Towering wildfires rage near Griffith Park in Los Angeles on Tuesday. (AP)

Los Angeles, May 9 (Reuters): Six hundred firefighters made major progress today against a wildfire in a landmark Los Angeles park that has charred hundreds of acres in the Hollywood Hills and forced wealthy residents to flee.

But they raced to extinguish the fire’s last patches high on the ridge just east of the famed Hollywood sign before another day of scorching temperatures and possible shifting winds.

Fire officials said the blaze that began yesterday had consumed more than 250 hectares of Griffith Park, the largest urban park in the nation and home to landmarks like the Griffith Observatory and the Greek Theatre. Local officials and media were calling it the worst fire in the Hollywood area in 50 years.

Authorities believe the blaze in the bone-dry park might have been accidental. Firefighters said they had rescued a man who walked out of the brush with burns on his chest, saying he had fallen asleep while smoking a cigarette. He was hospitalised and questioned by investigators, but had not been charged with starting the fire, officials said.

By daybreak, 16 hours after the blaze started, around 45 per cent of the fire was contained and the flames had retreated away from the upscale Los Feliz neighbourhood. Some of the 300 people evacuated from 150 houses were allowed to return early in the morning.

Overnight, firefighters had entered homes with hoses to douse the brush from the balconies that look out onto the park’s steep terrain.

Before sunrise, orange flames were visible on the ridge behind the Observatory, where scenes from James Dean’s classic movie Rebel Without a Cause were filmed in the 1950s. “This would be full of people on a morning like this, taking a nice hike. We lost Dante's view,” said the area’s councilman.