The fire grew to 3,700 acres in the eastern San Fernando Valley. Fire Inspector Ron Haralson said the blaze had reached a mobile home park and an industrial area and an undetermined number of structures had been destroyed.

The mobile home park had been evacuated before flames reached it.

Containment was scaled back from 20 percent to just 5 percent. Officials said the fire had burned a total of 3,712 acres. About 1,200 people had been evacuated. There were no reports of any injuries.

Fire officials said the erratic winds were expected to continue. A "fire weather watch" was declared through Tuesday for all of Southern California except the deserts.

"This is what we feared the most," said Los Angeles County fire Capt. Mark Savage. "The winds that were expected, they have arrived."

The cause of the fire was under investigation.

Flames jumped the Foothill Freeway, which was closed in both directions for about a three-mile stretch in northern Los Angeles between the 118 Freeway and Interstate 5 amid the morning rush hour, officials said.

"That was quite a jump, that's an eight-lane fire break," said fire spokesman Inspector Paul Hartwell.

The eastbound side of the 118 was also closed.

Red Cross spokesman Nick Samaniego said about 100 evacuees had gathered at San Fernando High School, where some had seen news footage of their homes burning.

"You can imagine, it's a devastating situation," he said. "A lot of people on pins and needles waiting to hear news about their communities."

Savage said the blaze had jumped a fire line at about 4:30 a.m. in an area of Lopez Canyon in the eastern San Fernando Valley that had already been evacuated.

Winds in the area were gusting as high as 65 mph, Haralson said.

Water-dropping aircraft returned to the sky after sunrise. Television showed one helicopter attempting to drop water on a building, but the winds blew the water away long before it could reach the structure.

Fire officials had warned during the night that the fire could be a "sleeping giant" as the region's serious fire season began with the arrival of Santa Ana winds. At that point, the fire had burned through 3,200 acres of rugged terrain in the Angeles National Forest.

Jim Williams, 72, a retired city utility worker, was awakened around 6 a.m. by police officers driving down his street telling residents to leave immediately.

Williams grabbed his medication, comb and toothbrush and was out of his house within five minutes. He went to the nearby Hansen Dam Aquatic Center, a 40-acre water recreation facility.

"I thought I would be safe here," Williams said. As he neared the center, he saw thick plumes of black smoke billowing up from the surrounding hills. The longtime resident said the area hadn't burned since a large brush fire tore through in 1974.

"I didn't expect it again," Williams said. "The trees there at the time burned and didn't grow back, only brush. I felt relatively safe that if the brush burned, it would only be a small fire, nothing like this."

The fire began early Sunday. Some 1,000 people were deployed to fight the fire.

The blaze forced the evacuation of about 450 homes in neighborhoods around Kagel and Lopez canyons. Many displaced residents sought refuge at a shelter set up at nearby San Fernando High School.

Most schools in the area were closed Monday.

Also Monday, Ventura County firefighters battled a 30-acre wildfire near a Santa Paula oil facility.

The fire was reported just before 4 a.m. and arriving firefighters found about 10 acres ablaze in a remote area about 70 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

No homes were threatened and there were no evacuations, but structures at the oil facility were in danger.

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