California wildfires: Ignition of Maria fire spotted on camera

Cause of blaze remains under investigation

The moment a wildfire burst into life and began to spread in California has been caught on camera.

The Maria Fire has burned some 15 square miles and prompted evacuation orders for nearly 11,000 people since it began Thursday evening.

On Friday, a tug of war developed between onshore and offshore winds.

"It has been an uphill battle ever since," Ventura County Fire Chief Mark Lorenzen said. "As winds shift, we have a whole new fuel bed open up."

The cause was under investigation but there was a troubling possibility that an electrical line might have been involved – as such lines have been involved in other recent fires.

Southern California Edison said Friday that it re-energized a 16,000-volt power line 13 minutes before the fire erupted in the same area.

Edison and other utilities up and down the state shut off power to hundreds of thousands of people this week out of concerns that high winds could cause power lines to spark and start fires.

In footage captured by the Nevada Seismological Laboratory the blaze can be seen sparking into life on a hilltop. The one-minute clip shows the next hour as the fire spreads.

Additional reporting from the Associated Press.