Tiki Fireplace

Virtual Fire

Fire sweeps through nightclub in Bangkok

Map of Bangkok locating Santika Club, which was gutted by fire Thursday, killing at least 59 people

Graphic locates Bangkok, Thailand, where a club fire killed scores of people.

A rescue worker inspects the damage at Santika Club in Bangkok January 1, 2009. Two more Thais who were severely injured in a New Year's fire at a Bangkok night club have died in hospital, taking the death toll in the tragedy to 61, medical officials said on Saturday.

Policemen at the burnt-out Santika nightclub in Bangkok. Mourning relatives and shocked survivors on Friday offered prayers and recalled the horror of a New Year fire at a packed Bangkok club, as police tried to piece together how nearly 60 people died.

Thai firefighters work at the site of a fire that ripped through a nightclub in Bangkok.

Thai rescuers and police secure the site of a fire that ripped through a nightclub in Bangkok's Thong Lor district, January 1.

Policemen and rescuers stand by the bodies of victims of a fire that ripped through a nightclub in Bangkok, early on January 1.

Fire and Rescue officials collect victims Thursday, Jan. 1, 2009.

Bangkok Fire and Rescue officials remove the dead from the scene of a night club fire Thursday, Jan. 1, 2009.

Fire officials count bodies outside a popular night club.

California Wildfires

At least 70 multimillion-dollar mansions have been destroyed by a powerful wildfire that has surged into the wealthy enclave of Montecito, northwest of Los Angeles.

The suburb, which is popular amongst billionaires and Hollywood actors, was in flames with more than 800 hectares engulfed.

More than 1,000 firefighters are tackling the Montecito fire - dubbed the Tea Fire locally because it is rumoured to have started in the Tea Gardens in the hills above Santa Barbara and Montecito.

Fires have also broken out in the exclusive suburb of Yorba Linda in Orange County.

Yorba Linda, like Montecito, is home to some large properties.

Firefighters fight flames in Granada Hills. Arnold Schwarzenneger has declared a state of emergency after the fires spread.

The pool deck of one Montecito mansion burnt brightly as the flames spread through the suburb.

Firefighters looked for hot spots as they desperately tried to stop the wildfires burning out of control in the hills of Montecito.

Around 2,500 Montecito residents were forced to flee the flames after a mandatory evacuation order.

Police were blocking unsafe roads and attempting to enforce the evacuation.

A year ago, 30 wildfires burned during one week in Southern California, destroying some 2,000 homes and forcing a record 500,000 residents to evacuate.

Barbara Pointer and her daughter Katie stand in front of the remains of their homes in Montecito.