A rapidly spreading blaze in Southern California is impacting communities in the Los Angeles area as thousands have been placed under evacuation orders, officials said.

A battalion chief from Kern County involved in the Canyon fire operations was seriously injured when his truck rolled over.

Temperatures in the area are near 100 degrees and humidity as low as 15 percent. The southern part of California has seen very little rain, drying out vegetation and making it "ripe to burn," the National Weather Service (NWS) for Los Angeles warned.