Mountain blazes still challenge firefighters and force evacuations

Sacramento, California: Cooler weather has allowed fire crews to corral most of the wildfires across California, but a handful of stubborn, hard-to-reach mountain blazes on Saturday were still keeping residents from their homes.

Firefighters were trying to stop a fire in the Shasta Trinity National Forest from spreading to the rural town of Junction City, where an evacuation order was issued for some residents on Friday.

"Overall we're seeing the conditions stabilise," US Forest Service spokesman Jason Kirchner said. "The only problem with that in Northern California is, it's stabilised into hot, dry conditions." Mandatory evacuations remained on Saturday for areas of Junction City because of a wildfire that has charred nearly 212 square kilometres in the far northern part of the state. The blaze was 45 per cent contained.

All but 38 of the more than 2,000 fires sparked after a lighting storm on June 20 have been extinguished around the state, leaving nearly 3,660 square kilometres of destruction in what officials say is the largest fire event in California history.

So far this year, a total of 3,748 square kilometres have burned, a staggering amount of land so early in the fire season. Fires consumed roughly 4,048 square kilometres in all of 2007, Kirchner said.

Authorities say most of California's remaining fires are on remote federal forest lands that are harder to contain because of drier, windier conditions at higher elevations.

Residents in the town of Hyampom and near Dry Lake were ordered to stay away from their homes as flames from another blaze continued to spread. That fire has burned more than 44 square kilometres and was 50 per cent contained.

In the hilly range flanking the Big Sur coast, a fire that has swept over 518 square kilometres of heavily forested land was 70 per cent contained by Saturday.

Kept empty

Most nearby residents have been allowed to return home, but some cabins are still being kept empty until fire crews finish a controlled burn designed to clear fuel from the path of the fire. The blaze has destroyed 27 homes and 34 other buildings.

A wildfire still burning in Butte County has been 85 per cent contained after forcing 10,000 people from their homes and causing one death.