US & World

PARADISE, Calif. (AP) ― Many firefighters and homeowners were able to take a collective breath Sunday morning as another town appears to have been spared from yet another wildfire in an unprecedented California fire season still in its early stages.

Moist air and calmer winds helped firefighters make progress Saturday on a deadly wildfire in the Sierra Nevada foothills, and thousands of people evacuated from their homes twice during the last month began returning to Paradise for the first time since Tuesday.

About 300 homes remained threatened in and around the town, down from 3,800 homes on Friday, while officials said the fire was 55 percent contained.

"For the first time, we've really turned the corner," said Kim Sone, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention. "There's more resources staffing the fire, and the weather has changed. We're getting good relative humidity and the winds are subsiding."

But flames still bore down on homes around the state, and flash floods threatened areas charred by previous weeks' fires.

An evacuation order remained in effect for the nearby town of Concow, which was not nearly as fortunate as some have been. Fifty homes were destroyed and one person was apparently killed this week after wind-propelled flames jumped a containment line. The person's charred remains were found Friday in a burned-out home. The person hasn't been identified and a cause of death hasn't been determined.

The Butte County blaze is one of hundreds of wildfires that have blackened nearly 1,200 square miles and destroyed about 100 homes across California since a rare lightning storm ignited most of them three weeks ago.

Officials say more fires have been burning at one time this year than during any other period in recorded California history.

"This is truly a national disaster. The magnitude is incredible," said Daniel Berlant, a state fire agency spokesman.

U.S. Forest Service spokesman Jason Kirchner said firefighters have spent hundreds of millions of dollars fighting the blazes, and that doesn't include the economic cost to businesses, tourism and agriculture, or the impact on air and water quality.

Officials warn the state could suffer a lot more because fire danger is typically highest in Southern California in the fall, when hot dry winds could scour hillsides desiccated by a two-year drought.

"The ground is set for some really horrific events, bigger than we've seen so far," Max Mortiz, co-director of the University of California Center for Fire Research & Outreach. The conditions show a need for more research into the patterns of weather, wind and geography that could show where fires are likely to flare into infernos, he added.

About 20,000 firefighters from 41 states and Puerto Rico were fighting more than 320 active fires around the state, and more were on the way from Mexico, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered 2,400 National Guard troops to join the fire crews on the ground for the first time in more than 30 years.

The cascading dangers lurking in fire-scarred areas became evident Saturday evening when a flash flood moved through an area near Lake Isabella in Kern County where a wildfire has charred more than 54 square miles. As a thunderstorm caused a creek to overflow and washed out a road, some residents heeded the county fire department's advice to take to higher ground, said Capt. Benny Wolford.

Emergency crews already on hand for the wildfire were surveying the area for damage late Saturday, but no injuries immediately were reported, he said. The storm could help firefighters in their quest to fully contain the fire, according to Wolford.

Elsewhere in California, state transportation officials said they expect to reopen coastal Highway 1 on Sunday morning, three weeks after it was closed as a massive wildfire swept through the tourist town of Big Sur. The fire was about 46 percent contained after burning nearly 180 square miles and destroying 26 homes.

Farther south, a separate blaze in the Los Padres National Forest near Santa Barbara that prompted mass evacuations last weekend was 85 percent contained after blackening more than 15 square miles.

Evacuation orders for homes along the southern flank of the fire were canceled Saturday morning, though about 85 homes higher up surrounding hillsides remained under evacuation.

In far Northern California, the Trinity County Sheriff's Department ordered evacuations in the mountains east of Redding, where the remoteness of the area initially made the wildfires there less of a priority.

The fires threatened the Junction City and French Gulch areas along Highway 299, fire officials said. Two-hundred National Guard troops arrived there Friday for final training before joining other fire crews on Monday.

A letup in the wind aided firefighters in eastern Washington state battling a wildfire that erupted Thursday in a heavily wooded part of the Spokane Valley. It destroyed at least 13 houses and forced 200 residents to evacuate. No injuries have been reported. The suburban Spokane fire, which grew to nearly 2 square miles, was caused by embers from a small backyard fire, authorities said Saturday night.

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