LOS ANGELES (AP) — Thousands of homes remained evacuated Sunday as two massive wildfires raged in tinder-dry California hills and canyons, and authorities said a burned body was found in one neighborhood swept by the flames.
The area was among those ordered evacuated as the fire raged through brush withered by days of 100-degree temperatures as Southern California sweltered through a heat wave.
Since Friday, the fire, propelled by gusty winds, has burned up and down ridgelines, blackening 31 square miles of brush on the edge of Santa Clarita and the Angeles National Forest.
After flames swept through an evacuated neighborhood, firefighters reported that some buildings had been engulfed, but it was not immediately clear whether they were homes, outbuildings or garages, said Nathan Judy, a spokesman for the U.S. Fire Service.
Bengal tigers and a mountain lion were among several hundred animals evacuated Saturday as flames partially ringed the Wildlife Waystation, a nonprofit sanctuary for rescued exotic creatures in Sylmar.
