Fresno, Calif. (AP) California’s raging wildfires have created a smoky haze so stifling that doctors say their waiting rooms have been crowded with patients struggling to breathe.

Ash from the hundreds of lightning-sparked fires have caused a huge spike in air pollution, and one respiratory therapist says people are coming in with sore throats, itchy eyes and sniffles.

Hundreds of firefighters are working overtime to beat back blazes burning from the western edge of the Sierra Nevada to coastal mountains near Big Sur. Authorities have enforced new, mandatory evacuations along a roughly 15-mile stretch of Highway 1.

U.S. Forest Service officials say Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has deployed 200 National Guard troops to fire lines to relieve weary crews.

In the Big Sur region of the Los Padres National Forest, about 200 people have been ordered to evacuate, in addition to the 75 homes evacuated last week.