--more than 100 engines--went to work in Calaveras County Tuesday night.

Orange County’s five state-owned engines headed north about 8 p.m., according to fire communications dispatcher Lori Malavenda. Tuesday was the first time in three years that the state has used its Orange County emergency strike team, she said.

Firefighters from Orange County Fire Department’s Seal Beach station and from city stations in Anaheim, Fountain Valley, Laguna Beach and San Clemente manned the engines.

Whipped by gusting winds, the Calaveras fire spread rapidly through stands of pine, oak and chaparral parched by six years of drought, overrunning the tiny community of Fricot City and marching steadily toward the remote towns of Murphys and Sheep Ranch.

The blaze had moved to within a mile of Sheep Ranch by late Tuesday afternoon. Aerial tankers made water drops and ground crews cut fuel breaks in front of the town in a determined struggle to stop the advancing flames.

Authorities evacuated about 1,000 people living in subdivisions between the towns of Murphys and Avery on Tuesday night.

Jerry Geissler, a fire boss with the state Department of Forestry, said the humidity was so low--less than 10%--and temperatures were so high--about 100 degrees--that the 2,300 firefighters were unable to battle the fire at close range.

As night fell, firefighters appeared to have the upper hand, but officials said a shift in the wind could change everything.

“It all depends on the wind,” said Bill Johnson, a member of the Sheep Ranch Volunteer Fire Department.

Witnesses said the Calaveras fire, which apparently started when the hot exhaust from a car ignited some grass, swept through Fricot City in less than a minute, destroying an old mansion and outbuildings that once served as a California Youth Authority detention center.

Nancy Roberts said she was lucky. An earlier blaze had consumed all the brush around her house near Fricot City, and with no fuel to burn, the fire bypassed her.

Diane Mann threw a last few belongings into her car Tuesday before heeding fire officials’ warnings and leaving her house near Sheep Ranch.

She paused for a second to stare at the cloud of smoke from the advancing fire.

“It just keeps going and going and going,” she said.

Mann was staying with relatives, but many of the other evacuees took refuge at Brett Harte High School in Altaville, about 12 miles south of Sheep Ranch.

The school is not air conditioned and many spent the night outside because of the heat.

Meanwhile, in Monterey County, two fires burned out of control Tuesday afternoon.

One, which started about 4 a.m. Tuesday, moved rapidly through stands of large timber near Big Sur, briefly threatening the Ventana Inn and prompting the evacuation of visitors at Big Sur State Park.

In northeast San Diego County, firefighters reported 60% containment of a blaze that had burned more than 750 acres of brush in Wildcat Canyon on the Barona Indian Reservation. Elsewhere in California, mop-up operations continued late Tuesday on a fire that burned 450 acres of brushland on the slopes of Mt. Diablo, about 30 miles east of San Francisco.

Dan Morain reported from Calaveras County and Eric Malnic reported from Los Angeles.