MALIBU - A wind-driven brush fire that started near the top of Corral Canyon and destroyed about 50 multimillion-dollar homes in the Malibu Bowl and Latigo Canyon areas was 25 percent contained tonight, fire officials said.

Six firefighters suffered minor injuries battling the blaze - which had blackened more than 4,500 acres as of 5:30 p.m. and forced the evacuation of up to 20,000 residents.

In addition to the homes destroyed, 27 others have been damaged, and one mobile home and eight vehicles destroyed said county fire Inspector Rick Dominguez.

With the unpredictable winds appearing to decrease this afternoon, county firefighting helicopters will fly through the night, said county fire Chief Michael Freeman during an afternoon news conference. The fire was in steep and inaccessible areas, and hand crews will not be on the lines in the dark, Freeman said.

Malibu Mayor Jeff Jennings said that the fire, along with another last month, have had a major impact on the community.

"With a loss of this magnitude, the number of homes that have been lost and damaged, it's difficult to find any kind of a silver lining," he said. "This is really a major event in our civic life. The city is going to have its work cut out for it in assisting those who want to rebuild in getting their lives back to normal as rapidly as possible."

He said brush clearance beforehand probably saved many structures from damage and thanked firefighters for their quick response.

"Standing here today and watching the aircraft, particularly, go into action was an impressive sight," he said. "It really is heartening. And of course, we've got to be very thankful that the winds died down … We certainly dodged a bullet. It could have been far, far worse than it was. Our hearts go out to the people who lost their homes. But a home is just material stuff and no lives were lost, and you can put a home back together again, and that's what we look to do."

Freeman said they expect lighter winds tomorrow, and the National Weather Service canceled its Red Flag fire warning about 6 p.m.

He said the west flank of the fire was contained at or near Latigo Canyon and that he expects containment figures to more than double by tomorrow evening.

"A lot will be dependent on the weather conditions tonight, which, based on the predictions, is pretty good," he said.

He said he expected crews to "be out here for five days at least."

The fire broke out near the top of Corral Canyon about 3:30 a.m., when winds out of the north and northeast were gusting up to 50 to 60 mph.

Due to the high winds, spot fires started jumping well ahead of the main front, and soon several large homes along Newell Road in the Malibu Bowl area were in flames. Some homes in Latigo Canyon also caught fire before dawn.

One tongue of fire jumped Latigo Canyon Road and within minutes was hop- scotching down Escondido Canyon's trees, torching several houses but randomly sparing others.

As many as 20,000 residents from Corral Canyon to Point Dume were forced to leave their homes. The evacuation orders jarred many of them awake shortly after sunrise, in a situation reminiscent of last month's Santa Ana wind-fueled Canyon fire, which also began on a weekend morning.

This time around, firefighters were already staged in high fire danger areas in anticipation of strong offshore winds, coupled with extremely low humidity.

But crews were helpless to stop the towering, wind-whipped flames from destroying roughly 50 homes, which were gutted by about 7 a.m., when the fire had swallowed about 2,200 acres.

Freeman earlier said five homes were destroyed in Latigo Canyon, along with 15 in the Malibu Bowl area off Corral Canyon Road, and 10 or 15 houses in the nearby Sea Breeze tract in an area called El Nido.

Later in the day, fire inspectors went back and found more burned structures, he said.

By 3:30 p.m., the winds had shifted, and aerial firefighting efforts were being concentrated on a huge column of fire about four miles northwest of Pepperdine University, heading east.

Fire strike teams that had been stationed to protect Paradise Cove were rushed east to protect multimillion-dollar estates - some owned by celebrities such as Don Henley of the Eagles, director James Cameron and Cher - along Pacific Coast Highway at Puerco Canyon.

About 1,700 personnel on the ground were being aided by about two dozen firefighting aircraft, including two SuperScooper airplanes and a DC-10 carrying Phoschek fire retardant, which began making drops about 9 a.m.

Freeman said the cause of the so-called Corral fire was under investigation, but investigators traced its origin to a dead-end at the northern end of Corral Canyon Road.

