Fueled by vast stands of oil-rich eucalyptus trees and decades of chaparral growth, an ordinary grass fire exploded into an inferno in Montecito, a quiet community known for its balmy climate and charming Spanish colonial homes.

The quaint community has long attracted celebrities, from Charlie Chaplin to Oprah Winfrey. The landmark Montecito Inn was built in the 1920s by Chaplin, and the nearby San Ysidro Ranch was the honeymoon site of John F. Kennedy in 1953.

As of Sunday morning, the fire was reported 40-percent contained. It broke out just before 6 p.m. Thursday, and quickly spread to about 1,500 acres. About 5,400 homes were evacuated in Montecito, which has attracted celebrities such as Rob Lowe, Jeff Bridges and Winfrey, who owns a 42-acre estate there. Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres once had a home there, but she sold it, her publicist said.

Actor Rob Lowe said he was watching a football game with his son late Thursday when he wife called to alert him to the fire. He said his house survived, but he fled with his children as fire engulfed the mountain and flames shot 200 feet in the air. The family stopped to help neighbors who couldn't get their automatic car gate open.

"Embers were falling. Wind was 70 miles an hour, easily, and it was just like Armageddon," Lowe told KABC-TV. "You couldn't hear yourself think."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Santa Barbara County as residents waited anxiously for word of their homes after fleeing flames with just a few minutes notice. One 91-year-old man said he fled with just his glasses and his wallet.

Among those worried about their homes was talk show host Winfrey. During a taping Friday morning, she said the fire was about two miles from her house. Homes of her friends and neighbors were destroyed.

"It's not a good morning for us," she said. "Some of my friends left their homes with only their dogs last night as I was calling, 'Are you all right? Are you all right?' They said, 'We have the dogs and the kids aren't here so we're OK.'"

Evacuee Tom Bain relived the hellish scene after fleeing his home in five minutes with his three cats, some work files and a computer around midnight. On the way out, he saw at least six mansions on the ridge above his home explode in flames.

"I saw $15 million in houses burn, without a doubt," said the 54-year-old electrician. "They were just blowing up. It was really, intensely hot."

About 200 people spent the night at an evacuation center at a high school in nearby Goleta, but rest was out of the question for Ed Naha, a 58-year-old writer who feared he lost his home in the hills above Santa Barbara.

"We are used to seeing smoke because we do have fires up here, but I've never seen that reddish, hellish glow that close," Naha said. "I was waiting for Dante and Virgil to show up."

The Mount Calvary Benedictine monastery was burned to the ground and buildings at Westmont College, a Christian liberal arts school nestled amid wooded rolling hills, were destroyed.

The air at the college was dense with smoke and the scent of charred pine. One thousand students caught off guard by the flames were evacuated. About 300 spent the night on cots in the gym.

Flames chewed through a eucalyptus grove on the 110-acre campus and destroyed several buildings housing the physics and psychology departments, at least three dormitories and 14 faculty homes, college spokesman Scott Craig said.

"I saw flames about 100 feet high in the air shooting up with the wind just howling," he said.

Beth Lazor, 18, said she was in her dorm when the alarm went off. She said she only had time to grab her laptop, phone, a teddy bear and a debit card before fleeing the burning building.

Her roommate, Catherine Wilson, said she didn't have time to get anything.

"I came out and the whole hill was glowing," Wilson said. "There were embers falling down."

Others were more fortunate.

Flames had licked at the home of Gwen Dandridge, 61, and her husband Joshua Schimel, 51, but it was still standing when they returned Friday morning - something the couple attributed to lots of weed-whacking to clear the brush around the home.

"We have a house! We have a house!" Dandridge shouted said as she first spied the home.

Montecito suffered a major fire in 1977, when more than 200 homes burned. A fire in 1964 burned about 67,000 acres and damaged 150 houses and buildings.