Calif. wildfires worsened by troubling winds

LOS ANGELES " Crews battling wildfires across California are finding there's trouble on the wind.

Overnight gusts caused flames to jump fire lines in the Sequoia National Forest east of Bakersfield, damaging "some outbuildings and maybe a residence," Piute fire information officer Barbara Dougan said Tuesday morning.

North of Sacramento, hundreds of residents were leaving the small town of Concow after authorities issued an immediate evacuation advisory after winds shifted.

That fire is part of the Butte Lightning Complex, a system of fires that have burned more than 45 square miles and had been 55 percent contained.

The cause of the troubling weather is a high pressure system setting up over the entire West, said Mike Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento. "So in addition to the very warm temperatures we're getting, we'll also be getting a little bit of offshore wind...which keeps the moist marine air from coming inland."

The turn toward hot and drier weather comes as three major forest blazes " the Gap fire above the city of Goleta west of Santa Barbara, the Basin Complex fire 150 miles to the northwest at Big Sur and the Piute fire in the southern Sierra Nevada " are all less than half contained.

Those fires, considered the most dangerous in potential to cause losses, were among more than 300 still uncontained out of some 1,780 that have scorched more than 960 square miles of California in two weeks. Most were started by lightning strikes, but several are believed to have been human-caused.

More than 100 structures statewide have been destroyed. One firefighter died of a heart attack.

The 15-square-mile Gap fire was 35 percent contained Tuesday, mostly on its southern side near neighborhoods.

"Overall, the fire has calmed down in our most populated areas," fire spokeswoman Pat Wheatley said.

"Right now, we have a good fog layer, which is to our advantage" but high temperatures were expected to top 100 in the area, and that could complicate firefighting efforts, she said.

Crews also faced "sundowner" winds that have been routinely gusting up in the late afternoon, she said.

Fire crews planned to attack the blaze on its northern and western ends.

"We recognize that the west end is problematic," Goleta Mayor Michael Bennett said Monday. "But the north and the northeast corner will be contained soon and then we can maybe take a deep breath and relax."

More than 2,000 residents were able to return home Monday, said Roger Aceves, Goleta's mayor pro tem.

But about 275 homes remained under mandatory evacuation Tuesday and another 3,200 were in areas where residents have been warned to be ready to leave.

At risk were scattered homes on the fire's growing western flank on the Santa Ynez Mountains, Aceves said.

"There are a lot of homes in the hills, and horse and cattle ranches," Aceves said.

The fire has destroyed four outbuildings and two firefighters have received minor injuries.

Aceves said residents were immensely grateful to firefighters, who in some instances beat back flames from front doors. But they were still concerned that the fire could whip up again.

"We know what can happen," Aceves said. "This is brush that hasn't burned since 1955."

High temperatures were expected to top 100 degrees through Thursday in the local mountains.

Five fresh "hot shot" crews from Arizona and New Mexico, totaling 100 firefighters, were brought in Monday to the region about 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

About 36,000 customers in the Santa Barbara County lost power around 8 p.m., said Southern California Edison spokeswoman Nancy Williams. Nearly all had their power restored within an hour, she said. It was at least the sixth straight day that transmission lines have been affected by flames and smoke.

Officials for the 125-square-mile Basin Complex fire near Big Sur and the 48-square-mile Piute fire said those blazes won't be controlled for at least another two weeks.

The Basin Complex, 18 percent contained, was raging through the remote Ventana Wilderness where difficult access made it hard to build containment lines, said Jim Turner, spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.

A mandatory evacuation remained in effect Monday for all residents of Big Sur. Firefighters were struggling to widen fire lines near Highway 1 and residential areas to between 300 feet and a quarter mile, Turner said.

Crews secured a Boy Scout camp Monday by burning out brush between the buildings and the wildfire's edge and were setting controlled fires elsewhere to halt the blaze's march, the Forest Service said.