Wind lull calms California fires
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Southern California firefighters take advantage of lower winds to contain the remaining major wildfires.
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California firefighters made headway in reining in 18 wildfires on Wednesday as hot winds abated and San Diego said it hoped to let some of the 500,000 evacuees start returning home.
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Cooler temperatures and higher humidity helped firefighters Monday as they got closer to fully containing one of the largest wildfires in California history.
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Hot, dry Santa Ana winds gusting to more than 50 mph on Saturday grounded water-dropping helicopters and stoked the flames of a three-week-old wildfire in Los Padres National Forest.
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Conditions that created what California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dubbed "the perfect storm for fire" eased Wednesday, helping firefighters gain ground against devastating Southern California wildfires.
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ESCONDIDO, California  - Cooler, calmer weather helped firefighters gain the upper hand over seven remaining wildfires in Southern California on Sunday, although state officials said blazes still threatened 12,000 homes.
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A wind-driven wildfire on Saturday   threatened some of California's premier vineyards and the   winemaking city of Napa, one of several blazes kindled across   the state by dry conditions and seasonal Santa Ana winds.
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Cool, damp weather moved into Southern California from the Pacific Ocean on Friday boosting efforts to beat down stubborn wildfires, while weary families returned to find many homes unscathed but hundreds of others burned to rubble.
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Firefighters racing the weather for control of a turbulent wildfire near this popular resort got a break Wednesday as high winds forecast to arrive by early afternoon held off, giving crews time to shore up their defenses.
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California wildfires that have destroyed 1,300 homes and forced the evacuation of 500,000 people raged into a fifth day on Thursday but firefighters seized on a break in the weather to largely halt the march of destruction.
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Gusty winds forecast for this afternoon are adding to the worries for firefighters battling a wildfire that already has burned at least 276 homes and buildings near Lake Tahoe in California. On Tuesday, winds breathed new life into the fire, causing it to jump across a fire line and threaten additional buildings, a fire official said.
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Firefighters in Northern California got a break Saturday when winds that had whipped 45 wildfires died down.  One of the largest fires, which charred 400 acres west of Yountville Friday, was 60 percent contained Saturday morning, the Napa Valley Register reported.
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A forest fire in a remote area of the northeast Sierra Nevada spread during the night but light wind moved the flames away from homes Saturday, officials said.
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After a week of battling high temperatures, gusty winds and lightning, firefighters caught a break when a storm system bringing higher humidity helped them tame wildfires throughout the state.
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Aided by cooler weather, firefighters in Southern California were gaining ground on two wildfires that raged through brush left dry by high summer temperatures.
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Weeks into a wildfire season that has already burned parts of Catalina Island, Los Angeles and Lake Tahoe, swaths of California's flammable national forests are some days protected by nothing more than luck.
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A rainstorm helped firefighters gain control of wildfires burning across the Sierra Nevada, including a nearly 17,000-acre blaze and a smaller fire ignited by a suspected arsonist in Yosemite National Park.