The Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has ordered 200 National Guard troops to report for fire training to begin assisting nearly 19,000 firefighting personnel who have been battling with more than 1,400 separate fires in the state in the past two weeks.

Fires in northern and central California caused by drought conditions, high temperatures and a series of lightning storms have destroyed 60 homes and other buildings while threatening thousands more, according to the state department of forestry and fire protection.

In the Big Sur region of the Los Padres National Forest, about 200 people along a roughly 15-mile stretch of Highway 1 were ordered to leave their homes and businesses.

Evacuation orders also remained in place for occupants of at least 75 homes who were forced to leave the region last week, as an 81 square mile blaze burning through uninhabited forest land moved closer.

"The fire is just a big raging animal right now," said Darby Marshall, spokesman for the Monterey County Office of Emergency Services.

This is the first time that the state’s troops have have been called to ground-based firefighting duty since 1977. Mr Schwarzenegger said that while the fire protection department was doing a great job, “the danger is that our firefighters get stretched thin”.

Firefighters are predicting that they will have the larger of two huge blazes burning in the Big Sur region of the Los Padres National Forest contained by the end of the week.

The smaller one, which has pushed toward the coast and threatened the town of Big Sur, is not expected to be encircled until July 30.

"This is a very dangerous fire right now because of the wind and because of how dry things are and how early in the year it is," said David Paulison, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"The only saving grace is that this area is not heavily populated like we saw in Southern California last year.

"If people evacuate like they're told to, we shouldn't lose any lives. My only concern is that people don't take it seriously enough."

Schwarzenegger and the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, David Paulison, planned to visit Big Sur on Wednesday for a briefing on firefighting efforts.

The governor also plans to issue an executive order that waives replacement fees for birth certificates, driver’s licenses and other critical documents that fire victims may have lost.

The order also aims to accelerate debris removal and repair environmental damage by “cutting red tape,” and asks state tax authorities to help victims file tax extensions.

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