Crews Struggle Against 330 California Wildfires

BIG SUR, Calif. — Firefighters pushed back a blaze threatening this small coastal community just enough to allow hundreds of people to check on their homes yesterday as a separate fire 300 miles north forced residents of another town to evacuate.

Fire crews have been straining to cover 330 active California wildfires, many of which were ignited by a lightning storm more than two weeks ago. A heat wave forecast to linger in much of the state until the weekend was making the job all the more difficult.

Winds of up to 30 mph fanned a blaze in Butte County, where firefighters went door to door overnight to evacuate 800 to 1,000 residents from the town of Concow, 85 miles north of Sacramento. A 15-square-mile fire threatening the rural town is one of 30 blazes that have been burning for weeks there.

"Now you're in a hell of a fire fight," a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Todd Simmons, said.

Two homes have been destroyed, and the complex of fires in Butte County was about 55% contained.

At least 23 homes and 25 other structures have been destroyed in the Big Sur area, where flames have marched over more than 125 square miles of forest land since June 21.

Although that fire is far from controlled — the rugged terrain has kept containment at 18% into the fire's third week — authorities lifted the mandatory evacuation order issued for 25 miles of the 31-mile stretch along the Pacific Coast Highway that had been closed.