Progress seen in big LA wildfire battle

LOS ANGELES -- Firefighters reported some progress Tuesday against a gigantic blaze on the edge of Los Angeles, but warned that this one might be just a preview of even greater dangers ahead. The peak Southern California fire season hasn't even started yet.

The worst fires typically flare up in the fall, when ferocious Santa Ana winds can drive fires out of wilderness areas and into suburbs. As a result, Southern California could be in for a long wildfire season.

"When you see a fire burning like this, with no Santa Ana winds, we know that with the winds, it would be so much worse, so much more intense," said Los Angeles County fire Capt. Mark Whaling.

The Santa Anas are so devastating when they carry fire because they sweep down from the north and reach withering speeds as they squeeze through wilderness canyons and passes and plunge into developed areas.

Even though winds have been mostly calm since the blaze began along the northern fringe of Los Angeles and its suburbs, the flames have spread over 190 square miles of forest in a week. Some 12,000 homes remained threatened as 3,600 firefighters and aircraft battled the blaze across a 50-mile line.

But it was not the only significant blaze in Southern California.

In the inland region east of Los Angeles, 2,000 homes were being threatened by a fire of more than 1.5 square miles in the San Bernardino County community of Oak Glen, and a nearby 1.3-square-mile blaze was putting 900 homes at risk in Yucaipa.

"There's action everywhere," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said as a helicopter interrupted his comments at a news conference in San Bernardino County.

The big fire, known as the Station Fire, was just 5 percent surrounded, but U.S. Forest Service incident commander Mike Dietrich said that figure could double by the end of the day, and he was pleased with progress.

"There's a lot more work to be done," Dietrich said. "It's still a very treacherous situation. It could still turn around."

Weather was more humid, which helps brush resist burning, but the downside was a possibility of dry lightning. Some sprinkles were reported, but no significant rain.

Officials were worried about the threat to a historic observatory on Mount Wilson northeast of Los Angeles. But on Tuesday, the flames near the facility appeared much tamer than the infernos that boiled up out of the mountain range in previous days.

Authorities could not immediately ascertain whether the fire at the top of Mount Wilson was the result of the overall advance of the blaze or backfires set by fire crews. Mount Wilson is home not only to the observatory but numerous television, radio and cell phone antennas serving the metropolitan area.

"The fire is still eventually going to impact around the site," Dietrich said. "The amount of damage is yet to be seen."