Thousands of residents returned home in Southern California to see their houses devastated by the violent fire driven by 50- to 70-mph winds that burned at least 30,000 acres, destroyed up to 800 homes and left authorities with no other alternative but to evacuate the luxurious neighborhoods in the area.

Authorities say the fire broke out Thursday at about 5:45 p.m. in the wealthy Cold Springs area of Montecito and the high winds and dry vegetation helped the blaze quickly tore through the region.

Wildfires have destroyed more than 30,000 acres since Thursday night in the hills above Santa Barbara, in foothills north of Los Angeles and in Orange County canyons to the south-east. More than 800 homes and apartments have been destroyed and thousands of residents were forced to evacuate from their homes. Fire officials estimated that at least 10,000 people had been under orders to evacuate.

No deaths were reported and the cause of the fires was not known. At least 20 people were injured, according to reports. The worst-hit part of Los Angeles was Sylmar, a suburban mobile home park were the fire destroyed 500 homes and threatened an additional 7,500 structures. Ten thousand people have been evacuated. The LAPD sent cadaver dogs to search for victims and there are fears that several of the elderly people couldn’t get out in time.

For those who returned to their home, firefighters presented a tattered U.S. flag to park manager Jinny Harmon, Reuters reports. Harmon said the flag represents the fact that people will survive and they will be coming back.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger warned there likely will be no rest for firefighters. Schwarzenegger said California’s fire season, which usually ran from June to October, has become a fire season all year round as global warming and climate change has brought higher winter temperatures and less rainfall.

He said that one of the lessons being learned by the weekend’s devastative fire was how to deal with mobile homes, taking into consideration the 500 residences that were destroyed at a suburban mobile park. The governor thanked the fire crews for their “extraordinary work” and said the state is going to help residents get their homes back and their lives back.

A year ago, a series of wildfires in Southern California burned during one week, destroying some 2,000 homes and forcing thousands of residents to evacuate.

This year, as much as 100 homes were destroyed in the city of Santa Barbara and more than 70 damaged in Montecito, including a small Christian college. Many of them were multimillion-dollar homes with beautiful ocean views. The median sale price of homes in the luxury neighborhoods is about $2.7 million. The list of home owners includes big names such as talk show host Oprah Winfrey, actors Michael Douglas, Christopher Lloyd and John Cleese.