A wildfire is burning out of control Tuesday evening in the mountains near Lake Isabella. More than 1,200 structures are being threatened by fast moving flames that are putting out manned firefighters to the test.

An air tanker launches its attack on the flames scorching the mountains above Lake Isabella. The Piute fire more than doubled in size in less than 24 hours and has started moving towards more populated areas.

At Frank Varga's house near Weldon, Sheriff's deputies have not issued mandatory evacuations. But it's easy to see the fire isn't far away. "Yeah, Yeah. We've been seeing a lot of smoke."

But the Vargas family isn't planning on running even if the flames come over that ridge. "My dad's got a tractor and we'll clean the place out."

According to fire officials, the forecast is for winds to pick up and change directions, pushing the fire towards areas that haven't burned in recorded fire history. Tony Diffenbaugh, Kern Co. Fire Dept. "There's just a lot of fuel, Add to the difficulty."

But help is taking a long time to get there.

With more than 1400 fires burning across the state there aren't enough firefighters to go around.

Fire officials estimate they have half as many firefighters they need right now.

An evacuation center has been set up at the Senior Citizen Center, 6405 Lake Isabella Blvd, Lake Isabella.