an historic drought. this year alone there have been more than 2,000 wildfires. that's a lot more than usual. and the snow pack that provides much of southern california with its water is at a 500-year low requiring drastic water cutbacks. simi valley is no exception. more on this. >> reporter: wildfires tearing through miles of parched wilderness grassland and creeping dangerously close to neighborhoods. you can see the flames just about maybe 20 feet away from that fence. a small brush fire in simi valley spread quickly, hundreds of homes in its path. we're on the northern end of the rustic fire that burned up here about a month ago. how many acres burned? >> 190 acres. >> reporter: how far are we from the reagan library. >> two miles. >> reporter: could we see a fire like this up by the reagan library? >> absolutely. as a young chief officer, and we had a fire called the simi fire