Richard Vogel / AP
A layer of haze shrouds downtown Los Angeles early Wednesday morning on June 22, 2016. For days, wildfires have raged amid spiking heat across Southern California and much of the West, driving hundreds of people from their homes.
Thursday, June 23, 2016 | 9:41 a.m.
LOS ANGELES — Major wildfires in Southern California were kept at bay amid cooler, more humid weather, while blazes elsewhere in the West saw explosive growth and potential danger.
Improved weather in the aftermath of a severe heat wave allowed firefighters to make progress against two fires in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles.
Helicopters, air tankers and other resources are fighting the fires totaling about 7½ square miles.
Despite fears that stronger winds could make the fire resurgent and the challenges of tough terrain, containment was expanded from 10 to 15 percent by Wednesday night.
No homes have been lost, though flames have come close at times. More than 850 homes were ordered evacuated earlier this week, and 534 homes in the foothill city of Duarte were cleared for residents' return Wednesday.
Near the Mexican border, two residences and 11 outbuildings burned in a wildfire about 40 miles southeast of San Diego. About 200 structures were threatened by the blaze, which grew to just over 10 square miles and was 20 percent contained.
Elsewhere in the West, a forest fire near the Colorado-Wyoming line exploded in size and forced campers to evacuate.
A shift in the wind turned a blaze moving slowly in a heavily wooded area with no permanent residents into a fast-moving threat, growing from 1 square mile to about 11 square miles on Wednesday night. Trees killed by a beetle infestation were fueling the flames 140 miles north of Denver and 2 miles from Wyoming.
More firefighters were expected, but getting more help was difficult because of the other Western blazes. "Resources are kind of hard to come by right now," Routt National Forest spokesman Aaron Voos said.
More than 120 people are fighting the fire, using helicopters and air attack planes.
In southwest Utah, a fire forced evacuations of at least 185 homes in the town of Pine Valley. The U.S. Forest Service said Wednesday that the blaze has torched more than a square mile and additional evacuations could come.
In eastern Arizona, firefighters expected to keep a wildfire spanning about 67 square miles from moving any closer to a rural town. More than 15,000 people in nearby mountain communities have been told to prepare to evacuate.
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