A preliminary assessment shows 96 single-family homes have been destroyed by a huge Southern California wildfire.
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The east of Los Angeles in San Bernardino County has turned in a blast furnace due to the ongoing massive forest fire that has swallowed 96 homes and forced mass evacuation, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
More residents are returning as crews make significant gains against a Southern California wildfire that officials now say has destroyed more than 100 homes.
Some 58 sq miles (150 sq km) have been charred in San Bernardino County, 60 miles east of Los Angeles.
But that encouraging news was tempered by more sobering figures released Friday: 96 homes and 213 other buildings were destroyed by the blaze, a lot of them in its first ferocious days on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the San Bernardino Fire Department.
Fire spokesman Brad Pitassi says evacuation orders for Wrightwood went from mandatory to advisory Saturday afternoon.
On Thursday alone, 31 fires burned almost 400,000 acres (162,000 hectares) in the affected areas, including seven blazes in California and six in Idaho, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). It’s painstaking and important work that helps evacuated residents know if they lost everything or have something waiting for them when they return home.
Johanna Santore was running an errand when the fire gutted her home.
More than 37,000 acres (15,000 hectares) of drought-parched heavy brush have burned since the fire broke out on Tuesday.
Neighbors “found the house in smoldering ruins – with no sign of the pets”, according to the wire service.
Some 82,000 residents were ordered out of the area after the fire erupted Tuesday morning.
“I’m actually feeling numb”, she told Associated Press from an evacuation centre. Since then, some people have been allowed to return home, Sieliet said, but she could not say how many.
A prolonged drought has transformed swaths of California into tinderboxes, ready to ignite.
Another blaze burned in Santa Barbara County and forced the evacuation of a pair of campgrounds during the height of the summer season.
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In mountains north of San Francisco, a 6-square-mile blaze was 80 percent contained after destroying 300 structures, including 189 homes and eight businesses, in the working-class ommunity of Lower Lake. All evacuation orders have been canceled. No deaths have been reported in the latest fire, but crews assessing property damage were using cadaver dogs during searches.
