Crews battling Southern California's sprawling wildfire have made incremental progress in containing the two-week-old blaze but face forecasts for stronger winds
that threatened to make it the biggest in state history.
Firefighters halted the spread of the so-called Thomas fire at 110,100 hectares as of Tuesday and carved containment lines around 60 per cent of its perimeter, up from 55 per cent, a coalition of fire and law enforcement agencies said on Wednesday.
With progress being made against the blaze, which has scorched the dry coastal mountains, foothills and canyons of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties northwest of Los Angeles, officials said they had cut the number of firefighters to 6500 from a peak of 8500 over the past few days.
However, wind gusts from the north were expected to accelerate to 80km/h at sunset on Wednesday and continue into Thursday, creating extreme fire danger conditions for Santa Barbara County, the National Weather Service said.
Ventura County, which has taken the brunt of the fire, is likely to experience 64 to 80km/h winds on Thursday and Friday, it said.
Fire managers were cautiously optimistic that they could protect populated areas against the predicted return of stronger winds, but were not letting their guard down.
"We are not out of the woods yet on this fire," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told reporters on Tuesday. "As we are all aware, this fire has proven to be very stubborn and very unpredictable."
Brown said some 2000 of the county's evacuees were allowed to return to their homes on Tuesday.
The Thomas blaze, which became California's second-largest wildfire on Tuesday, is nearly as large as the 2003 Cedar fire in San Diego County, which consumed a record 110,579ha and killed 15 people.
More than 1000 homes and other buildings have gone up in flames, and about 18,000 structures remained listed as threatened since the fire started on December 4. The cause has not been determined.
