A rapidly spreading blaze in Southern California is impacting communities in the Los Angeles area as thousands have been placed under evacuation orders, officials said.

An air quality alert was issued for parts of Southern California because of the effects of the Canyon Fire, fueled by dry brush and extremely high temperatures.

Temperatures in the area are near 100 degrees and humidity as low as 15 percent. The southern part of California has seen very little rain, drying out vegetation and making it "ripe to burn," the National Weather Service (NWS) for Los Angeles warned.