More than 80,000 residents were told to evacuate earlier in the week because of the fast-moving blaze, which has destroyed 96 homes and 213 outbuildings.
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More than 17,000 firefighters struggled Friday (Saturday in Manila) to contain dozens of large fires that have burned huge swaths of land and destroyed hundreds of buildings across 10 USA states, with parched California especially hard hit. They also ordered the temporary closure of a segment of Interstate 15, which connects Las Vegas to the Los Angeles area, where it traverses the Cajon Pass. Since then, some people have been allowed to return home, Sieliet said, but she could not say how many.
Fire spokesman Brad Pitassi says evacuation orders for Wrightwood went from mandatory to advisory Saturday afternoon.
Firefighters initially struggled to get the towering flames under control but later made dramatic progress in corralling the fire that scorched almost 58 square miles and was 40 per cent contained. She tried to rush home to rescue the family’s four dogs, six cats and hamster but was blocked by closed roads.
In this Friday, Aug. 19, 2016, photo, Fire Marshal Mike Horton of the San Bernardino County Fire Department accounts the damage assessment team operations at the Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, Calif. She was running an errand Tuesday when the fire charged through her neighborhood.
A group of animal rescue volunteers found the house in smoldering ruins – with no signs of the pets.
“I’m actually feeling numb”, said Santore, who fled with her husband and granddaughter to an evacuation centre.
Often properties are so decimated that it’s hard to know if a smoking ash heap was a home, a trailer or a water tank, he said.
A prolonged drought has transformed swaths of California into tinderboxes.
The blaze was 40 percent contained by the end of Friday and many evacuees were allowed to return to their homes in the city of Phelan, officials said. Several other wildfires were burning in the state, including a blaze in rural Santa Barbara County that prompted the evacuation of a pair of campgrounds.
Less than 300 miles (483 km) to the northwest, a week-old blaze called the Chimney Fire threatened the historic Hearst Castle in San Simeon, the former mansion of the late newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst.
Authorities began lifting some evacuation orders Wednesday but it’s unclear when all areas will be cleared for people to return.
Several more fires continue to burn in other drought-stricken parts of California.
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“We feel confident we can keep continuing this aggressive attack”, he said in a telephone interview.
