A series of wildfires continued their tear through California on Friday, encroaching upon an area still reeling from a mass shooting that struck the community of Thousand Oaks just one day earlier.

A set of brushfires lashed Ventura County, prompting mandatory evacuations across Ventura and Los Angeles counties. The two blazes ranged from 2,000 to 10,000 acres, according to Cal Fire . Authorities shut down part of the 101 Freeway as plumes of smoke cascaded into the air on Thursday.

At least 30 homes had already erupted in flames in the area by early Friday, KTLA reported.

The first part of this fuel bed had not seen fire for many years. Drought-stricken fuels, Santa Ana wind conditions, low relative humidity, high temperatures: its a recipe for fire, said Ventura County Fire Department Assistant Chief Chad Cook.

A local Thousand Oaks teen center turned into an evacuation center overnight, after being used the night before as a family reunification center in the wake of the massacre at the citys Borderline Bar & Grill.

And a fast-moving wildfire that ravaged a Northern California town Thursday sent residents racing to escape on roads that turned into tunnels of fire as thick smoke darkened the daytime sky, wiping out what a Cal Fire official said was a couple of thousand structures.

We were surrounded by fire, we were driving through fire on each side of the road, said police officer Mark Bass, who lives in the hard-hit town of Paradise and works in neighboring Chico. He evacuated his family and then returned to the fire to help rescue several disabled residents, including a man trying to carry his bedridden wife to safety. It was just a wall of fire on each side of us, and we could hardly see the road in front of us.

Harrowing tales of escape and heroic rescues emerged from Paradise, where the entire community of 27,000 was ordered to evacuate. Witnesses reported seeing homes, supermarkets, businesses, restaurants, schools and a retirement home up in flames.