Fresh Wildfires Sweep Through California

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Firefighters battling wildfires throughout the U.S. West that have torched hundreds of homes got some help from the weather Saturday, even as they tallied damage from new fires that erupted amid a Southern California heat wave.

A fire on the California-Oregon border that destroyed 40 buildings and claimed at least one life since Thursday remained virtually out of control, but a National Weather Service warning of extreme fire danger from heat and winds expired Friday.

In the south, a wind-driven fire that erupted Friday night burned an estimated 20 structures, including homes, and forced evacuations in the Santa Barbara County community of Goleta, authorities said.

Total calm Saturday morning replaced the 50-mph (80.5-kph) gusts, and forward progress of the fire was stopped at about 100 acres (40.5 hectares) or less, said county fire Captain Dave Zaniboni.

"It's really given us a good opportunity to get in there and get some work done,'' Zaniboni said, cautioning that critical fire weather warnings would remain in effect until the evening.

As some houses smoldered, a few residents who hadn't left or had managed to return surveyed damage that seemed random: destroyed homes next to others completely intact.