When Sheriff Lee Baca took the podium to address reporters, he was confronted by a Corral Canyon resident who said she and others have complained about frequent beer bashes and illegal campfires by partying teenagers in that area.

She said she'd been unable to get park rangers or deputies into the isolated area to put an end to the activity. Baca said he would look into her complaint.

Power lines were reported down in the area, but apparently as a result of - not because of - the fire, Freeman told reporters.

The wildfire that broke out Oct. 21 was tentatively blamed by county firefighters on a power pole that toppled in hurricane-force winds on Malibu Canyon Road.

One dramatic showdown of today's fire occurred about 11 a.m., when firefighters managed to stop a wall of flames just short of about 200 homes in the 3800 block of Latigo Canyon Road.

The line of flames raced up a ridge, and firefighters set back fires just as it was reaching the crest. The two fires burned into each other, and firefighters poured on heavy streams of water, quenching the flames near Baller Road.

Further south on Latigo Canyon Road, the fire had already jumped the road and burned into Escondido Canyon, claiming several houses there.

About noon, the wind switched direction completely, and began blowing from the ocean to the northeast, causing a flare-up into Puerco Canyon, and in the hills above Pepperdine, which was sparely populated due to the Thanksgiving weekend.

Pepperdine spokeswoman Eileen Wong said about 100 students were located from their residences to a campus center, but there were no plans to evacuate the Malibu campus as of mid-afternoon.

A firefighter suffered what were described as minor burns to his face this morning, and five other crew members subsequently sustained minor injuries, including smoke inhalation, a county fire official said.

No civilian injuries were reported as of late afternoon.

Evacuation orders were in effect for many Malibu residents from Malibu Canyon Road on the east to Trancas Canyon Road on the west.

Northbound Pacific Coast Highway was closed at Malibu Canyon Road.

Southbound PCH was closed to everyone except residents at Trancas Canyon Road and closed to everyone at Kanan-Dume Road.

Kanan-Dume was closed between PCH and Mulholland Highway, and roadblocks were set up on some back country roads in the area.

However, the evacuation area was scaled back to an area north of PCH, west of Pepperdine and East of Kanan-Dume and residents of Paradise Cove and Point Dume were being allowed to return to their homes.

Jennings said he did not know when all evacuations would be lifted.

"I wouldn't count on coming back today or coming back tomorrow," he said.

The American Red Cross set up evacuation centers at Agoura High School, 28545 W. Driver Ave., and Channel Islands High School in Oxnard. But many residents apparently went elsewhere - possibly to the homes of friends of relatives.

Longtime resident Linda Thompson, who's lived in the area for 27 years, said the fire claimed her elderly neighbor's home, but her residence escaped major damage.

"She's (the neighbor) been there 35 years. It's never been that close and obviously that threatening, but it's just devastating," Thompson said. "There's several homes on Sycamore Meadow Drive that are gone, but thank God, I believe my main house is intact and most of the guest house …"

The tour manager of Red Hot Chili Peppers told KNX Newsradio that a home owned by band member "Flea," whose real name is Michael Balzary, burned to the ground.

The musician rents out the 2,700-square-foot residence, which he reportedly bought last year and had listed for sale at $10.5 million.

About 1,300 customers were without power in the Malibu area, mainly in the area of Corral Canyon and Lookout Road, according to a Southern California Edison representative.

"They should plan that there won't be any power overnight," SCE's Gil Alexander said, noting that crews would begin making repairs as soon as they are allowed in the burn areas.

The inferno that roared out of Malibu Canyon last month hop-scotched its way to the beach, destroying a socialite's castle, the Malibu Presbyterian Church, three beachfront homes and a handful of businesses in the Malibu Colony shopping center.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger noted that the state of emergency he declared last month remains in effect, "so no time (was) wasted in providing any needed resources" to fight the blaze or aid impacted residents.

The state Office of Emergency Services' operations centers in Los Alamitos and Sacramento remain activated to support requests for assistance from Los Angeles County, he said.