U.S. space agency satellites monitoring Southern California wildfires show the fires growing and spreading rapidly.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists said two satellite images of the Los Angeles area taken Sunday showed the rapid growth. One image, taken by NASA's Terra satellite at 2:35 p.m. EDT, showed several fires producing small plumes of smoke. Three hours later, NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the same area and observed large amounts of smoke pouring from blazes northwest of Los Angeles.

Images taken Monday afternoon also showed thick, billowing smoke coming off numerous large fires and spreading over the Pacific Ocean.

The National Interagency Fire Center said the wildfires have burned more than 84,000 acres since the weekend, with about 500,000 people evacuated from their homes. At least 14 massive fires were reported to have scorched about 425 square miles from north of Los Angeles to southeast of San Diego, NASA said.  // Copyright 2007 by United Press International

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