The Los Angeles-area fire has destroyed 18 homes since it started and authorities over the weekend discovered a burned body in a auto identified Tuesday as a man who refused to be evacuated.
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The Los Angeles County coroner’s office identifies him Tuesday as 67-year-old Robert Bresnick.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health also issued an air quality advisory Tuesday for the Santa Clarita, Antelope and San Gabriel valleys, as well as the San Gabriel Mountains area.
North on the Central Coast, a blaze consuming brush in rugged mountains near Big Sur was threatening about 1,650 homes.
Closures as of Tuesday in the major tourism destination include Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, Andrew Molera State Park and Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, among others.
About 300 miles up the coast, crews were battling another fire spanning more than 17 square miles that destroyed six homes on Sunday and forced evacuations outside the scenic Big Sur region. When authorities advised residents to leave, Bresnick’s friend left, but he did not.
Firefighters are still working to control the fast-moving wildfire that has scorched 37,473 acres near Los Angeles since last Friday, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Spokesman Dennis Weber says facilities aren’t endangered but officials chose to get the public out of the areas for safety and to keep roads clear and avoid exposure to bad air quality.
The causes of both fires are still under investigation, but they are among some 3,750 blazes large and small to have erupted across California since January.
He told CNN affiliate KSBW, which is based in Monterey, that he had tried to save his house from the fire.
The Los Angeles County coroner identified a man whose body was found in a auto in a neighborhood near the Sand Fire in the Santa Clarita area.
The declaration was made Tuesday, not long after thousands of evacuees were allowed to return to their homes just north of Los Angeles Monday night, according to KABC-TV.
More than 3,000 firefighters worked overnight to fight the fire, which started Friday and grew to 10,000 acres in one day. Some evacuated residents were allowed to return to their homes last night, fire officials announced, while residents of areas still deemed too risky were not.
Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief John Tripp says firefighters saved about 2,000 houses in the fire’s first three days.
About 25 percent of the fire has been contained.
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The Wyoming fire in a remote region burned almost 11 square miles (28 square kilometers) and forced the evacuations of 900 people but no homes had burned by Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.
