Marin Fire Destroys 47 Homes : Disaster: Blaze imperils thousands of acres of wooded parkland in western part of county. Damage is heaviest near Inverness Park, a popular tourist village.

A wildfire fanned by warm, dry winds had destroyed at least 47 homes near Point Reyes National Seashore and blackened 8,000 acres of densely wooded parkland in western Marin County by nightfall Wednesday, fire officials said.

About 1,300 firefighters from as far away as Oregon and Lake Tahoe battled the blaze as it burned from the small artists colony of Inverness Park southwest to the Pacific Ocean. The fire was only 20% contained, officials said.

Fire crews were concentrating much of their effort on Inverness Ridge, where winds were gusting up to 35 m.p.h. and about 400 buildings--many of them costly homes--were threatened.

“It’s steep, it’s overgrown and there are a lot of structures,” said Marin County Fire Department spokeswoman Justine Rosenthal. “The streets are very windy and the area is very wooded.

Among those who may have lost their homes was singer Jesse Colin Young, who once wrote a popular song about living high up on a ridge.

Meanwhile, more than 30 smaller fires burned in other parts of Northern California.

Five blazes were ignited in the Santa Cruz area when gusty winds downed power lines. An arsonist was blamed for about 20 spot fires in Solano County. Three blazes of suspicious origin burned across a total of about 150 acres of farmland near Fairfield, and three other fires scorched 20 acres of timberland in Sonoma County.

The Point Reyes fire was started Tuesday afternoon by an unidentified person who camped illegally at the national seashore, lighted an illegal campfire and then left it unattended, authorities said. No one has been apprehended.

Smoke from the wildfire could be smelled in San Francisco, 35 miles to the south, and in Redwood City, about 60 miles from Point Reyes. The blaze forced officials to close the popular national seashore and nearby Mt. Tamalpais to visitors.

About 150 homes were evacuated in the fire zone and officials worried that a wind shift could drive the blaze farther south into heavily wooded areas that have not burned in more than 65 years.

“This is our last chance for a long way going south,” said Marin County Fire Chief Stan Rowan. “If we don’t catch it here, we have a lot of old, big timber that will burn.”

All the homes destroyed by the Point Reyes fire were near Inverness Park, a popular tourist village on the eastern edge of the national seashore.

The Red Cross set up emergency centers in the nearby towns of Inverness and Point Reyes Station, but most of the evacuees stayed with relatives or at the many bed-and-breakfast inns that opened their doors to fire victims.

“They are very closely knit communities,” said Leslie Price, a spokeswoman for the national seashore. “Some people have lived here for a long time--for generations.”

Most of the fire lay within the boundaries of the national seashore, Price said. Much of the burned vegetation is of species that evolved to withstand frequent fires. For example, Bishop pines, which are common in the area, have cones that open only after a major blaze, she said.

As the fire reached the ocean, ground crews aided by airplanes and helicopters attempted to contain it on the north and south.

“There’s a distinct possibility of it getting worse,” said Marin County fire spokesman Eric Neitzel. “It’s all dependent on the weather.”