SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (AP) – Most of the roughly 20,000 evacuees forced out by a wildfire have been cleared to go home, but firefighters still had huge work ahead in taming a massive wildfire northwest of Los Angeles.
A week of triple digit temperatures awaited the army of some 3,000 firefighters battling flames in rugged hills and canyons.
Residents of two neighborhoods still under threat had to remain out of their homes, the U.S. Forest Service said, after a day when the fire grew only slightly to about 55 square miles (142.26 sq. kilometers).
Eighteen residences have been destroyed in the blaze that started Friday afternoon and quickly tore through drought-ravaged brush that hadn’t burned in decades.
Laurent Lacore was among those who evacuated on Saturday, the last of his family of four to leave as the fire bore down on his house.