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LOS ANGELES: Firefighters made progress against a deadly wildfire raging in Los Angeles on Wednesday as officials said the monster blaze was most likely started by human activity.
The fire has left two firefighters dead, destroyed 92 structures and ripped through 56,716 hectares of parched forest in mountains to the northeast of Los Angeles.
A rise in humidity on Tuesday enabled firefighters to increase containment of the inferno to 22 percent, allowing thousands of evacuees to return to their properties.
Increasingly humid conditions early Wednesday helped firefighters but officials say it will be another fortnight before full containment is reached, and cautioned that the fire could flare up at any time.
Deputy incident commander Carlton Joseph said authorities were concerned about flames near the suburbs of Monrovia and Pasadena.
"We're focusing quite a number of firefighters, aircraft and ground resources in there," he told KNX Newsradio.
Joseph said investigators believe the fire was started by humans, but it was too early to tell whether it was the result of arson or an accident.
"Those are things like children playing with matches, equipment use, discarded cigarette butt," Joseph said.
More than 4,100 firefighters are deployed against the fire, backed up by 14 helicopters, 10 tanker planes, 488 fire engines and 64 bulldozers, according to figures from the US Forest Service.
Incident commander Mike Dietrich said earlier Wednesday firefighters had made steady inroads against the fire overnight.
"Crews last night continued to work on all perimeters of the fire. The crews are making excellent progress, based on the improved weather conditions that we've experienced temporarily through the night," Dietrich said.
But he warned that the fight was far from over.
"Are we out of the woods? No. Have we turned the corner? No," Dietrich said, describing the fire as "cranky."
The fire continued to burn near communications antennas for numerous television and radio stations, cell phone providers and law enforcement agencies on Mount Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains.
Firefighters had created firewalls and set lines of retardant aimed at saving the historic Mount Wilson Observatory. Dietrich said "excellent progress" had been made in protecting the facility.
The Los Angeles fire was one of several destructive blazes burning across California.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger told reporters that a total of five fires continued to burn. Two firefighters have died and 21 have been injured, Schwarzenegger said.
California is frequently hit by wildfires due to its dry climate, winds and recent housing booms that have seen home construction spread rapidly into rural and densely forested areas.
In 2007, the state suffered some of the worst devastation from wildfires in its history that left eight people dead, gutted 2,000 homes, displaced 640,000 people and caused a billion dollars of damage. - AFP/de
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