Fire crews are struggling to contain the wildfires burning across Southern California, but despite huge efforts, they haven’t gained much ground. More than 24,000 acres were scorched in California's Riverside and Orange counties over the past two days.

The hot winds coming from the inland desert slowed down and this helped the firefighters to some extent, but the region remains dry and hot, a perfect environment for wildfires. A triangle of fires spreading from Anaheim, Brea, Corona and Yorba Linda is still uncontained. The wildfires are moving at a fast pace and have already destroyed 64 houses according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’ s Web site.

More than 3,500 residences are under threat and about 5,000 people were already evacuated. More than 1,500 firefighters are currently struggling to contain the wind-driven blazes. Wind gusts of 45 miles (72 kilometers) an hour worked against the firefighters during the weekend.

The weather forecast for the next couple of days isn’t looking very good for firefighters. Temperatures in Anaheim and Yorba Linda will most likely be as high as 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius) according to the National Weather Service forecast.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared the state of emergency in Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange and Santa Barbara counties. More than $2 million has been spent fighting the fire so far, but the measure will free up state and federal funds to provide financial help in the battle against wildfires.

However, the temperatures and the winds are expected to drop and slow down during the course of this week, said AccuWeather meteorologist Carl Erickson according to Bloomberg.