Containment Begins On LA-Area Wildfires

(AP) - Firefighters have stopped the progress of a pair of major wildfires burning in the foothills of Los Angeles suburbs.

U.S. Forest Service spokesman Nathan Judy says the blazes burning near the cities of Duarte and Azusa are 10 percent contained Tuesday night.

Officials also have reduced the combined size of the fires from about 81/2 square miles to about 71/2 square miles. Judy says the change came because clearer skies allowed better aerial mapping of the blaze.

Despite the progress, Judy says it will be at least one more night before anyone can return to any of the hundreds of homes evacuated because of the fires.

Meanwhile in another part of Southern California, moisture has moved in and most mandatory evacuation areas near a wildfire in Santa Barbara County have been lifted.

Fog arrived overnight on the rugged coast west of Santa Barbara, where a fire of more than 7,600 acres is nearly entirely contained Wednesday morning.

As planned, mandatory evacuation orders for many areas were reduced to warnings at 5 a.m., allowing residents to return. All orders are expected to be lifted by the weekend.

Firefighting resources are being redirected to the fires near Los Angeles and to a blaze east of San Diego near the Mexico border.