Cooler weather helps contain California fires

By Daisuke Wakabayashi

RAMONA, California (Reuters) - Cooler, calmer weather helped firefighters gain the upper hand over seven remaining wildfires in Southern California on Sunday as residents sought clean water, food, and help rebuilding their lost homes.

The largest fire, in San Diego County, has burned more than 300 square miles but was 90 percent contained, up from 60 percent on Saturday. State officials said blazes still threatened 12,000 homes in the region, though firefighters were optimistic that the cooler weather would enable them to get the fires completely under control within about a week.

"As long as the weather continues like it is we should be able to meet all of our containment and control dates," said state forestry and fire spokeswoman Roxanne Provaznik.

Hot, dry winds fueled as many as 24 separate wildfires last week, ravaging more than 500,000 acres and destroying 2,300 buildings, according to the California Office of Emergency Services. The fires have been responsible for 12 deaths and 78 injuries.

Most of the 640,000 San Diego County residents who were forced from their houses in the last week had been allowed back by Sunday, with just 19,000 still under evacuation orders, according to Lesley Kirk, a spokeswoman for the county's department of emergency services.

About 6,700 homes in the hard-hit county are still without power, Kirk added.

At an assistance center in the San Diego suburb of Ramona, several hundred residents waited in lines for fast-tracked building permits, food stamps, unemployment assistance and other services.

Gary Westerfeld, a 52-year-old retail worker, was at the converted school to apply for a building permit after his 40-acres were consumed by "a towering inferno."