Improved weather in the
aftermath of a severe heat wave allowed firefighters to make progress
against two fires in the steep San Gabriel Mountains 20 miles northeast
of Los Angeles. Some evacuations below in the foothill city of Duarte
were lifted.
A fleet of helicopters and air tankers and other resources are helping fight the fires totaling about 7½ square miles.
FIRE UPDATE: Brush fire may have been sparked by vehicle that went off the roadway http://abc7.com/live
Despite fears that stronger winds
could make the fire resurgent and challenges of tough terrain,
containment was expanded from 10 to 15 percent by Wednesday evening.
"They're
starting to make good progress, but there's a lot of line to put in,
and it's in a real inaccessible area," incident commander Mike Wakoski
said. "It's very hard for the firefighters to engage the fire safely,
but they are out there doing so."
No homes have
been lost, though flames have come close at times. More than 850 homes
were ordered evacuated earlier this week, and 534 were cleared for
residents' return Wednesday.
Near the Mexican
border, two residences and 11 outbuildings burned in a wildfire about 40
miles southeast of San Diego. A thousand structures were threatened by
the blaze, which grew to just over 10 square miles and was only
partially contained.
Falling temperatures, rising
humidity and cloud cover has helped, said Capt. Kendal Bortisser of the
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. But firefighters
still must deal with rough terrain and vegetation that has not burned in
decades, he said.
Weather also helped on the rugged
coast west of Santa Barbara. Fog moved into the area scorched by a blaze
that began more than a week ago, and most mandatory evacuations were
called off. With the more than 12-square-mile fire almost fully
surrounded, firefighters shifted focus to battling hot spots within
containment lines.
Elsewhere in the West, a forest fire near the Colorado-Wyoming line exploded in size and forced campers to evacuate.
A
shift in the wind turned a blaze burning slowly in a heavily wooded
area with no permanent residents into a fast-moving threat, growing from
1 square mile to about 5. Trees killed by a beetle infestation were
fueling the flames 140 miles north of Denver and 2 miles from Wyoming.
No
more than 100 campers and people staying in cabins fled, Routt National
Forest spokesman Aaron Voos said. More firefighters were expected, but
getting more help was difficult because of the other Western blazes.
"Resources are kind of hard to come by right now," Voos said.
In
southwest Utah, a fire forced evacuations of at least 185 homes in the
town of Pine Valley, about 35 miles north of the city of St. George.
The
U.S. Forest Service said Wednesday that the blaze has torched more than
a square mile and additional evacuations could come. The firefight was
hindered by a drone flying near the blaze, which Gov. Gary Herbert
called "completely unacceptable."
In eastern
Arizona, firefighters expected to keep a wildfire spanning some 67
square miles from moving any closer to a rural town. The flames
threatening the community of Cedar Creek made no significant movement in
the last 24 hours thanks to sparse vegetation.
More than 15,000 people in nearby mountain communities have been told to prepare to evacuate.
In
central New Mexico, more evacuees were expected to return home as
firefighters inch closer to snuffing out a massive wildfire that ignited
last week. The nearly 28-square-mile blaze in the mountains south of
Albuquerque is more than halfway contained after destroying at least two
dozen homes.
MORE: Wildfires Burn Across the West
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