SANTA ANA, Calif. – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited firefighters Sunday and assured residents that all possible state resources are being used to battle a huge wildfire that continues to rage, damaging or destroying at least 169 residences in Orange and Riverside counties and leaving more than 10,000 acres burned.

“It looks like Armageddon as you fly over the area,” Schwarzenegger said. “It looks like the end.”

The governor spoke to firefighters and the media at the fire command post in Irvine Regional Park around 11:30 a.m., just after speaking to firefighters at the Sylmar fire.

“The state has the resources to fight any and any disaster,” he said, adding that California has $1.5 billion in reserves for such disasters.

Schwarzenegger applauded firefighters as “true action heroes.”

“We have the most courageous, the toughest firefighters in the world,” he said.

The fire, which is creating a huge plume of acrid smoke over Orange County, is burning strongest in the Diamond Bar area, north of Brea, where officials ordered more than 1,000 evacuations. A DC-10 was dropping fire retardant in that area and flames were not immediately threatening homes there.

The poor air quality prompted Brea school officials to cancel all scheduled classes Monday at Brea public schools.

More than 1,000 homes throughout the region remain threatened by the fires, dubbed the “Triangle Complex Fire,” fire officials said.

The flames have been spreading for miles near Yorba Linda and Brea, racing through dry brush toward Chino Hills and Diamond Bar.

Some 1,260 firefighters continued to battle the fires on the front lines and to watch out for hot spots.

They were aided by calmer winds than on Saturday, but temperatures continued to soar, reaching into the 90s inland by 11 a.m.

“We still have a long way to go,” said Leonard Garcia, spokesman for the state Department of Forestry.

“This fire is still active. We still need to keep our heads up out there.”

More than 22,000 people were evacuated from their homes as fires burned in Anaheim Hills, Brea, Yorba Linda and Chino Hills.

Fire officials reported about 5 percent containment early in the day. Seven firefighters had suffered minor injuries.

Reynaldo Navarro, a Yorba Linda resident for 15 years, said he wanted to go home to check on him mom, who didn’t evacuate. but he was stopped by police.

“I just want to go in and see my house,” Navarro said. “I want to make sure everything’s ok, but they keep letting in only a few select people, and there’s no fire.”

Officials said they understood residents’ anxiousness, but certain areas remained off limits because they were still unsafe.

Fire officials reported early today that homes damaged or destroyed included 70 in Yorba Linda, 10 homes and 50 apartments in Anaheim Hills, one home in Brea and 16 homes in Corona.

Nani Duffield, 58, and her husband Scott, 47, live in the Cascade Apartment complex in Anaheim Hills, where at least 10 buildings burned.

She cried as she thought about the three dogs she left in her apartment, unable to get them out before the fire neared.

“I know I may have lost all my possessions, but I can’t lose my dogs,” Duffield said. “They’re my babies.”

The Aguilar family had fled their apartment, barely escaping six-foot flames at the side of their car as they pulled away, then waited in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

“My whole body was shaking and I wanted to get out,” said Alysha Aguilar, 17.

Another man, who declined to give his name, said about his Yorba Linda home: “It’s gone.” When asked for other details, he turned away and added, “I’m numb.”