LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Hollywood's rich and famous are among the
thousands of Californian's whose lives are being affected by wildfires.

Stars have had to leave their beachfront homes for shelter in posh hotels. And TV series have had to interrupt their productions.

Kelsey Grammer is among those who have fled Malibu. The oceanfront town is also home to Mel Gibson, Cher, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Aniston, Mel Brooks, Ryan O'Neal and more.

Grammer says he made light of the evacuation for the sake of his 6-year-old, Mason. He tells E! entertainment channel his family and dog "got out.'' His publicist says his house hasn't been damaged.

Meanwhile, the trade paper Daily Variety is reporting that Hollywood mogul David Geffen has opened up his recently renovated Malibu Beach Inn to firefighters and rescue workers for free.

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- Raging wildfires have destroyed 1,300 homes across Southern California and, pushed by fierce Santa Ana winds, threaten 72,000 others, California fire officials reported Tuesday.

Fears grew north of Los Angeles that the winds may fan three wildfires into one monster blaze, with too few resources available to fight it.

More than 56,000 homes are threatened by the three fires.

Evacuees joined hundreds of thousands seeking refuge in shelters, schools and stadiums Tuesday as fires pushed into new areas.

"It will not end ... until it reaches the ocean or the winds turn around," San Diego Fire battalion chief Bruce Cartelli said.

At least 16 wildfires have scorched about 425 square miles from north of Los Angeles to southeast of San Diego since the weekend.

The largest disruption of life and property came to the south, where San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts said Tuesday about 1,000 homes have been destroyed.

More than 300,000 people fled their homes in San Diego County, where five of 23 emergency shelters reached capacity Monday evening. Others took shelter with friends or relatives.

The U.S. Navy ordered sailors out of barracks and onto ships to make room for evacuees.

A half-million people may be forced from their homes by the fires, Matt Bettenhausen, director of the California Office of Homeland Security, said.

In an e-mail to CNN, Jonathan Gallen, a doctor in Poway, described how the fires quickly closed in on his neighborhood Monday.

"My pool was completely black with soot. Like the 'Creature From the Black Lagoon' was about to walk out of there," Gallen wrote. "The soot was falling so heavily that it blocked out the sun. There was a smoke cloud above our home that seemed to stretch for miles. This was bad."

Reporter Larry Himmel of KFMB-TV in San Diego showed viewers the destruction of his home in the Forest Ranch area.

"You can see my hose right here valiantly trying to do something," Himmel said as flames dwarfed a trickle of water. Video Watch a fire official describe "utter devastation" »

National Guard troops were posted at Qualcomm Stadium, home to the NFL's San Diego Chargers, as it became a temporary home to 10,000 fire evacuees.

Sean McGough and his family fled their home in El Cajon for Qualcomm early Tuesday as the flames closed in.

"I looked out and saw the mountain engulfed in flames with a trail at least three miles long coming down," McGough said.

"When I went to bed at midnight, nothing in the East County was any immediate threat. ... Two hours later is when we got the news we needed to get out of our homes."

President Bush issued an emergency declaration Tuesday for seven California counties, clearing the way for federal disaster relief.

Emergency officials asked for food and water for evacuees and told those still in their homes to cut electrical use so the power grid is not strained.

The Witch Fire consumed 164,000 acres, 500 homes and 100 commercial buildings between Sunday afternoon and early Tuesday, moving on a fast 20-mile westward path from its origins near Ramona into the more populated San Diego city limits and across Interstate 15. The Pacific coast was barely five miles west of the fire line early Tuesday.

"It's probably the worst this county has ever had, well in excess of the Cedar Fire. ... It looks like it's going to get worse, and we want everybody to be prepared and understand," San Diego County Sheriff Bill Kolender said.

Bush's declaration covers the same seven counties that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared as in a state of emergency Monday: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Ventura. See where fires burn across Southern California »

The U.S. Marines' Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego, told only "key and essential personnel" to report to duty Tuesday. The Rice Fire is burning east of the base.

Residents of Fallbrook, adjacent to Camp Pendleton, evacuated as the Rice Fire burned 1,500 acres and destroyed 50 homes and damaged 30 more in nearby Rice Canyon.

Southeast of San Diego, the Harris Fire burned 25,000 acres. The blaze claimed the only life lost so far on Sunday and injured 17 civilians and five firefighters.

Officials said they're concerned about the fire spreading to San Miguel Mountain, the site of important communications towers.

Early Tuesday, a new fire was reported on the La Jolla Indian Reservation, northeast of Escondido, according to a state fire report monitored by the San Diego Union-Tribune. Several structures were burning, and people were being evacuated to the nearby Palomar Observatory, the report said.

Later, more than 1,500 people were ordered from their homes in North Jamul and Indian Springs, according to a Union-Tribune report.

In northern Los Angeles County, three fires have charred nearly 93,000 acres and fire officials fear the Ranch, Buckweed, and Magic fires could merge.

"We want to keep these fires as small as we can," Capt. Barry Parker of the Ventura County Fire Department. If they come together, he said, "the only good thing is we would be able to share more resources."

"But we would rather keep the fires individually fought," he added.

The 54,000-acre Ranch fire grew by nearly 20,000 acres overnight and is only two miles away from the 1,200-acre Magic fire. The blazes are straddling the L.A.-Ventura County line.

Asked if he had enough resources, Parker said, "We truly don't."

"We're using a limited amount of resources to go in and fight these fires," he said. "We've got about 600 people on the Ranch fire, we normally would have about 1,500.

"So we have to be absolutely surgical in how we plan and how we tactically use our fire equipment because we just simply don't have enough fire engines in the state of California to battle these blazes."

Two fires that erupted Monday in San Bernardino County near Lake Arrowhead have destroyed at least 123 structures and charred 1,800 acres, said Loretta Benavidez, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino National Forest. Several communities in the area, including Green Valley Lake, Arrowbear and Running Springs, were evacuated.